You own land that spans far and wide with thick green forests that surrounds the interior pasture.. A small creek runs through the back providing fresh water for your livestock. You try to spend as much time as possible on the land, but life gets in the way and you’re lucky to get a weekend a month there.
At this point in your life, have you considered leasing the farm for hunting or farming rights? What about both? The benefits of leasing your land can help increase its value by guaranteeing that someone, especially the farmer, will maintain it all while adding a little extra income to your pockets.
Leasing Your Land for Hunting
Leasing your land for hunting is a good idea if your land offers the amenities hunters desire. This decision should be made after careful consideration of the tradeoffs. Opening your land property to strangers has its ups and downs. It’s important to draft a lease for your hunters to sign that’s very clear on terms and conditions. Interview the prospective people to make sure they fall in line with your attitude towards hunting and conservation.
Income Benefits
The obvious benefit is the extra income that fills your wallet. Property taxes are only continuing to rise and the money from having your land leased can help pay them and any yearly management fees.
Animal Management
Do you have issues with coyotes preying on your wildlife or deer eating your crops? Hunting is the most effective way to control wild animal populations as fencing can become costly. Most predator and deer hunters will be happy to pay the fee to help you out on your farm.
Leasing Your Land for Farming
Most crop prices are steady right now and land is a commodity that won’t go out of style any time soon. There could be many reasons you would want to lease farmland, such as allowing someone to raise their sheep or plant their own gardens. A farming lease can be a tad more lucrative than the aforementioned hunter’s rent.
Get Paid By Letting Someone Else Grow
That’s right, you get paid money by letting someone else grow corn, cotton, soybeans, whatever they want. If there’s hay, the farmer can cut for quarters, meaning he’ll pay you seventy-five cents on the dollar for what the final count of bales would be worth, or what they’d sell for. If he doesn’t want to sell, he’s getting hay at a discounted price. It doesn’t sound much better than that.
Leasing Contract and Asking Prices
The most important aspect of leasing your land is drafting a leasing contract. This will prevent misunderstandings and potential lawsuits. What goes in the contract is up to you and what you want out of it. This can include how much time you want them to spend on your land and what the boundaries are if there are any. If you want to limit the time spent on your land, you can lease it out only during hunting seasons or on weekends.
There are many ways to find out how much you should lease your land for. The online tool AcreValue will tell you exactly how much your land is worth per acre. It also provides valuation, soil survey and crop history reports for individual fields of farmland. If one of your neighbors have rented their property before, go ask them what they charged people. Ask to walk their property and see how it compares to yours so you can get an idea of what you will be charging.
