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 Several years ago, “Money Magazine” reported Daphne, Alabama, as one of the top-10 retirement areas in the nation. Many vacationers and snowbirds have been coming to south Alabama for many years to spend the winter. As these snowbirds have reached retirement age, many are looking for a place in south Alabama, especially Baldwin County, where they can be close to the beach, but not on the beach. Many who once had beach property during Hurricanes Katrina and Frederick have opted to have vacation homes further inland. Because of these factors, much of the land that once was farmland, swamp and timberland is now being subdivided into ranchettes, retirement communities and sub-development properties, which is why Mossy Oak Properties’ Logan Land Company sells much of its land to investors. “Right now, we’re in a seller’s market,” Logan reports. “We have more people wanting to invest and purchase land than we can find land to sell. If this trend persists, the market for hunting and residential lands in south Alabama will continue to be strong well into the future.”
Logan and his brother took over Logan Land Company in 2001, when their father died. “I got my real-estate license when I graduated from college in the early 1990s,” Logan reveals. “I knew Toxey Haas, Bill Suggs and Chris Hawley, who are principals in Mossy Oak Properties, when they first started Mossy Oak Properties. At that time, they approached us about becoming a Mossy Oak Properties’ agent. However, during this transition period, we couldn’t take on any more than handling our dad’s forestry-consulting business. However, one year later, after we had time to get our feet more-firmly planted in the business, and as we realized that timberlands were beginning to be purchased for forest-recreation lands, we saw that becoming Mossy Oak Properties’ agents was a perfect fit for our business.”
Increasing numbers of individuals and investors realize that the backwoods type of properties that historically have been timberlands and have been leased for hunting now have a greater value as forest-recreation lands. Many large timber companies and private timber holders have begun to divide thousands of acres, so they can it could be sold for forest-recreation uses, instead of solely for timber. Around the year 2000, the price for leasing hunting properties was such that it made more sense to purchase land than to lease land. At the same time, many large forestland owners began to divest themselves of large tracts of timberland. Wise realtors and investors noticed the change in the timber industry and the change in hunters from leasing property to buying property, and a new word and type of forestlands was coined – forest-recreation lands.
For more information on Mossy Oak Properties’ Logan Land Company in Eutaw, Alabama, call Jim Logan at (205) 372-9800, or email him at jlogan@mossyoakproperties.com.
Tomorrow: The Advantage for the Absentee Landowner
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