Lease Question

rsimms

rsimms

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I'm just putting out feelers here... I have 25 acres on the Cumberland Plateau... a county/area with an ample number of deer. I walked it earlier this week, jumped three deer and there were areas that looked like a cow pasture with droppings. The property is all mature forest (hardwoods), except for a 150-foot-wide (about 3.7 acres) TVA powerline right-of-way that bisects the tract. It is a perfect rectangle, 1,500 feet by 750 feet.

I am considering selling the timber off of it (select cut). But before I make that decision, I am just curious if you think I might be able to lease it for deer hunting, or is it too small?

It is rural and is surrounded entirely by other wooded acres and/or pasture or agriculture. There is no ATV access trails on it. It would be walk-in access only from the one road the borders the eastern edge.

If you think I could, what would be a reasonable amount I should expect to get for an annual deer lease on it?
 
City people will lease about anything right now and pay quite well. Even if the hunting was no good at all, you could still find a new sucker every year. I see a guy here do it every year, his land is zero good for hunting but he tricks a new city slicker every year. One city slicker will give up after a year and another is lined up right behind that one. From the landowner perspective, you would need to charge a lot per acre to make 25 acres worth it to you.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
City people will lease about anything right now and pay quite well. Even if the hunting was no good at all, you could still find a new sucker every year. I see a guy here do it every year, his land is zero good for hunting but he tricks a new city slicker every year. One city slicker will give up after a year and another is lined up right behind that one. From the landowner perspective, you would need to charge a lot per acre to make 25 acres worth it to you.
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What do you consider "a lot?" I don't even know what the going rate is these days?
 
rsimms said:
What do you consider "a lot?" I don't even know what the going rate is these days?
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I think only you can determine what is a lot to you. Personally if it was $10 acre for 25 acres, that wouldn't put it over the bar for me. $10 an acre for 200 would but not 25 acres. Hunters can be a real headache so you have to consider how much $ you need to be worth it. Personally, I would just let a good trusted friend hunt it for free or for the taxes but that's just me, I ain't dealing with it.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
City people will lease about anything right now and pay quite well. Even if the hunting was no good at all, you could still find a new sucker every year. I see a guy here do it every year, his land is zero good for hunting but he tricks a new city slicker every year. One city slicker will give up after a year and another is lined up right behind that one. From the landowner perspective, you would need to charge a lot per acre to make 25 acres worth it to you.
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I guess I need to find me a city slicker, but my small parcel is pretty good for deer and turkey, at least it has a bunch of sign. The problem as I see it is that many hunters want large acre leases and are reluctant to lease smaller places. My place is also about 20 acres, surrounded by wooded areas and little to no restrictions.

I have hunted my first parcel, 7.2 acres, for over 10 years and always get deer. I am a meat hunter, so not as worried about racks, but have had a few decent ones, so they do travel through there quite often. Even when I hunted public, military bases mostly, I would find a good place and anytime I would draw that location, I would go to that area and get deer most every time and I would normally stay withing a 5-10 acre area. I think smaller parcels absolutely can produce, but it is a certain subset of hunters that would be the target audience for these smaller leases.
 
Omega said:
I guess I need to find me a city slicker, but my small parcel is pretty good for deer and turkey, at least it has a bunch of sign. The problem as I see it is that many hunters want large acre leases and are reluctant to lease smaller places. My place is also about 20 acres, surrounded by wooded areas and little to no restrictions.

I have hunted my first parcel, 7.2 acres, for over 10 years and always get deer. I am a meat hunter, so not as worried about racks, but have had a few decent ones, so they do travel through there quite often. Even when I hunted public, military bases mostly, I would find a good place and anytime I would draw that location, I would go to that area and get deer most every time and I would normally stay withing a 5-10 acre area. I think smaller parcels absolutely can produce, but it is a certain subset of hunters that would be the target audience for these smaller leases.
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What county? If it is close to me I would be interested.
 
rsimms said:
I'm just putting out feelers here... I have 25 acres on the Cumberland Plateau... a county/area with an ample number of deer. I walked it earlier this week, jumped three deer and there were areas that looked like a cow pasture with droppings. The property is all mature forest (hardwoods), except for a 150-foot-wide (about 3.7 acres) TVA powerline right-of-way that bisects the tract. It is a perfect rectangle, 1,500 feet by 750 feet.

