How much is my hunting land worth?

I don't price a property with one number; I price it in layers. A tillable corner carries one per-acre value because someone pays rent on it. The hardwood ridges carry another, set by what similar timbered ground closed for. The food plot, the pond and the neighbor's posted land each shift the total.

Add a good access and a legal drivable entrance, and you change the buyer pool, not just the value. Take away legal access and you might remove the pool entirely.

Reported figures for southwestern Wisconsin vary widely by tract, and the ranges tell the story: simpler farm-country parcels trade in a lower per-acre band, while Bluff Country recreation tracts with strong cover and water can command several times that, and Coulee Region ground near the La Crosse to Trempealeau corridor often runs in the upper band.

The spread is not randomness. It is the market paying for exactly the features in the first section: timber volume and quality, tillable ratio, water, access, parcel size and scenery.

First, the recent sales: recorded, closed parcels in your township and county that resemble yours, adjusted acre by acre. Second, a timber cruise if the woods are mature: sawtimber value is real, measurable money. Third, the income layer: rent, CRP, hunting lease, because a tract that pays its own taxes is worth more to more buyers.

Then people ask me to just tell them the number. I can give a range quickly, based on years of work in your area. But the number you would sign, the listing price, deserves the full pass. That takes a couple of days, costs you nothing, and is the whole reason I do this the way I do.

Averages are useful in a newspaper, but they will misprice your place in a sale. Your tract has a specific combination of features, and buyers pay for combinations, not averages. Tell me where you are and what you own, and I will give you the number the evidence supports, not the one you hoped for.