This entry covers productive land whose value derives from what grows on it: timberland (commercial forest harvested for wood products), vineyards (grapes for wine), and orchards (tree and vine crops like almonds, citrus, and apples).
Log in to followMy first rental closes in a few months and I've been reading outside that lane to figure out where the rest of the money eventually goes. Timberland comes up constantly as the thi…
I bring numbers and ask what's wrong with them, so here they are. 22 planted acres, established block, seller wants 41,000 an acre all in for land, vines, trellis, and a shared we…
The whole point of this purchase was income that doesn't call me at 9pm, so I bought the crop and gave away the farming. 60 acres of mature pecans, trees mostly 25 to 35 years old…
Closed six weeks ago and I want to write down how it actually went while I still remember the annoying parts. The tract: 210 acres of loblolly pine, average age around 18, one blo…
A borrower brings you 300 acres, appraised at 1.6 million, and the appraiser splits it into 900k of land and 700k of standing timber. Underwriting question that I keep going back…
This started as a flip. 1940s farmhouse, decent bones, 168k in at auction, and I figured 60k of work and out at 310. The listing said "12+ acres" and I read that as land, which ar…
This one's done and funded so I can write it up. Tract was 240 acres of pine in a mixed-age condition, listed at 1.02M, sat for seven months. The listing mentioned "active timber…
The number everybody quotes for timberland is a standard deviation around 6.9 percent against almost 16 for the S&P, with long-run annualized returns near 10.7 since the index sta…
I read the NCREIF timberland volatility figure three times before it bothered me. Around 6.9 percent standard deviation against roughly 16 for public equities, and the properties…
Looking at a 90 acre parcel listed with a timber cruise attached. The listing says something like 40 acres of merchantable pine plus the rest in younger growth. My assumption was…
Appraisal came back at 2,850 an acre on a 420 acre pine tract, and the split inside it is where I'm stuck. Bare land 1,650, standing timber 1,200. The cruise puts merchantable vol…
Sitting on an offering for a mature almond block, roughly 320 planted acres, trees around year 11 of a stated 22 to 25 year productive life. Seller pro forma runs on full surface…
First land purchase, so please poke holes. 60 acres, mixed pine and hardwood, asking 145,000, so about 2,400 an acre. Seller is an estate and there's no rush on their side. Here's…
Bought this two years ago as the boring end of a portfolio that's otherwise flips and a small BRRRR stack. Loblolly plantation, planted in a good year, 310 acres of which about 28…
Under contract on 70 acres in a cheap rural county, 46 acres of it in an old navel citrus block, remainder pasture and a shed. Contract price 392k, which is 5,600 an acre and rich…
Posting this because the failure was procedural, and procedural failures are the cheapest kind to learn from someone else. The asset: 88 acres in a cool-climate wine region, 71 pl…
Sold a duplex last year and I've been sitting on the proceeds looking for the boring thing that holds up. Timberland keeps coming up because of the return profile everyone cites,…
Trying to get the two paths straight in my head before I spend money on either. Path one is public shares in a timber company or a fund that holds forestland. You can buy a hundre…
Working through what happens if the thing burns. On a pine tract, most of the value sits in the standing inventory, and a single fire or a hurricane track can take a large share o…
Small tract, pine, first commercial thinning is technically due. A thinning is where you cut maybe a third of the stems to give the rest room to grow, and the wood that comes out…