WHAT IS MY NORTH CAROLINA LAND WORTH?

1) Location – This is the oldest adage known to man but it is true. Some areas are just more valuable than others for various reasons and this can vary actually within a small geographical range.

2) Soil types – Soil types vary greatly over a very short distance. In Eastern North Carolina particularly, there are great soils and terrible soils and these can be side by side literally. What makes great soils? 1) Suitability for septic tanks, 2) Productivity for farming, 3) lack of wetlands, 4) Level topos (unless you are buying land in the mountains and want more topo for views, etc.) 5) Ease of working for farming (loamy soils vs rocky heavy soils), and 6) ability to grow quality timber, just to name a few. Soil types may be the most important factor after location.

3) Access – In order of importance/value, the following levels of access to your land will impact value greatly:  1) Road frontage offering direct, unimpeachable access, 2) Deeded right of way easement large enough for generous vehicular access and specifically written to allow for utilities and shared road maintenance 3) Historic access over an existing road but not deeded access, 4) No historic access and no path or road to your property. One thing to understand clearly is that banks will NOT lend money on land with no deeded access or road frontage, thus impacting your audience of capable buyers and thus your land value.

4)Timber – Land is ALWAYS worth more with the timber on it than the sum of the timber if sold and removed plus the value of the cutover land. In other words, if you are planning on selling your land, do not cut the timber first!! We see this mistake almost daily. Unfortunately cutting timber leaves a tract very ugly and the timeframe to ever generate new timber value and beauty is so long, most buyers other than professional timberland investors avoid cutover tracts. Cutting timber is fine if you are going to keep a tract long term and plan on re-planting and managing the new timber, but it really does hurt the overall value for years after cutting, especially with a clearcut.

5) Price Point – This may sound a little circular, but tracts that are larger and require a larger pocketbook, generally are worth less per acre than smaller tracts with a lower price point. Larger tracts have a much smaller pool of potential buyers and this actually limits the price per acre in many cases.

6) Cleanliness and appearance – This goes without saying. Does your land look like a park or a junkyard? Two very different values for the same land based on appearance and future cost to clean up. “Curb Appearance” goes just as far with land as it does with houses.

7) Features – Water features (these are particularly desirable), internal roads, food plots for hunting, structures, good timber, etc always  add value to any property.