I used to think a visual walk-through of a wooded property was enough to gauge timber value before making an offer. Spent an afternoon on 160 acres in Douglas County, liked what I saw, and bid accordingly. Closed the deal and brought in a licensed timber buyer six months later. Turns out about 40 acres of that 'mature hardwood' was post-oak scrub with negligible board-foot value, and the white oak I was counting on had been high-graded by the previous owner's logger a decade prior. That selective creaming left the worst stems standing. I lost roughly $18,000 in assumed timber value off my original calculations.
Now I hire a consulting forester to run a proper cruise — basal area, species composition, quality grades, the whole picture — before I finalize any offer on timbered ground. That cruise typically costs $500 to $1,200 and has saved me multiples of that every single time.
Anybody here still skipping the cruise on wooded parcels, and how has that worked out for you?