getting the money to buy forest land or starting small as one acre.

does anyone know a way to get money to buy big timberland tracks? i was thinking about crowdfunding but was wandering if there are any other ideas. i am afraid of investors and loans require down payment. i could start with one acre and multiply profits from logging and land acreage until i get a massive land base. i talked to the timberland consultant foresters but they do not really work with buying little acreage and work up to buying the whole thing. any ideas on how to do this?

I'm confused, because in my local area, small acreages are far more expensive than larger ones. Its common to find a 40 acre property selling for the same or less than a 5 acre one. And once you go over 100 acres its cheaper again. People here dont want to buy large tracts of land and will pay hand over fist for a small plot. Hobby farming is getting more expensive than broad acre farming.

But heres the thing.....developers dont generally buy land outright. They purchase land options, the right to buy the land at some future point for a set price. Then they go about getting council approvals for subdivision and only then, when the deal is ready do they settle. Could you not purchase your acreage similarly. Find a property, lease it short term with the right to purchase it when you are financially ready? That way any improvements you make to the property are yours to keep.

Wesley johnsen wrote:does anyone know a way to get money to buy big timberland tracks?

Best way to get started is to do a lot more homework. The right piece of uncultivated land will have revenue opportunities out the gate, cultivated timberland may need to wait till maturity, in both cases there are costs associated with ownership.

If you don't have the money to buy the land, you may not have money to thin brush, cull trees, or invest in other income per available acre. Large undeveloped land costs much less per acre than a small plot. Most consignment harvesters won't touch under a certain amount of acreage -- and when they do destroy everything. Different story if you'll harvest yourself.

If you just want to make money in timber, then look at companies like Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. For $47.44 you can get started in the timber business. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with buying land and if you don't have enough of it -- you could get unfavorable pricing or limited outputs. Lots of "How to Buy Your Own Timberland" on the Internet, you'll have less risk getting some experience first.

You could use Clara's idea of land options on existing timberland, a lot of people get out of land positions for reasons that might make a purchase favorable to you. It's also great advice to lease options with specific terms that let you make money off the land. They may not let you bring in a logger the day after you sign the lease -- but they would let you grow mushrooms, food forest, manage hunting rights, or other activities that will help you raise capital.

Best,

Justin

I know this is an older post but I'll give this poor boy's experience. Maybe it will motivate someone on the verge of giving up, I almost was. I started looking at purchasing land near my home several years ago. I knew I wanted at least 10 acres and I would need to finance somehow. Banks and any lender either won't lend money for "raw land" or they want 40% down. Well if I had 40% down of what I really wanted to buy, I would have already bought 10-20 or more acres somewhere. And if I took the time to save the 40% the land value is going up, up, up, in the meantime. After looking over all the options I decided either owner finance or lease/purchase option were our only choices. This narrows the search because there are only so many of these opportunities out there and they tend to be more expensive because they are geared towards us with little money or bad credit. In the end (and after some tough negotiations) We owner financed 20 acres for about 12% down AND ZERO INTEREST FINANCING FOR FOUR YEARS. I made him put that in writing and sign his name on the plat map then and there because he had already re-neg'd on me once. This still tickles me to death because NO BANK will be taking my money for it the next 30 years. The land is already deeded in my name and will be payed in full in two more years or less.
Hope this gives someone the motivation to push on. Don't forget to do all your homework... If I had dug a little deeper I might have gotten a better deal on the same piece of land (reasons I won't go into other than "title research") BUT, hindsight is 20/20 and i still think I got an awesome deal.

Wesley johnsen wrote:I could start with one acre and multiply profits from logging and land acreage until i get a massive land base. i talked to the timberland consultant foresters but they do not really work with buying little acreage and work up to buying the whole thing. any ideas on how to do this?

It's not an idea that's going to work in the real-world. Most likely you will never find a one acre property with timber ready to cut. Nobody sells that. Zoning laws actually prevent that from happening. In my imediate area, the zoning laws specifiy what can and can not be done on properties larger or smaller than 20 acres.

More intitively, you would have to ask why would someone want to sell you land that you could immediately make money off of when they could be doing the same thing themselves. Land contracts sometimes include clauses that specifically state you may not cut timber till after you own the property free and clear. If it were a working stratege, the landscape would already be full of logger/owners with massive land bases. It has been done though. Look up the story "Once Upon an Island". But it's rare enought that a story like that gets a wimsical title like "Once Upon an Island".

In my own case, I can tell you a strategy that does work. We used the equity in our home to get a HELOC for which we used to purchase our homestead land. Over time we have payed off both the home and the land mortgages and can proudly state that we are both home AND land owners. We bought our homestead land 10 years ago and have been slowly developing it into a self-sufficient permaculture oriented homestead. We now have a partially completed cabin with running water, wood heat, and solar power, a 100 tree orchard, and good working relationships with our immediate neighbors.

Wesley johnsen wrote:does anyone know a way to get money to buy big timberland tracks? i was thinking about crowdfunding but was wandering if there are any other ideas. i am afraid of investors and loans require down payment. i could start with one acre and multiply profits from logging and land acreage until i get a massive land base. i talked to the timberland consultant foresters but they do not really work with buying little acreage and work up to buying the whole thing. any ideas on how to do this?

Hi ....i have got a 210 acre land lot for sale in Quebec...it has a forestal management plan done for the entire parcel. Absolutely good for hunting since there are a couple of water bodies on the parcel....for 210 acres I only ask for $165000 and with a small down payment of 25% , I can sell the land to you payable over 5 years with 8% interest. Let me know what you think about it. You can check out further details about the property at the link below.

http://www.landsalelistings.com/canada/quebec/acreage-land-usd-canada/