Shopping for hunting land
Whoever it was that said it’s a buyer’s market for hunting land is in serious need of revising their sound bites. From what I see and have had reported to me by interested buyers, a “buyers’ market” is anything but the truth when it comes to hunting land being easy to find and purchase.
Case Scenario
Friend Barry from Flowood tried to buy land three separate times last fall and could not succeed. “I looked at two pieces of property up in Holmes County not far from the Hillside National Refuge. The first one has been hunted by the two owners, but they crossed up on their hunting management styles and decided to sell. One was willing, the other was not. I made what I thought was a fair offer to their initial pricing and was backed by the rural land real estate agent. I was turned down flat, no counteroffer was even made,” said this potential land buyer.
“A few days later the agent called with another piece of land in the same area. It was a larger piece of property than I wanted to buy, but he assured me the owner would subdivide it any way I wanted it. I printed off an aerial map of the site and marked off roughly 100 acres I was interested in. I gave them an offer $200 less per acre than their price. On the counter, the owner reduced his price by only $2 an acre. I took that to mean he didn’t really want to sell all that badly. He also balked on dividing the land to suit me.” He didn’t call the agent back.
“On my third try I looked at a piece of land in Madison County, but like my friend said, the price was too good to be true. I found out why. For one thing it paralleled the interstate highway with all its noise. There were multiple access points to the long strip of land all planted in pines and everything was littered with trash. I didn’t spend 30 minutes looking at that place,” noted Barry. He gave up after that.
Searching for Nirvana
I love the radio ads of birds calling in the background and fish flopping on the pond as a rural land lending outfit talks about them financing your “little piece of heaven” for recreation and investment. It’s not quite that easy these days.
Land buyers looking for a place to hunt need to decide up front what they are looking for and set a flexible budget to attain it. From my market analysis the price of good hunting land can range from $1,500 to $4,000 an acre or more. Pricing depends on location from population, easy highway access, land feature amenities, infrastructure in place like roads, trails, and food plots, available electricity and water.
Hunters should be clued into the habitat potential. Is the land one huge cutover from a previous timber harvest or does it have standing hardwoods? Is it a pine plantation? Is there natural water available? Are there open areas or all timber? Can the property be easily secured via one or two locked gates? Who are the neighbors nearby and what is their reputation? Do they hunt, run dogs, and manage their property for wildlife? Who has been hunting the place if anybody?
When you initiate your search for hunting land via an agent or searching market newspapers and real estate ads, keep your minimal preferences at the forefront. If you use an agent, fully communicate your desires, and keep stressing them if they stray from your demands. Make sure the agent is selling what you want to buy.
The search for a really good piece of hunting land might take a year, maybe more. It certainly is nothing to rush into over a month or so. Deer hunters should never let the dream of big antlers cloud their decision making. Never buy land during the rut.
Beware of Red Flags
Ask why a particular piece of hunting land is for sale. Good land rarely is. Is the owner distressed? Is it an estate sale? Was the property leased for the past ten years and the owner finally had to run the hoodlums off the place for overhunting it or doing damage?
If the place looks unused, grass grown up, trees down, gate off the post, then it may just have fallen on hard times. If the roads show signs of recent use, deeply rutted roads and trails, then find out why. Is the place relatively clean or trashed? What is the history of trespassing or poaching around the place? Are their neighbors nearby to ask? Good neighbors are always looking for good neighbors, but they may also be the ones that have been hunting the place.
Deer or turkey hunters in particular ought to be interested in any harvest information or records on the place. Is the owner a hunter or his family? Ask them about the hunting? If there are no food plots in place and no sign of hunting stands, then maybe it genuinely has not been used for some time.
All the while you walk the place be thinking about what work the place needs and what that is going to cost you. Hunting land with amenities in place is worth more. Land without hunting infrastructure should not command the same high market prices. Keep looking until you find just what you want, which could include land you want to mold and shape on your own.
It may not exactly be a buyer’s market out there for hunting land, but with enough effort most people will eventually find that private piece of land they can call their own.
John J. Woods, Ph.D., is vice president in charge of economic development and training, Eagle Ridge Conference and Training Center, the Workforce Development Center and contract training services at Hinds Community College in Raymond.
