A few years ago, Fall Line Consultants, LLC was hired to conduct a timber
sale for a retired physician. He had received an unsolicited offer of
$70,000 from a local timber buyer. The buyer-logger proposed to clear-cut
the doctor's 280 acre (Cumming, Georgia) forest.Fall Line Consultants selectively marked the timber, designating trees not to
be cut. We retained 40 percent of the trees and preserved
the land's aesthetic value. Fall Line Consultants conducted a competitive,
sealed-bid, lump sum offering of the timber and obtained a top offer of $329,000!
What could you do with an extra $295,000
?
(P.S. - The doctor kept 40 acres of the property
for his home. He sold the remaining land after the timber harvest
to a developer of $500,000+ homes!)
In
1998, Fall Line was chosen to prepare and supervise a selective harvest on an
investment group's 905 acre (future residential) property north of Atlanta,
Georgia.
One year earlier, a 'timber expert' (no doubt taking only a cursory
look at the property) told the owners that their timber had "no
significant value".
Fall Line Consultants marked the stand, retaining
all hardwood trees and about 1/3 of the pine stems, and offered the timber
for sale on a competitive, lump sum, sealed-bid basis.
The winning bid was
just under One Million Dollars!
The range
from the lowest bid to the high bid was $700,000 !!
What
could you do with and extra $1 Million?
(Fall Line has supervised thinning of 1500 more acres owned by the
investment group).
In 2001, Fall Line was hired to conduct a timber thinning for an extended family
(heirs with percentage ownerships). The family had been offered $65,000
to $75,000 by various loggers to clear-cut their 168 acre
recreational tract in Warren County (southeast of Atlanta). Fall Line
performed an inventory of the family's timber, painted property lines and stream
protection buffers, and marketed the timber for sale on a sealed bid, lump sum
basis.
Only the pine and hardwood sawtimber was offered for sale, so
fully 75% of the trees (pulpwood-sized)
remain to grow after the thinning. These smaller trees will
become the family's next forest, and will grow faster after thinning due to
increased moisture and sunlight..
The winning bid was
$262,000!
And, because Fall Line retroactively determined the family's timber tax Basis,
and showed them how to qualify the timber sale for Capital Gains
treatment, the family was able to report a taxable gain from the timber sale
of just $87,140. They paid no tax on the nearly $175,000
difference!
Don't Get Clipped When You
Cut Your Trees!
Today's Landowners are often tree farmers too,
although they may not realize it. That woodlot out back or the CRP acreage
that you planted ten years ago is a source of cash, either now or in a very few
years. Do you know what it is worth? More importantly, do you know
what it will be worth when that tuition check to State U. is due? It is
disturbing how many people who are astute and professional in all other aspects
of their business will sell timber with no understanding of its value, the
markets or prices to be expected.
Here's how Fall Line Consultants can
get the top dollar for you when the time comes to harvest trees:
