Developing a property plan crucial to successful sales

There’s good news for those of you who have been waiting for an increase in timber prices to sell your timber. There have been some nice increases in pine sawtimber lately, more so in some areas of the state than others. As we move toward the fall and winter, we should see mills preparing for the wet weather conditions of winter by increasing inventory and purchasing wet weather tracts. This usually means more competition and even greater increased prices. If you’ve been holding off for the last year, now may be the time to consider a sale.

Hardwood prices have continued to hold their own. There has been a consistent demand for hardwood tracts and prices have been steady. We have even seen hardwood pulpwood experience an increased demand lately.

But remember that there’s more to having a successful timber sale than getting a great price. The first step to a successful sale is having a plan for your property. What, you may ask, does a property plan entail? Well, it could mean different things to different people. It does not have to be an expensive plan produced by a professional land planner in a thick bound book.

Developing a plan for your property is going to take some thought for the future. You need to have a plan for the next 5 years, and you need to consider the long-term future as well. In other words, you need to define your purpose for owning the property. This will affect your management activities.
Your short-term plans will include activities that work toward attaining your long-term goals for the property. In order to determine the immediate management activities necessary, the long-term objectives must be identified.

Your long-term plans need to consider more than just your timber. If you are trying to maximize your return on the investment in your property, then there is more to that investment than the timber. The land is a large part of that. In that regard, you need to consider what is going on around you.
You are going to have to consider the highest and best use of your land. Is Georgia growth moving in on top of you? Are there houses building up all around you? Do you have road frontage or is a street for development a possibility? These are serious considerations for almost everyone north of Macon all the way to the Tennessee line.

If you are experiencing urban sprawl around your property, you probably need different management plans for your tract than a tract that is going to remain rural for years to come. Properties in the path of urban sprawl will need to be groomed for upswing in land value as a result of population growth.
Legitimate timber tracts still need to be managed from a plan. Your plan can include a variety of interests and options.This plan may be in your head, but the more clear and deliberate the plan, the more likely you will be to attain your goals. A written plan helps us all to stay focused on meeting our goals.
We all want to maximize our income, regardless of what we do. But at the same time, we need to think about our use of the property in the plan. Wildlife, livestock, recreation, aesthetics and investment often require some different management objectives. This is not to say that any or all of these objectives cannot be considered together on any given tract of land. However, there are trade-offs.

Also, the term of your investment is important to consider in managing for a maximum return on your investment. The existing stand of trees will be of most importance in your plans. You must know what you have to work with before you can determine a strategy to get you where you want to go. The best management plans always start with an inventory of the property. How many trees do you have - what size, quality, and product do they fit?

The information needed to develop a plan for your property is very thorough. Our professional foresters can be a tremendous help in creating the means to obtain the plan for your property. We are often involved in real estate cuts in the more densely populated areas of the state, as well as the more traditional timber management harvest. Whatever your forestry needs, you will want to consult your Georgia Farm Bureau forester before the sale.

Jim Griffith is the general manager of the Georgia Farm Bureau Real Estate Company.