I am considering selling the timber off of it (select cut). But before I make that decision, I am just curious if you think I might be able to lease it for deer hunting, or is it too small?

It is rural and is surrounded entirely by other wooded acres and/or pasture or agriculture. There is no ATV access trails on it. It would be walk-in access only from the one road the borders the eastern edge.

If you think I could, what would be a reasonable amount I should expect to get for an annual deer lease on it?
Click to expand...
What county?
 
348Winchester said:
What county? If it is close to me I would be interested.
Click to expand...
I'd rather not say exactly where it is yet because I really am just brainstorming now. But I'm saving this thread and if I should decide to lease it, I'll reach out to everyone who expressed any interest. Right now I just feel the need to glean some revenue off of it, even if it's minimal. We're considering selling it outright, or keeping it and selling the timber off of it, or a deer lease arrangement or doing nothing. It's in Greenbelt so the taxes I have to pay on it are next to nothing. All options to-be-determined.
 
rsimms said:
I'd rather not say exactly where it is yet because I really am just brainstorming now. But I'm saving this thread and if I should decide to lease it, I'll reach out to everyone who expressed any interest. Right now I just feel the need to glean some revenue off of it, even if it's minimal. We're considering selling it outright, or keeping it and selling the timber off of it, or a deer lease arrangement or doing nothing. It's in Greenbelt so the taxes I have to pay on it are next to nothing. All options to-be-determined.
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I understand.

I lease several small properties in Morgan county. Hunting pressure can be spread out and it's nice to hunt different places and differen herds.

Keep me posted.
 
I have been on several leases over the years. The smallest being around 800 acres. The largest was in the 3000 acre range. For 25 acres I would say that $20 to $25 an acre is fair. You might get lucky and find someone that would give you a lot more. Keep in mind that if you find the right person to lease it the experience will be positive. If you find the wrong person you will get trash left lying around, poaching, baiting, trespassing and lots of headaches.
 
Kirk said:
I have been on several leases over the years. The smallest being around 800 acres. The largest was in the 3000 acre range. For 25 acres I would say that $20 to $25 an acre is fair. You might get lucky and find someone that would give you a lot more. Keep in mind that if you find the right person to lease it the experience will be positive. If you find the wrong person you will get trash left lying around, poaching, baiting, trespassing and lots of headaches.
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Yea, that is about how I priced mine. I think that as a landowner, it is a good idea to checkup on the area often enough to not let it get out of hand. I would hope that people here would be good stewards of the lease, outside of here I would probably have some reservations.
 
I say get it logged and then lease it. The logging will create trails for ATVs. The logging will only make the hunting better by providing more food. Being small and no plan for doing anything with it, perhaps allow the leaser to do habitat work, plots, etc. They can't really hurt it much if at all but can potentially enhance it. By allowing the leaser ability to do habitat work it encourages them to lease long term. Nobody wants to put in work if they can't continue hunting in the future.
 
The price per acre depend upon a couple things. Deer density , habitat, bedding areas . I looked at a great looking property in Lawrence Co. once thinking it was around a couple hundred acres . Decent price and it had a good amount of hardwoods and most was fenced if not all of it . Jumped deer riding around on my four wheeler. This was after the season as well . The place had a branch running through it as well as ponds ... they must have had cattle but didn't see any at the time . I told my friend as we covered the whole place that I didn't want to lease it . He asked why this is a great looking place ? I said yes it is and if you want to bowhunt it and maybe hunt during muzzleloader season it may be ok . He said they allow all hunting don't they ? Yeah they said year round but there are absolutely no bedding areas on this place ....once these guns go off these deer will leave. There wasn't even any bedding areas that adjoined this place . It looked good as other properties I'd hunted before with no thick bedding areas ....it gets like a deer ghost town once those guns starts going off . I would have leased it even if it had some bedding areas that joined this place because deer did use it but once they become nocturnal it's over . You can't catch one coming out of their bed if it's a half a mile away . Been along time since I leased a place but if you can get $ 10 an acre I'd get it . Most I've ever paid which was quite a long time ago was right at $ 6.50 an acre in Lincoln Co. Have $ 5 an acre in Giles Co. I've seen some in Giles at that time for $15 an acre and there was some probably much higher .
 

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