Raw land

[Tiffany Rouse]

So I have a raw land deal to wholesale. It is 17 acres of undeveloped land in a small rural area outside of Birmingham, AL. This particular property is land locked. The surrounding properties were all family owned and eventually they all became bank owned. The property in front of the property I have to wholesale has an abandoned house on it and that house's driveway used to be how the property owner accessed their property. That property is now bank owned.

I have no idea how to market this property. I have a couple of questions.

1.) How do I determine the value of this property? There are certainly no similar comps around.

2.) Do the sellers need to get an easement to the property in order to have access to it or is that something the buyer would be responsible for?

[Tony Gunter]

@John Oberlin

Sorry, I spent 4 years at Clemson learning that. It is not something that is easily done on a DIY basis. There is a real method to it if you want to get it right. You also have to know your different forest products specifications and the local markets for the products.

I can see the old skid trails in the aerial photo. I can see plenty of them running across the photo. Looks like maybe running toward the dirt road in the left side of the photo. Probably Hardwood Pulpwood regrowth at best. I would not count on any real value. When talking about timber fat, clear, tall logs before the first branches is what adds up to real money. I doubt that is the case here. Never sure without actually walking the property though, just judging from the photo. Also, looking at the topo map you have some area that will not be able to be developed. The stream will need an SMZ (stream side management zone) left on it, and it would be difficult to gain any permanent access to the other side of the stream. As you said though, good potential for a pond. Just do your permitting as you can get in big trouble with the State regulators and the US Army Corps of Engineers too.