Hi Guys

[boxerman]

As the latest newbie around here I thought I'd better just pop in and introduce myself.....

I'm Phil from Leicester and I don't actually own a wood (yet). I've had this vague dream in the back of my mind since my scouting days in the '60's, when we had sole use of some ancient woodland nearby, of owning my own piece of woodland to enjoy. The dream's been tucked away but recently seems to have resurfaced and it's possible I may be able to find the money to buy a small piece within the next 2 or 3 years - only time will tell if it actually happens and if the actual fact would compare to the dream - I guess you're the guys that are likely to convince me one way or the other. I think my biggest fear is that if I actually manage to do it I could very quickly end up regretting the amount of labour that I know it's likely to entail and then not enjoying what I have.

Much as I enjoy nature and camping etc. I want a place to enjoy not spend the whole of my retirement working..... I know little of the practicalities of maintaining a wood so I guess, at this point, I'll be asking far more than I can give in return but as I'm likely looking at 2 or 3 years I have time to learn some of the basics before jumping out of the frying pan...

I suspect I'll be asking numerous questions in due course!!

[oldclaypaws]

Good luck in your hunt. Smojo is a newby in the middle of buying his wood who just asked many of the questions you may be thinking too, including the thread 'how much work is involved in managing a small wood'. Suggest reading it might be a good start;

http://www.swog.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1789

[Dexter's Shed]

I think my biggest fear is that if I actually manage to do it I could very quickly end up regretting the amount of labour that I know it's likely to entail and then not enjoying what I have.

hi, you would do what I did, get yourself a good helper (younger)
Lewis is our head ranger as we call him, he love camping out and nature and building stuff (a biker friend) so alot of the time he's called upon to help out, now, when we bought our woods, we knew nothing about woodland management, and 14 months later, nothings changed
we bought our woods to enjoy, relax,chill out, play, erect a zip wire, ride petrol ex lawn mowers come tractors, watch nature, have bbq's and weekends away, keep a few bee's (hives) and do a little bit of work inbetween, a few dead hedges, cutting pathways, chopping up dead trees
at the end of the day, it's your wood, you can do as much or as little as you want, it'll still increase in value

[Andy M]

I think my biggest fear is that if I actually manage to do it I could very quickly end up regretting the amount of labour that I know it's likely to entail and then not enjoying what I have.

hi, you would do what I did, get yourself a good helper (younger)
Lewis is our head ranger as we call him, he love camping out and nature and building stuff (a biker friend) so alot of the time he's called upon to help out, now, when we bought our woods, we knew nothing about woodland management, and 14 months later, nothings changed
we bought our woods to enjoy, relax,chill out, play, erect a zip wire, ride petrol ex lawn mowers come tractors, watch nature, have bbq's and weekends away, keep a few bee's (hives) and do a little bit of work inbetween, a few dead hedges, cutting pathways, chopping up dead trees
at the end of the day, it's your wood, you can do as much or as little as you want, it'll still increase in value

It only increases in value if YOU value it more

[smojo]

Hi - smojo here. Yes as Paws said I am in the middle of buying one so I'm just a few steps ahead of you and therefor it might be worth looking at my posts. Some not relevant to you personally but it might give you some ideas of what to think about. Here's my main thoughts on it so far.

Mine will be an hour and a quarter drive from home. Initially I thought that was too far and thought that distance was a very high importance factor and that I should hold out for one nearer. But they rarely come up in my neighbourhood so looking for that perfect woodland could take a few years. I just missed another plot in the same woodland a few weeks before. In that period of time I have seen the price/acre rise from £7750 to about £10k/acre for ones recently advertised. It seems that woodland purchasing is becoming more popular and pushing prices up. So that's one very good reason to act ASAP. In another two years I probably wouldn't be able to afford the prices. Secondly I am 63 years old and although reasonably well, let's be honest, strength and health will slowly deteriorate over the next 10-15 years and each year spent looking for that perfect plot is one year less to enjoy it. So my advice is don't procrastinate too long. Have a good hard think about everything and weigh the pros and cons. In my case the cons are - distance too far, no water supply, timber value not particularly high. The pros are - excellent vehicular track access to it, price per acre pretty good compared to others I've seen, nice mixture of tree species and location is a plot in the middle of a big wood so there are neighbours that may be an asset eventually, no boundary/fences to maintain and the biggest pro is (and I'm shouting this) - I can have it now and start enjoying it this year - whoohoo. I can't wait.

As to whether it will take all your time is up to you. As Paws said to me, the time required is somewhere between zero and endless. You will certainly want to do some management and improvements and I think your enthusiasm will kick in once you get it and drive you to want to be there getting stuck in. My head is already full of ideas of what I'd like to do when I get it. I will have to hold myself back.

Finally if the money aspect is a worry then I don't think you can go far wrong with it as an investment - as I said prices are rising all the time and the agent for my woods said he has not known the value of woodland to fall during his time selling them. He told me he has taken all his money out of bricks and mortar and put it into woodlands. He should know! Money in the bank might earn you 2% year if your lucky and who can trust the bas***ds to look after it for you these days. What is money nowadays anyway? - it's just a set of numbers on a piece of paper or computer, it doesn't really exist as an actual asset until you buy something with it.

