Land types
Standing timber, cut-over ground, and everything between. The single biggest determinant of value is where you are in the rotation, and whether the timber has been sold separately from the land.
A timbered tract is dirt value plus stumpage value, and they behave differently. Dirt value is stable and tracks the local market for rural acreage. Stumpage swings with mill demand, haul distance, and species mix, and it can be a majority of the total on a mature tract. This is why a recently harvested parcel and a neighboring uncut parcel of identical size can differ by three or four times.
A timber cruise by a consulting forester gives volume by species and product class, and it is the difference between a priced tract and a guessed one. If you have one within the last two or three years, it is the most useful document you can send us. If you do not, we price conservatively against what the stand appears to be, because a buyer who cannot verify volume will not pay for volume.
Timber rights can be sold separately from the land and recorded as a timber deed, sometimes decades ago and sometimes with a long or open-ended term. We have seen owners genuinely unaware that someone else holds the right to cut their standing timber. Title work catches it, but it is better found at the start — a tract with severed timber is worth roughly its bare-land value, and pricing it any other way wastes everyone's time.
Recreational access and logging access are different standards. A tract reachable by a pickup on a soft two-track may still be uneconomic to harvest if a loaded truck cannot get in, or if the only route crosses a neighbor's ground without a recorded easement wide enough for it. Haul distance to the nearest mill matters too: past roughly sixty to eighty miles, stumpage drops sharply because trucking eats the margin.
Cut-over ground is one of the categories we take on most often. Owners frequently assume a freshly harvested tract is unsellable, and it is simply a different asset — bare land with a young stand and a long horizon. It sells to a different buyer at a different number, and there is nothing wrong with it.
Valuation
What moves the number on timbered ground.
| Factor | Effect on value |
|---|---|
| Merchantable volume by species and product class | Sawtimber, chip-n-saw, and pulpwood price very differently per ton. |
| Stand age and years to next harvest | Determines whether a buyer is purchasing income or waiting for it. |
| Haul distance to mills | Beyond roughly 60–80 miles, trucking cost materially reduces stumpage. |
| Whether timber rights are severed | A recorded timber deed reduces the tract to bare-land value. |
| Access adequate for logging equipment | No truck access means no harvest, which means no stumpage value. |
| Terrain and operability | Steep slope, wet ground, and stream buffers reduce the harvestable share. |
| Dirt value as recreation or homesite | Sets the floor, and on small tracts often exceeds timber value. |
Questions
Yes. Recently harvested ground is a normal purchase for us, not a problem parcel. What you are selling at that point is bare land plus a young stand, and it prices against recreational and rural land comparables rather than against timber value. Owners often assume cut-over ground is unsellable, and that has not been our experience.
No, but a recent one usually gets you a better number. Without a cruise, any buyer including us has to price the standing timber conservatively, because volume that cannot be verified will not be paid for. If you already have a cruise from the last two or three years, send it. We do not ask you to commission one at your own expense.
We still buy the land, priced as bare land. Severed timber rights are recorded as a timber deed and are more common than most owners realise, particularly on ground that has been in a family for a long time. Title work will surface it. Telling us up front simply saves a round trip on the offer.
Get an offer
State, county, and parcel number is enough to start. We reply within one business day.
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