Mail solicitors seldom offer best option for timber sales
By Jim Griffith

If you are like me, every day you find numerous credit card solicitations in your mailbox, all trying to entice you to sign up for the best rates available. So why do these mega-corporations use this mass-marketing tool?  Apparently it works.

Timber owners frequently receive similar solicitation letters in the mail from land and timber buyers.I’ve received several letters from timber buyers offering to pay me cash for my timber and promising to close fast. This marketing approach must appeal to many people. I say this not because I have done extensive research in marketing, but because the letters continue to come.There are many buyers that have found great success in the mass-mailing arena.

In receiving solicitation letters regarding my timber, I’ve noticed that I never get a letter from the larger timber companies. In fact, I never get a letter from the timber dealers that deliver to the bigger companies. Come to think of it, I never even get a letter from the logger that will do the cutting on the property. The solicitation-to-sell letters I get come from buyers of timber that are not even on our buyer bid list. If they happen to be on that list, they never bid in an open invitation.

The reason this buyer does not bid on our sales is usually due to the fact that he cannot compete with the buyers to whom we typically offer our timber for sale.The sender of the typical mail solicitation does not have a direct market to the mill. He usually does not own his own logging crew or even have a contract logging crew working on his timber tracts. What that means is this. Once he has bought your timber tract, he has to then turn and resale the timber to someone who does have direct access to and a relationship with one of the mills.

So why would you sell to someone who is going to turn right around and resale what used to be your timber to someone else that you could have sold to in the beginning. The truth is, you would not if you knew better.  And that is where your Georgia Farm Bureau forestry consultants come in.

It is the job of your independent forester to know the market for your product; and to know which buyers will pay you the most for your product.That is what you want, to get what you timber is really worth. It is our job to bid your timber to those buyers who are willing to pay the price.

I suppose there is a place for the mass-mail solicitation. It does reach some sellers that are non-resident owners and do not know who to contact to buy their timber.  But in general, understand that this means of sale is not usually going to maximize your income from the sale of your trees.

Your local Farm Bureau forester is a good place to start when you are thinking about selling your trees. So, when you get your next solicitation in the mail, regardless of what it says, think of Farm Bureau. Jim Griffith is general manager of the GFB Real Estate Company.