help on timber price

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Cage116

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I have a short question i hope. I currently have access to a rather large Black walnut tree that a person wishes to hire me to cut down. it seems a shame to cut it and simply turn it into firewood, i am interested in finding out how to sell this tree and whom i could bring it to. As well as what it could possibly be worth. i live in upstate NY and i am unsure of the local timber market. Thank you guys for any help you can give me.
 
Good luck trying to sell 1 yard tree. You might be able to find someone with a portable mill to buy it, but other than that, firewood!
 
Good luck trying to sell 1 yard tree. You might be able to find someone with a portable mill to buy it, but other than that, firewood!
well i found out a bit more about my situation here there is more like 5 of them alll about 25" DBH about a 20 foot sawlog in each of them
... i really am hoping to find a buyer for them
 
do a google search in for walnut buyers in yer area, funny thing is I'm currently looking for some one to buy a yard walnut myself, also search for small mills, or hard wood/specialty mills. You may have to figure out a way to haul em to the mill... DO NOT CUT IT DOWN until you have a buyer, unless you give up and just make it into firewood.

Good luck
 
I have had several people call me to give bids on California black walnut take-downs (Juglans hindsii) -- and they all assumed that they would make money even after paying me to take it down --- even though it would take extra work to rig big pieces that were worth milling (no room to fell the whole tree).

After I told them that unless a walnut is exceptional quality --- in being clear, straight, decent diameter, long enough (at least 8.5 ft.) and maybe nice color or figuring, the best they might do is break even or make money over time selling boards on Ebay, which they could do after paying someone to mill them and then storing them properly: ricked up and out of the weather in an unheated space with good air flow for at least a year.

In the short term, you pay me for the cost of removal, and that would likely be more than a removal leaving wood in odd lengths for someone to cut into firewood.

It does make me wish that I had a self loader, pole barn and mill, and a kiln...:msp_rolleyes:
 
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.75 to 2.75 per bf, depending on the quality at a nice little place in Portland Orygone... waiting on e-mails for a few other mills closer to home...

For those of you that cant do math thats $750.-$2750. per 1k bf. better then fir or hemlock right now... lots better...
 
.75 to 2.75 per bf, depending on the quality at a nice little place in Portland Orygone... waiting on e-mails for a few other mills closer to home...

For those of you that cant do math thats $750.-$2750. per 1k bf. better then fir or hemlock right now... lots better...

Sp you are talking round wood? What is the size range that they will take?
 
24" diameter or better, lengths??? don't know for sure... they mostly work with black walnut but said they would be interested in any kind of walnut, this is for the mill in Portland, search for walnut buyers in oregon or washington, still waiting on the mills closer to me... Orygone is a bit of a hike with 6000 lbs of wood behind a tired f-250 and a bad tranny...
 
I know a company owner in California who had a Walnut log he claimed was worth 20 grand when cut into flooring stock. Don't know how true it was but he and his brother fought over that log a very long time!
 
24" diameter or better, lengths??? don't know for sure... they mostly work with black walnut but said they would be interested in any kind of walnut, this is for the mill in Portland, search for walnut buyers in oregon or washington, still waiting on the mills closer to me... Orygone is a bit of a hike with 6000 lbs of wood behind a tired f-250 and a bad tranny...

Sounds like an arborist COULD make money at those prices -- but when you get a call to remove a walnut, the caller thinks that they will also make money. Therefore, you may have to trade the removal cost for ownership of the log or logs. The owner might also ask for the receipts from sale of the logs, in order to get a cut of the profit. It would all come down to the deal you make with the tree owner.

Personally, I would add up all the possible commercial logs in the tree, noting diameter (at the SMALL end---that is the end that counts in log sales), length, and any defect (decay, large knots, wind-shake scars/cracks, forks, metal) and send the potential buyer this info plus photos. You can estimate all this from the ground, with some experience, or even better, climb the tree and measure with a tape. The potential buyer might give you an estimate of the value, with the caveat that they would still need to inspect the cut logs before paying anything.

If you assume you are going to make lots of money and have already agreed to remove the tree for free, you could lose :msp_scared:, in that you now have a lot of expensive green firewood.

What I would do: write a contract with the tree owner as a break even swap, with cash going back to the tree owner if you get paid more than some percentage over your costs plus business profit. Why? You need to offer to share the profit, because I have found most walnut tree owners assume that they can make money selling even one tree of doubtful value -- they are going to expect something, or no deal. So, if you just make the margin stated, you make money and the tree owner sees that they were not taken advantage of. This is analogous to a "log sale" in commercial logging. If you sell above your margin, they get some money as well. They also may want to stipulate what buyers to shop the logs to, if they know something about this end of the biz.

If you can just get a swap, removal for the wood, that is fine as well, but you may not get a lot of referrals --- which could be balanced by a windfall if it turns out you get top dollar for the wood. This is kind of analogous to a "lump sum" sale in commercial logging; in this case, your bid for removal is the lump sum. You owe the seller no documentation of what you sold the wood for. Would this be taking advantage of the tree owner (if you made a large profit) or just good hard nosed business? Up to you.
 
well, I always go with the percentage, if I sell the logs to a mill homeowner gets x percentage. Saves on headaches they know what they are getting and I have a good Idea on what I need to do to make a buck or two. Home owner rides the market same as me, its just more important to me to get the logs out in a timely manner.

The burden of yard trees and going to the mill is that it could be rotten and garbage by the time it hits the ground, its possible to have a clue before you start cutting yes, but nothing is fool proof. So for yard trees the homeowner is quoted a price to take down, and or remove, with the option of taking it to the mill and getting paid if the wood is good enough... Some times the homeowner is more than happy to just pay us to take em down what I do with said wood once it leaves his dirt is just fine by them...(it can be hard to give money to people...) so they pay us to fall a few trees, then we take them to the mill (and yes we told em where its going and potentially how much they could make) and then the mill pays us some more for driving them a few logs... I call that a win win
 
well, I always go with the percentage, if I sell the logs to a mill homeowner gets x percentage. Saves on headaches they know what they are getting and I have a good Idea on what I need to do to make a buck or two. Home owner rides the market same as me, its just more important to me to get the logs out in a timely manner.

The burden of yard trees and going to the mill is that it could be rotten and garbage by the time it hits the ground, its possible to have a clue before you start cutting yes, but nothing is fool proof. So for yard trees the homeowner is quoted a price to take down, and or remove, with the option of taking it to the mill and getting paid if the wood is good enough... Some times the homeowner is more than happy to just pay us to take em down what I do with said wood once it leaves his dirt is just fine by them...(it can be hard to give money to people...) so they pay us to fall a few trees, then we take them to the mill (and yes we told em where its going and potentially how much they could make) and then the mill pays us some more for driving them a few logs... I call that a win win

Agree with all you said.

:msp_wink:Scoping an agreement with a client is all about two people feeling happy with what they are getting from the deal.If you have a skill they want, you make money. If they don't appreciate what you have to offer and don't want to pay for it, their choice.:msp_wink:
 
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