Q.
Can anyone give advice on buying a wood lot and cutting the timber from it, as a part-time business venture?
Forum Responses
I have clients who buy land and all for less than the value of the standing timber. They then log and mill the timber.
The trick is to know what you have standing before you go into the transaction. That means either you should learn how to cruise timber, or find a reputable forester that can. There will be a fee involved.
If you log it yourself, you will have to incur the costs of buying logging equipment, and hire trucking, at a minimum. You could subcontract the logging.
Milling costs will also have to be shouldered by you. Then you get into marketing. The learning curve can be pretty steep in all of these cases. Idle equipment can get to be very costly.
In any business venture, find the market first, before worrying about the resource. Then locate the resource for the market.
