HOW TO SELL TIMBER

Why Do I Need a Consulting Forester to Help Sell My Timber?

A few years back, 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 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 ?

(The doctor kept  40 acres of the property for his home.  He sold the remaining land after the timber harvest to a developer of expensive subdivision lots / homes!)

Fall Line was chosen to prepare and supervise a selective timber harvest on an investment group's 905 acre (future residential) property north of Atlanta, Georgia.

A year earlier, a 'timber expert' (obviously taking only a cursory look at the property) told the owners that their timber had "no significant value".

Fall Line Consultants prepared a timber sale to retain all the 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 2500 more acres owned by this investment group).

In another case, 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!     Contact Fall Line today