I Bought 42 wooded acres and its a mess.

carmedic · Dec 24, 2013

City Farmer, My wife and I have just done the same thing here in TN. Our's is 30 acres, has a lot already done to it, but had some investors try and develop it before the eco went south. The land is in good shape and livable now, but has huge amounts of timber laying all over the place. Some has already been cleared but my challenge is steep hillsides and getting equipment up there without serious danger. I don't think I'm going to sell the timber though, I'm going to pile it and use it myself. Good luck with the 5%er that's messing up your plans. I'm looking for a good skid steer due to the slopes and plan on using that with backhoe (drainage) and a bucket to do most of the work. Luckily the roads have already been put in but need work and maintenance. Best wishes, and Merry Christmas.

Tororider · Dec 24, 2013

City Farmer,
What program is the DNR going to do that under? I would love to get a free pond, but the DNR and the MDEQ scare me. I fear expensive permits.

davel8257 · Dec 28, 2013

My daughter and son-in-law are trying to close on 45 acres. It was never logged, but there's a ravine full of 20yrs of trash that needs to be dug out and hauled away. Another ravine has 25 tires in it. There's a barn full of trash as well. Owner is 75 yrs old -- and not in good health. So, I think I'm going to be cleaning up trash for a couple of Saturdays. I'd much rather be cutting firewood.

schmism · Dec 30, 2013

as for the forced sale. if the other owner knew nothing about it for "years" most states have adverse possession law which allows users of the property to "take over" the land from a titled owner who was never involved in the property.

I had a similar issue with my property (although slightly different) and it took about 4 months to get the paperwork done. (but ours was arguably a simpler process)

As to your chain saw choices.

I prefer stihl. a large saw in the 390-440 range will do you well as well as a smaller saw. a good middle of the road saw is a 270-290 these were often labled farm boss or wood boss over the years. (these are 50-55cm depending on model)

I personally use a 039 as my large saw (anything over 8-10") and a small 010AV for limning and anything up to about 8"

the 010AV has a 37cm displacement which is an odd size these days closest thing to it is like a MS210 or similar at 35cm
the 039 is 64cm

I find these 2 saws to be well matched for each other in terms of power (displacement)

milkman636 · Dec 30, 2013

A split would take a while and all the sellers would still have to agree to your proposed compromise before they could convey a marketable title. It sounds like a long wait. If the majority of the sellers want to consummate the sale, and you wish to stay in first position at the previously agreed terms, I would recommend that you put a longer term purchase agreement in place with the sellers you already negotiated with. Maybe write a new agreement with 90 or 120 days to complete the sale. Market conditions could change in that timeframe so it would make sense to have an appraisal contingency that remains in place until around 3 weeks prior close. You would have an agreement to hold your hopes on and they would have defined profit form a sale to work with on their side.

There is no sense in having the broker hold your earnest money in escrow if there isn't a sales contract in place. My suspicion is that one broker is handling both sides of this deal. Am I correct?

City Farmer · Dec 30, 2013

There is no sense in having the broker hold your earnest money in escrow if there isn't a sales contract in place. My suspicion is that one broker is handling both sides of this deal. Am I correct?[/QUOTE]

Thanks everyone for the input and suggestions, I'm still hanging in there. She is supposedly representing both of us. I was going to wait until next week before I call her for an update. I agree 100% about having a contract, that was supposed to happen when the last contract expired on the 23rd but I'll give her a little slack with the holidays. I'm also pretty sure I'm not getting the whole story. The tax ID of the property says its in a trust. I've been in contact with an attorney and he told me if the land is in a trust it should be easy to sell and divide the estate. He said the only thing that would throw a wrench in process is if the executor of the trust died before the trust could be distributed. He said the executor wouldn't need permission from ANY of the beneficiaries to settle/sell any part of the estate.