The October 'Looking for Land' Ritual

Hunting 'season' starts in early October. No, not the deer rifle season which is what most non-hunters think of as hunting season. Deer rifle is the 'big event' that opens the weekend before Thanksgiving. But in October, the ramp up starts with turkey leading into a deer bow season, and that gets hunters thinking hunting.

A curious thing happens in early October. I start getting calls and emails from people looking to buy 50 or 100 acre parcels of raw land "that would be good for hunting and maybe build a little house." Now, anyone who's serious about buying hunting land this year has already bought it. There's very little chance that anyone calling about buying hunting land in mid October would have it bought by late November in time for deer rifle.

Most Realtors up here have caught on that these calls are primarily from folks who are looking for land that might be vacant or unused to hunt without leasing it or buying it. There are quite a few 'tells' that this is what they're up to. They ask for tax maps or survey maps and directions to the property 'so they can just drive by and take a look.' But the big giveaway is that they don't seem at all concerned about price. Why should they be? They're unlikely to actually buy it. At every other time of the year, the price per acre is one of the key parameters of anyone looking for hunting land.

Now, if you're a regular reader of this blog you know that I don't do a lot of raw land. However, I do occasionally work with raw land buyers, particularly for larger parcels, including hunters. But I don't do it at all starting October 1st through mid-December, the end of deer rifle season. It's not because it's all that dangerous walking property this time of year. I have enough orange paraphernalia and garb to be seen from the moon, and my dog has a selection of orange outfits as well. It's more that I find the hunting land lookers time of year are generally scouts, not buyers, and showing large land parcels this time of year is a lot of wheel spinning.

Comments

[Dr. J]

Wheel Spinning it is.

[GB]

Most hunters aren't looking to spend much on land anyway.
I received one call from a group of 4 hunters looking to spend 500-1000 per acre.
I explained to them that at those prices, you would have to go to Delaware or Greene counties.
The disconnect between sellers and buyers is huge on large parcels of land

[Dina]

LOL! I understand totally about you and your dog having an orange wardrobe. So do I! And smart of you to figure out that these bozos are just looking to find a place to hunt, and not to buy.