Long time reader, first time poster here. My family has owned land in Copiah County for multiple generations. I have recently been approached by a prospective buyer to purchase a 20 acre plot. I live out of state and am not familiar with the current prices in the area. It has a couple hundred feet of roadside access, and was clear cut and replanted with pines about 25 years ago. We have been offered $2.5k per acre, but I have no basis for knowing if this is a fair price. Any advice?
OT: Copiah County Land Prices
- Thread starter dassaa23
- Start date
There's a ton of variables, but if someone contacted you, they really want it, so I would factor that into my decision. Without knowing more details, that sounds on the low side.
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As my financial advisor always tells me, they’re not making any new land. Unless you are offered an obscene amount of money I say hang onto it
Absolutely not making anymore land. $2500/ac is likely the floor. You could likely get more if there’s anything to the trees and depending on the lay of the land and location.
My guess is that price is bordering on bargain for the prospective buyer.
My guess is that price is bordering on bargain for the prospective buyer.
Lots of variables on farm/timber land. Look up land for sale in Copiah County and do the comparisons for yourself. With less than an acre road front, you will be taking a lower price per acre. Make sure if this is a parcel of a bigger property that you get an easement if needed.
A quick internet search might help you know what things are going for closer to your area. Looks like similar size and type land in Copiah county is $2500-$4000 on landwatch
Copiah county, especially the crystal springs area, is surprisingly not cheap land. I have some land that I hunt on down there. I work with several people that live on several acres in the crystal springs area. I think the proximity to Jackson makes it a pretty attractive area if you want to live on some land. With the guy wanting to buy 20 acres, makes me think he wants to build a house on this land.
Agree. Pine value on 20 acres is going to be minimal as it's not going to be super economical to set up a logging operation on such a small track by itself.
Last I saw you were looking at $20/ton for SYP sawtimber, $15 for CNS, and $7 for pulp in MS. At 25 years maybe you are looking at 70 tons per acre with mostly pulpwood and CNS. Because the tract is so small, you aren't going to get top dollar for stumpage because logging/trucking is going to be more expensive per acre/ton.
Without having seen it, this is not a tract of $2000/ acre timber value. I would guess more like $500-$800 unless you have a lot of starving loggers and mills, which I doubt. Maybe the stand is better than I think, but 35 years is when you get into real sawtimber.
After looking at Zillow, I see a tract of 50 acres with 1400+ feet of road frontage close to 55 south of Hazelhurst. 10 years old natural regrowth pine/hardwood. So pulpwood value at best. It's selling for $125k or $2500/acre. It's been on the market since February. 60 acres near Crystal Springs with an 8.5 acre stocked lake, mature 50+ year old pine and hardwoods and a creek is for sale for $3700/acre and has been on the market since May. So I am guessing your property is closer in value to the first than the latter.
So what it sounds like to me is a bird in hand offer. Would you rather own the 20 acres as a legacy? Or put $50k to work somewhere else immediately where it could become more liquid and probably give you better returns? No wrong answer.
Ultimately, I would not tie much value to the timber unless you have some family/friends with adjacent land that you can log together with this tract. Not much money in southern yellow pine timber these days.... Especially on only 20 acres.
ETA. One of the greatest deflations I have seen iin my lifetime is SYP sawtimber. Current stumpage value is less than half of what it was 15-20 years ago in real dollars. After factoring in inflation we are talking $.30 on the dollar.
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Last I saw you were looking at $20/ton for SYP sawtimber, $15 for CNS, and $7 for pulp in MS. At 25 years maybe you are looking at 70 tons per acre with mostly pulpwood and CNS. Because the tract is so small, you aren't going to get top dollar for stumpage because logging/trucking is going to be more expensive per acre/ton.
Without having seen it, this is not a tract of $2000/ acre timber value. I would guess more like $500-$800 unless you have a lot of starving loggers and mills, which I doubt. Maybe the stand is better than I think, but 35 years is when you get into real sawtimber.
