craiglist Posting. Lifetime firewood rights

Wood Duck said:

Aside from the price I'd be worried about the legality and permanence of his "lifetime rights." Who knows how long those rights will actually mean anything. What happens if the land is developed? mined" turned into a farm? I don't believe he actually has lifetime rights that he can sell.

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I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on T.V and I did not stay in a Holliday Inn Express last night, but I'm originally from W.V. and yes you can sell timber, minerial or just coal rights if you want in W.V. I once owned the coal rights to1526 acers in Barbour County, W.V. I inhereted the rights from my grandfather who was given them as payment for a debt. Owning the rights to the coal also gave me the right to mine the coal. It didn't mattter what was on the surface, house, pasture or what, I had the right to get the coal. So yep, he can sell the timber rights. I'm not sure how the "lifetime" thing works. I've seen the Government purchase land for a wilderness preserve and give the former owners "lifetime rights" to use and /or live on the land untill their death or untill they otherwise relinquish those rights.

longboarder2 said:

milleo, is that price for split wood, rounds, trunks? around here a cord of oak split and delivered is between $175 and $200. hopefully you're not talking about trunks.

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Tree length on a logging truck delivered, you cut to length and split. Around here the price of cut split and delivered is about the same as you.

Does it come with lifetime deer hunting rights, too?

PapaDave said:

Funny, you don't look that old.

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Thanks! Must be them formaldehyde showers I take every Saturday night!

I see that kind of math here all the time. People have standing green trees, and they equate it to cut, split and dried firewood, worth $200 a cord. Then they do some reverse math in their heads, and come up with insane prices.

Similar to logs though, loggers here sell "10 cords" of logs per truckload, but when they are cut and dry they are more like 8-9 cords. They also require the labor of bucking, splitting and space and time for drying. For 8-9 cords at $1,200 per truckload of green logs, that comes out to $133-150 per dry split cord. I can get a dry split cord of doug fir for $175 delivered. For only $25-42 more, I think that $175 a cord is well worth the money vs. the time and effort for splitting, and dry space required to store 10 shrinking to 8-9 cords of wood.

I have to say, I just love craigslist, and every thread that has a CL add on here, I have to click on! Some of the stuff people come up with, is well.........delusional. And most of the time halarious, especially with pics.
What are "rights" anymore anyhow

TS

Let's all bomb his email with offers

I'm going to see if he will let me sign up my 2 year old for lifetime rights.

2 cord per year, a lifetime is a long time...so let's say 25 years. That's 50 cord costing $80 per cord.

Around these parts I can get log length delivered to my house for less than that...but let's just say its the same price.

Hmm, now do I want to spend my time, fuel, and wear on the truck to save $0. I'm going to have to think about that for a while. OK. Done thinking. No, no I don't.

jdp1152 said:

Does it come with lifetime deer hunting rights, too?

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That's big business around here. Southerners pay top $ to lease hunting ground. Lots of farmers I know lease...and it kinda sucks for the local guys who get booted off property they've hunted for 10 years, but you can't blame the farmer for leasing either.

There are all kinds of ways that the seller could structure this, but he's offering to sell "his lifetime" rights. The fact that he thinks that his standing timber is
worth $200/cord puts this guy in the same category as the guys wanting professional and insured tree services to come cut down their willows leaning over their homes next to the power lines for the free firewood.

Nothing new there. 95 % of the stuff you see for sale on craigslist aren't "deals" at all, just people trying to make money selling stuff they either can't use or don't want. Most of them are asking too much for what they are selling, a few are priced about what the items are worth, and a rare few are actually really good deals, but if you're not real quick you'll miss them. Obviously this guy is asking too much for what he is offering, like 95% of the other stuff for sale on craigslist, but perhaps he would be willing to negotiate. Obviously the first thing to negotiate would be the limit of only 2 cords a year, that's peanuts, and wouldn't do anybody any good. Most people burn more than that in a season, and with a $4,000 dollar investment it should be substantially more. If you were to invest that money in a saving account at 3% interest you'd get $120 back without lifting a finger, but since firewood is the goal, you'd be better off purchasing truck loads of raw logs as others have suggested, then reinvesting the money you'll be saving off your heating bill.
But if you have to buy wood anyway, maybe you could get the guy to negotiate more cords per year and you might hit a break even point to make it worth it. Of course then there's the details, like what kind of wood is it, how far away is it, what sort of access does it have, and who's lifetime does this "lease" last for. Also would be good to know if it's transferable in case you move or stop heating with firewood, etc...
It all depends on a persons situation I guess, and whether that guy would be willing to negotiate. For me, and probably a lot of other people here, it would hold no appeal at all since we can cut my firewood for free anyway, but something like that might work for people who are paying top dollar for wood,,,, if they could get a better deal. How about $2,000 for 6 cords a year, would that make it worth it???

northwinds said:

There are all kinds of ways that the seller could structure this, but he's offering to sell "his lifetime" rights. The fact that he thinks that his standing timber is
worth $200/cord puts this guy in the same category as the guys wanting professional and insured tree services to come cut down their willows leaning over their homes next to the power lines for the free firewood.

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I see those CL ads here all the time. Insured, bonded professional tree service, with references! All for that valuable firewood. Sometimes only half the firewood though, they want the other half split and stacked on site, and all the branches chipped or hauled off. Worse here though is that cities like Portland and some of the burbs require permits to cut trees, and the owners usually do not have them. In most of the 'tree' cities here, the person doing the cutting gets the hefty fines. I turned down at least a dozen jobs on trees w/o permits when I had a tree service and Bandit chipper here a few years ago. Then they would turn up on CL within a week, even after I informed the owners that they would need a permit.

There are suckers born every minute....

Whose lifetime? Can "lifetime rights" be passed on or do they end when the original purchaser gives up his "lifetime" rights?

I think I've bought one thing off Craigslist in my life which was a fair deal. It seems like most adds, firewood and other, consists of owners way overvaluing what they have. Maybe since I don't look much those are the ones I see because the good deals don't last long. Maybe.

There's been a post here for a couple years to "come cut my trees down and pay me for the priviledge". It's particularly funny around here right now because you can't throw a stone and miss a dead ash tree. I've got to believe a semi-resourceful person could get near a lifetime supply of firewood for free around here if they wanted to cut and split. Of course, cut and split firewood is the same price it's been for years. I guess hard work is worth something.