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Notorious Scots shopping molls hit exclusive London store Harrods in £24k raid - Daily Record
Jun 3 2012 Exclusive by Russell Findlay
Generic Harrods image
SHOPPING molls Annette Daniel and Jean McGovern cracked one of Britain’s toughest security systems in their £24,000 raid on Harrods.
The luxury store in London’s Knightsbridge is regarded by many professional crooks as too difficult to rob.
But Daniel, 50, and McGovern, 45, who have appalling shoplifting records in Scotland, allegedly escaped with four dresses worth £24,000 by Italian designer Roberto Cavalli and US label Ralph Lauren in a brazen heist.
Security staff identified the pair and three accomplices from CCTV footage, which has been passed to the Metropolitan Police.
A Harrods insider said yesterday: “Security here is the most sophisticated that money can buy yet this lot got in and out without anyone noticing.
“To lose such a high value of stock in one hit is unprecedented and embarrassing. The management are very unhappy and are determined the culprits are brought to justice.”
The theft at Harrods – which is owned by the Qatar royal family – took place on May 14. Clear images of Daniel and McGovern – whose families are among Scotland’s major organised crime gangs – were captured on the store’s CCTV system.
Police suspect the pair were joined by gang members Roberta Burke, 48, Julie Tomlin, 32, and John Thomson.
Other shops in the area were also hit around the same time.
The Harrods source added: “The CCTV is the best money can buy and security staff are not the usual minimum wage types seen in most high street stores.
“They are very well-paid and are often ex-police and military personnel. They operate overtly and undercover throughout the store.”
Daniel is the sister of gangster Jamie Daniel, 54, while McGovern’s cousins include murderer Paul McGovern, 38, and drug dealer Tony McGovern, 35, who was shot dead in 2000.
Six years ago, the Sunday Mail exposed the duo and their skilled team of thieves, who operate across the UK and Europe.
We told how one gang member distracts staff to allow an accomplice to swipe thousands of pounds worth of stock in seconds.
The haul is usually stashed elsewhere in the store until it can be picked up by another gang member when they are satisfied the theft has not been spotted.
In Scotland, store bosses and police have despaired at what they see as the Crown Office’s failure to bring Daniel and McGovern to justice.
The pair’s taxpayer-funded lawyers often strike deals with prosecutors which let them walk free while their minions take the rap.
In 2006, a Glasgow sheriff branded Daniel’s long criminal record as “disgusting”.
Last September, she was handed two six-month sentences on consecutive days at Stirling and Aberdeen sheriff courts.
She was freed from Cornton Vale prison in March but immediately returned to high streets and shopping centres.
Last year, we told how Daniel and McGovern had started using wigs and hats to disguise themselves.
It is not the first time that Daniel has targeted Harrods, whose Latin motto Omnia Omnibus Ubique
means All Things for All People, Everywhere.
In 1985, she was arrested as she attempted to leave the store with a stolen haul of suits for her then lover, gangster Ian “Blink” MacDonald.
One source said: “It seems that in the three decades since, she has got better at what she does.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “On May 14, there was a theft from the Ralph Lauren and Roberto Cavalli ladies’ outlets in Harrods. The sum of goods stolen was in the region of £24,000. There are five suspects. There are no arrests but we are investigating.”
Harrods said: “We are unable to comment on any security-related incidents.”
English courts to stop the rampage
Store security chiefs in Scotland hope Daniel and McGovern will get tough justice for the Harrods heist.
One retail security officer said: “Let’s hope the Crown Prosecution Service in England can do what our courts have failed to do and put an end to this.
“This is no victimless crime. Every single thing they steal puts the prices up for shoppers.”
Eight years ago, Nora and Roberta Burke took the blame for a £15,000 haul found in a Glasgow safe house.
It happened again in 2006 when the Burke sisters were both jailed at Glasgow Sheriff Court as McGovern and Daniel were allowed to walk.
Two years ago, the pair went free despite being caught beside a car full of stolen clothes at Braehead near Glasgow. Two male gang members were jailed.
And police and shop bosses were furious when prosecutors in Aberdeen inexplicably dropped a major case against the pair. McGovern faced 14 shoplifting and two fraud charges while Daniel faced nine of shoplifting and one of fraud.
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