After looking at Zillow, I see a tract of 50 acres with 1400+ feet of road frontage close to 55 south of Hazelhurst. 10 years old natural regrowth pine/hardwood. So pulpwood value at best. It's selling for $125k or $2500/acre. It's been on the market since February. 60 acres near Crystal Springs with an 8.5 acre stocked lake, mature 50+ year old pine and hardwoods and a creek is for sale for $3700/acre and has been on the market since May. So I am guessing your property is closer in value to the first than the latter.
So what it sounds like to me is a bird in hand offer. Would you rather own the 20 acres as a legacy? Or put $50k to work somewhere else immediately where it could become more liquid and probably give you better returns? No wrong answer.
Ultimately, I would not tie much value to the timber unless you have some family/friends with adjacent land that you can log together with this tract. Not much money in southern yellow pine timber these days.... Especially on only 20 acres.
ETA. One of the greatest deflations I have seen iin my lifetime is SYP sawtimber. Current stumpage value is less than half of what it was 15-20 years ago in real dollars. After factoring in inflation we are talking $.30 on the dollar.
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Dassa,
I know this guy pretty well. He is one of the best in the business and will be able to help you find out the value. Plus, he is a huge Bulldog alumnus and has children at State right now. His brother and one of his sisters are alums, along with his mother and late grandfather.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coates-132b834b
I know this guy pretty well. He is one of the best in the business and will be able to help you find out the value. Plus, he is a huge Bulldog alumnus and has children at State right now. His brother and one of his sisters are alums, along with his mother and late grandfather.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coates-132b834b
I sold about she sized tract of inherited land 30 minutes from Crystal Springs 6 months ago. Its mixed timber, been sitting there for 50 years when relatives purchased. Same situation as you, I was approached and got an offer of $2900/acre. It backs up to The Trace (i.e. Federal) so it has some squirrelly ROW, improvement, setback and frontage stipulations which is good for privacy but can be frustrating when trying to improve, or so I'm told by other owners out there. We settled on $3500/acre cash and I retained mineral rights. I kept the mineral rights because we've been approached multiple times in last 10 years by different oil companies wanting to do seismic studies. One came twice for seismic and another time with some other instruments. They came out, drilled some holes and leave a few wheel barrow sized loads of dirt and send a check for each hole. Might be something to it, might not. But I threw that request in after we agreed to price and buyer didn't care so why not?
I assume the “road frontage” you mentioned means “public road frontage.” If that assumption is accurate, the offer is low. And you want to be careful to preserve some public road frontage for the balance of the acreage for the future. My guess would be that the potential buyer is looking to break the 20 into two or more lots, each with public road frontage and sell them off at a nice profit. The price should also go up if water and power are either on site or close.
I’d skip the agent. You already have a buyer.
Go to realtor.com
Search land sites
Tons of sources on google you can search by area and see what land is being listed for.
Go to realtor.com
Search land sites
Tons of sources on google you can search by area and see what land is being listed for.
Take a look at this home I found on Realtor.com
Highway 28, Hazlehurst
$35,000 · N/Abeds · 0baths
https://apps.realtor.com/mUAZ/d1735fb7
Looks like that’s 3500/acre
Several listings in the area
Highway 28, Hazlehurst
$35,000 · N/Abeds · 0baths
https://apps.realtor.com/mUAZ/d1735fb7
Looks like that’s 3500/acre
Several listings in the area
I wouldn’t sell it for $2500/acre.
If you want to do that, I’ll offer you $2600 now!
$3500 seems close with some limited research. Might could get more.
If you want to do that, I’ll offer you $2600 now!
$3500 seems close with some limited research. Might could get more.
This. It's 25 yo timber. Even if you let someone thin it back for cost you end up with an aesthetically pleasing wooded 20 acres. It is definitely worth more than just cutover land. And as someone else stated we don't know anything about what they look like. Could be 30% poles and there is a market for those. I would take the recommendation to talk to the local broker and get him to help you maximize the selling price if you indeed want to sell.
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