Good luck and be brave and follow your dream. Don't allow fear to hold you back if it's what you really want and to quote Bear Grylls from his excellent book A Survival Guide for Life "Beware of the dream stealers, they are more dangerous to mankind than you might ever imagine.....The key is not to listen to them too hard. Hear them, if you must - out of respect - but then smile and push on."

[boxerman]

Thanks, guys, I'm beginning to feel suitably encouraged.. and, yes, I've read pretty much every post on this forum before I joined and I see a wealth of experience which can be a great back-up for any doubts.

Smojo - thanks for all of your comments and yes, I've been around long enough to know not to let things get in the way of a dream but like everything there are times when practicality does come into the equation - IF I could find somewhere now I simply don't have the money to buy it unless it comes at a silly price so putting it off for 2 or 3 years is the only option I have but that does have an upside in that I have time to learn a little and check out what's realistic and what's not. At 62 I'm about the same age as you and not as fit as I once was - time catches up with us all but I still enjoy camping and riding my motorcycle.

Just to clarify, money is only an issue for actually buying it - if and when I get one it won't be as an investment but simply to enjoy while I can and then pass on the kids so any increase in value will be irrelevant.

I do also get the impression that the big companies who are buying woods and then splitting into small lots are charging way over the odds and that auction may be the way to go IF they can be found.

[oldclaypaws]

I do also get the impression that the big companies who are buying woods and then splitting into small lots are charging way over the odds and that auction may be the way to go IF they can be found.

I have to disagree with that, based on experienced observation. I've seen small pretty stand alone woods go for £20,000 an acre at auction. There simply aren't enough individual small attractive woods available to satisfy demand, or woods4sale and woodlands.co.uk wouldn't exist, so your 'IF' is the sticking point- they can't readily be found. It also varies regionally, woodlands are easy to get in Wales, difficult in more fertile parts of the country where most land is arable, such as our 'neck of the woods' (or fields, more to the point). Larger deciduous woods from Cleggs (by which I mean 50+ acres) do indeed go for maybe £7,000 an acre, and coniferous for £3,000, but how many of us have £350,000 to spend on a 50 acre wood? The 'woodsplitters' are just doing what Tesco does, buying in bulk, packaging in quantities people can afford, and putting on a markup. Many of the people on the Forum have bought this way and are happy with their purchases. I was fortunate to find the right wood close to home at auction and am thrilled with it, but it took years, was a big effort, and didn't come cheap. (about £13,700 an acre, 2 years ago).

Where you might get better 'value' is woods beyond the range of most amenity users, in the 10-20 acre bracket, where you might be looking at a far cheaper price per acre, but probably also far more than you need.

I still think at £10k an acre woods are relatively cheap. In the posh Newcastle suburb where my father lives, a 1/4 acre building plot sells for £400,000, or 160 times the price of woodland. There are people buy handbags for £25,000, a single flash car with a 15 year lifespan for the price of a wonderful wood, or £400K for a small flat in London. I paid for most of my wood by selling about a dozen coins from my collection, I know which I'd sooner have.

[Binz]

I hope you find the money and the wood soon. We were going to put it off until we retired but then changed our minds, remortgaged our house and bought the woods. Well worth accelerating things if there are options open to you. re comparing it to cost of couns, cars, etc; we thought along the lines of 'for what other people will pay to get an extra bedroom we will get acres of woodland to enjoy'. And don't worry about the work, you can do as much as you are able and if you don't do much the trees will will keep growing anyway. Good luck

[smojo]

I really do recommend going for it as soon as you can. I have had many people close to me die or fall seriously ill lately and like yours, my body has taken a toll over the years. I'm a bit overweight, lots of aches and pains in my joints, stressed, feeling disenfranchised with the world and life in general. One of my dilemmas has been "am I too old" for it? Will I regret lumbering myself with it (no pun intended), what if I fall ill or drop dead in a year or two? But I have put those feelings aside now. I worked damn hard for many years often being on call 24/7 and being dragged out of bed to drive 2 or 3 hours to fix a fault. Sometimes I was up for 24 hours of the day. I took early retirement 5 years ago because I was burned out with stress. Still feeling the effects of that now. It was pretty well paid and that is how I can afford to buy a wood.

So my philosophy is that it's payback time. What did I put myself through for all those years if I can't get something great out of it for myself? I see many old people in their 80s too weak to get out of the bath or climb the stairs and I reckon it doesn't need to be like that. It's because after they retire they take to a sedentary lifestyle and muscles weaken and wither because they don't use them. So as someone here said - owning a wood is like having a green gym. I'm sure the exercise will strengthen me, make me fitter and healthier and the de-stressing element of sitting in my wood totally relaxed and content will probably extend my life a number of years too. And even if it doesn't what is there to lose? If my life is cut short for some reason, I'll have spent the last of it doing something I really enjoy and the wood will still be there as an asset to pass on. So that's why I'm wasting no more time in getting one. If a better one comes up nearer home in a few years, what's to stop me selling this one and buying it? I doubt I will lose money.

[Wendelspanswick]

Hi Smojo, I see from a previous post that you were in Telecoms and after your last post I guess you were a service engineer?
I am a partner in a telecoms installation and maintenance company, luckily though I am out on sites during the day and my business partner who is office bound during the day with paperwork and Tec support does the callouts after hours!
What systems did you support?