buying hunting land

[croc]

A couple buddies and I are looking at buying some multi-use hunting land. My question/concern is the joint ownership. Have any of you bought land jointly. Any issues that I/we should be aware of. Any tips on how to do this the right way? I'd hate for us to get into this and have it cost us our friendship. Thanks for any help!

[Ole1855]

croc,

Buying land with a group sounds really good because you would be able to afford a larger tract of land with a bunch paying for it. However, a really good friend of mine did that and after 3 years of constant arguing he and one of the other guy's sold out to the remaining group.

When they went into the venture there were 5 guy's, they bought 120 acres, the first year everything was great. Then the trouble started, 3 of the 5 decided they were going to start bringing other friends to hunt and they didn't consult the other 2, long story short...it ended up being a bad situation.

My brother and I bought together, we have a very good friend that has hunted with us for 25 years, when we bought back in 1990, he wanted to buy in, we decided against doing that for the above stated reason. Our friend understood and he still hunt's with us today.

If you decided the benefits outweigh the faults, make sure you all sit down and put in writing what the rules are including, if someone wants out, they have to sell to the remaining members. One other thing to think about, if one of the group goes through a nasty divorce, the ex can make him cough up 1/2 of the value of his portion of the land, if he doesn't have the cash, he may have to sell in order to pay her off...Lot's of things to concider.

Ole

[CodyDawg]

If you go through with it, put a post on some hunting forums asking for copies of rules. Getting it set up front is 90% of the battle. Likely, one guy will be more into Duck hunting, the other pheasant hunting, etc. I have 2 partnerships with family and so far, everything has been great. How are you gonna manage your land? Food plots? Who pays? Who does the work? QDM? You can just see the battle that would take place when you pay for the food plots, do all the work, decide to pass on little bucks and your buddy whacks a couple of basket racks.

I also agree with the legal issues that surround divorce and death are huge. God forbid, but if your buddy gets squashed by a bread truck and his wife remarries, you are suddenly sharing your hunting land with Bubba. An answer to that is to each take out life insurance policies on the other guys, that way, you pay the wife off. Unfortunately, you will probably need to hire a good lawyer. Good luck, it can be very, very rewarding.

By the way, we planted food plots last year with moderate success at best. this year, we tried again. Everything exploded and you should see the deer and pheasants on our land. Hopefully that transfers into a big buck for me, but it is rewarding in any event.

[WB make the CUT]

One thing... put in all in writing.

[who are those guy]

The best way to setup the LP contract is to have each owner own shares of the land. More $ you put in (ie improvements) - more shares of the land you own. If your buddy defaults - you can still buy his outstanding shares. Also if one dies - the beneficiarys can sell the shares to other owners. (state in contract that owners get first crack at shares.) Shares also make taxes easier. Everything else is how good of friends these are & trust.

[Hossienda]

Croc,

Check out the deer hunting forum and look for "Buying land- how many hunters per acre?" There are some very good ideas listed a little ways down that refer to your question.

-Hossienda

It is towards the bottom on page 4.

[Dockter]

It works, as long as you trust your buddies!!! My aunt and mother co-own hunting land by cook and it seems to work well. They put a lot of work in both and make it happen. If one person wants out, the other buddies fork over more money!