Timber Selling Guides for Landowners
Everything you need to know before you sell a single tree. Written for landowners, not industry insiders.
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How to Sell Timber on Your Land: The Order the Steps Go In
The order matters more than the price. Here is the whole sequence, from finding your lines to cashing the check and paying the tax, with nothing skipped.
Will Selling Timber Mess Up My Present-Use Value Property Tax?
Harvesting is what the forestry present-use value program is built around. What ends the deferral is losing eligibility, and your county assessor decides.
Do I Have to Pay Taxes When I Sell Timber?
Yes, timber money is taxable. It is usually a long-term capital gain rather than ordinary income, and basis comes off before tax is owed on the rest.
How Many Acres of Timber Is Worth Selling?
There is no minimum acreage in North Carolina. What decides whether a crew will come is how much wood is standing and how cheaply it gets to a mill.
I Inherited Land With Trees on It. What Do I Do First?
Nothing about inherited timberland is urgent. Here's what to find out first, why the date of death matters so much, and who to call about the woods.
What Is Stumpage Value? How Timber Is Priced on Your Land
Stumpage is what you get for trees still standing, not what the mill pays for the logs. Here is where the difference goes and how to check an offer.
What Affects the Value of My Timber? Six Things That Decide the Check
Two tracts the same size can be worth very different money. Here are the six things that decide it, from somebody who spent fifty years cutting timber in North Carolina.
More Guides
Do I Need a Permit to Cut Timber on My Own Land in North Carolina?
North Carolina has no timber harvest permit. It does have mandatory water quality rules and a few situations that need a permit. Here is which is which.
What Rules Do Loggers Have to Follow in North Carolina?
North Carolina does not license loggers. What binds a crew on your land is water quality rules, insurance, and the contract you sign.
Who Pays to Replant After a Timber Harvest?
Replanting is the landowner's bill unless the timber sale contract puts it on the buyer. What help exists, and what it costs you to wait.
How to Look Up What Timber Is Actually Selling For in North Carolina
There is a free quarterly price report for North Carolina standing timber. Here is where it lives, how to read it, and why the average in it is not your price.
Clear-Cut vs. Selective Cut: Which Is Right for Your Land?
A clearcut is the right call for even-aged pine more often than people think, and what a buyer calls a selective cut is sometimes a high-grade.
What Happens to Your Land After the Loggers Leave?
A fresh harvest looks like a disaster the first time you see it. What is normal, what is not, and what to check before the last check clears.
Are My Hardwood Trees Worth Anything? Hardwood vs. Pine
Hardwood can be worth more per tree than pine, or a lot less. Grade decides it, not species, and most people guess wrong about which trees a mill wants.
What Should Be in a Timber Sale Contract?
Everything you are afraid of in a timber sale is either handled by the paper in front of you or not handled at all. These are the clauses to look for.
Do I Need a Forestry Consultant Before Selling My Timber?
Usually yes, if you are selling standing timber for the first time. What one does, how they get paid, and the cases where you do not need one.
Storm-Damaged Timber: What to Do After a Hurricane or Ice Storm
Downed sawtimber starts losing value in weeks, and every landowner around you is selling at the same time. Here is how to move fast without getting taken.
How Not to Get Ripped Off by a Timber Buyer
The buyer prices standing timber every week. You are doing it once. Two moves close most of that gap, and both happen before anybody starts a saw.
What Is Timber Basis, and Why It Matters If You Inherited the Land
Inherited timber usually gets a fresh tax value on the day the owner died. Nobody works that number out for you, and you cannot claim what you cannot prove.
How to Find and Mark Your Property Lines Before Selling Timber
A county GIS map is not a boundary. Before a saw runs, here is how to find your real lines, mark them so a crew can see them, and stay out of a trespass case.
Someone Cut Timber on My Land Without Permission. What Now?
Under G.S. 1-539.1 a trespasser is liable for triple the value of the timber cut. Whether you can prove that value depends on what you do this week.
When Should You Thin a Pine Stand Instead of Cutting It All?
A crowded pine stand with growing left in it is usually a thinning, not a clearcut. How to tell which one you have, and what a bad thinning costs you.
Selling Timber Directly to a Mill: Pros, Cons, and What It Costs You
Some mills buy standing timber. Many only buy logs delivered to the gate, which means you still need a logger. And one mill is one bid.
Do I Need a Forest Management Plan, and What Does One Cost?
A plan is not required to sell timber in North Carolina. It is what the property tax break, most cost-share money and one legal shield turn on.
Tons, Cords, and Board Feet: How Timber Gets Measured
Two offers on the same trees can use two different units and two different log rules. Here is how to read them, and how to check the math yourself.
Selling Timber on Heirs' Property: Can You Sell If the Deed Is in a Dead Relative's Name?
If the deed still names somebody who died, you probably cannot sell the timber yet. Here is who has to agree and how North Carolina families get there.
Load Tickets: How to Know How Much Timber Left Your Land
On a pay-as-cut sale, a stack of paper tickets decides your whole check. North Carolina law says the buyer has to hand them over. Unless you sold lump sum.