Real Estate Marketing

My blog is generally more geared to land and forestry. However I am in the business of listing and selling real estate, particularly land brokerage.  Therefore I am constantly researching topics related to the latest technology and marketing techniques. I have this responsibility to my clients. You stay ahead of the crowd or you fall behind! Recently I attended an online class related to 'real estate marketing'. The number one thing that draws attention to a property is………pictures. You know “A picture is worth a thousand words”. It helps people connect with a property before actually getting their feet on the ground. If you don’t have inviting pictures, you may not get any inquiries on the property. The second most important piece of data we realtors furnish is a ‘detailed description about the property’.  Information about the number of acres, acres in pasture, acres in woods, type and quality of the timber, presence of streams, ponds and lake are all important. The buyer may want to know about the access, proximity to town or other facts. NOW, here is the part that caught me by surprise, the third most important thing we can provide is VIDEO.  56% of online traffic is watching video. See the following chart!

The use of the web as a percent of total internet use is actually decreasing. P2P (Peer to Peer) is social networking like Facebook or Twitter is on the increase. Look at the 2 purple sections at the top, that is the video portion and it is growing exponentially. In summary, web use is decreasing, social networking and videos are on the increase!

The other thing of interest is the traffic by device. Look at the following picture. The Apple devices (iPhone and iPad) seem to have a huge portion of that market. People can access any and all information on the go with their mobile device!

Well, I got to go! Looks like I need to shoot some more videos!!

To see my listings go to AllSouthLandandHomes.com Buying or Selling Land?  Contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF         at      (706) 457-0090

LAND..What's Selling..Whose Buying?

I recently participated in a survey with Land Brokers across the country and the results were recently published by the Realtors  Land Institute. As expected there were some very modest improvements in sales and sales price. The following chart shows how the country was divided into regions for reporting purposes. We'll focus on Region 3 where I practice Real Estate. The bulk of property selling in Region 3 is primarily timberland and recreational properties.

Country By Regions

Region 3 Reported Average Sales Close to 100 Acres

As you can see most participants reported 2 -3% Increases

The chart above shows Increase/Decrease By Land Type and by far most reported 0 - 5% Increases

Now, Who is Buying? Generally speaking Corporations are buying development and commercial properties. Families and Individuals are buying ranches and recreational properties. See the following graph.

I think there are 2 very important points: 1) If you have been waiting on prices to bottom out, you have probably waited too long and 2) in my opinion, interest rates will move up (not down). If you have been waiting to buy that tract of LAND.....now is the time!!!!

If you would like to see my listings, visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com   If you have questions about buying and selling LAND, contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF @ 706.457.0090

Are There Different Type of Water Rights?

One of the first cases involving water rights was Tyler v. Wilkinson in 1827. This was a dispute between 2 mill owners. Could the upstream mill owner impede the flow of water to the downstream mill owner. Thus Riparian water rights came into existence.

Generally speaking the type water rights you own depends on where you live. Those who live in the eastern United States have 'Riparian rights'. Those in the western US have 'Doctrine of Prior Appropriation'. Following is a pie chart showing who holds the most water rights in the U.S. 

Percent of Water Rights Held

Lets describe what these different type water rights are: 

Land-based or Riparian Rights

Riparian rights are based on land ownership, and are protected by property law. Riparian rights state that only the owner of the banks of the water source have a right to the 'undiminished, unaltered flow' of the water. Riparian rights are only transferable when the riparian land ownership title is transferred to a new owner. Typically riparian rights are not severed from the land.

Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

The use of water in many of the states in the western U.S. is governed by the doctrine of prior appropriation, also known as the "Colorado Doctrine" of water law. The essence of the doctrine of prior appropriation is that, while no one may own the water in a stream, all persons, corporations, and municipalities have the right to use the water for beneficial purposes. The allocation of water rests upon the fundamental maxim "first in time, first in right." The first person to use water (called a "senior appropriator") acquires the right (called a "priority") to its future use as against later users (called "junior appropriators"). In order to assure protection of senior water right priorities and to maximize the use of this scarce and valuable resource, many states have adopted detailed schemes for the determination and administration of water rights. These state regimens define to a large extent just what a water right is.

However as one might expect most states have adopted a Hybrid System. Many of these states originally operated under the Riparian Rights then later adopted parts of the Prior Appropriation rules

To see my listings visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com Buying or Selling Land? Contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF at      (706) 457-0090

Forestry & Wildlife Workshop Coming to Talbot County GA!

A great event is planned by the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce on April 24. The itinerary is shown below. This should be an exciting event with topics including buy not limited to:
1) Market Outlook for Southern Timber
2) Forestry Genetics
3) Managing Bob White Quail including a site visit
4) Prescribe Burning forestland
5) GIS/GPS for Forestry Applications.

Space is limited so registration is required. The Chamber of Commerce can be reached at

Phone: 706.665.8079

Email: talbotco@pstel.net

If you are interested in seeing my listings, visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com   Buying or Selling LAND, contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF @ 706.457.0090

What You Need to Know About Forestry Genetics!

I have been riding around looking at property and something just jumped out at me one day! I sell a lot of timberland in west central Georgia and after all being a ‘Registered Forester’ this topic is important to me. Some  trees look great, others, not so good. Some trees are straight, few limbs and generally look good. Other properties have trees with lots of cankers, lots of limbs, lots of sweep….you get the idea. I am sure you have noticed the same thing if you are interested in timberland. Let’s look at some photographs.

 Wild Trees - Notice the number of limbs

 Wild Trees - Notice the sweep

Genetically Improved - Notice the straightness and lack of limbs!!

Generally speaking, the differences have to do with genetics. Like the color of your eyes, height etc, trees characteristics are to a large degree determined by genetics. Forest Genetics is the subdiscipline of genetics concerned with genetic variation and inheritance in forest trees. There has been lots of improvements in tree characteristics including: lack of limbs and the ability to self prune, volume gain, straightness and taper and resistance to fusiform rust.

Improved trees are generally referred to as 1^st Gen, 2^nd Gen etc. Let’s look at the differences.

1^st Generation  – cuttings from superior wild trees. These trees generally experience about a 10% gain over wild trees.

2^nd Generation – best trees from 1st  Generation were crossed. These trees generally experience 10-20% over the 1st Generation.

3^rd Generation – best trees from 2nd Gen were crossed. Usually experience 10-20% gain over 2^nd  Generation.

A forest nursery man once explained to me that Seed Orchards are open pollinated, which means you can identify the mother tree but the pollen blows in so there is no way to control the father tree. You have probably experienced your car covered up with that yellow pollen in the spring!

Tree improvement is moving in the direction of cloning which is taking tissue from a tree and growing seedlings.  One of the largest companies involved in cloning tree seedlings is ArborGen.

OK, this blog was probably a little to scientific for most but here is your take away…..Reforestation is EXPENSIVE and it is a long term investment. If you are going to invest all that money is site preparation (such as spraying herbicides), perhaps burning, then either hand planting or machine planting your trees….then for heaven’s sake….USE THE BEST SEEDLINGS. Some trees are better suited to the piedmont, others are better suited for the coastal plain. Choose a genetically improved tree suited to your area!

If you want to see my listings, visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com.  Buying OR selling LAND? Contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF @ 706.457.0090