Deer have long since become a cash crop wherever you find them in the state of Texas. And now it seems, the seasonal lease agreement may become a part of the past as more landowners are drawn to day hunting and real estate brokers looking to get a piece of the action by finding someone willing to pay whatever it takes to secure hunting rights.

So then, how can the average small group of hunters keep their lease when so many appear to be after it?

Before I share my thoughts, let's hear yours.

Lease from corporations that don't allow day leasing or brokering instead of from an individual.

The reasons why corporations refuse to day lease might be something to keep in your back pocket should the subject come up with a landowner.

Probably the best way to never worry about it is to buy your own place.

That's one of the top several reasons I scrimped and saved to buy land.

And I've never been tempted to day lease.

I don't think this is a "combat" issue. Either you do business with them or you don't. If you don't, somebody else wants to hunt it.

Most real estate brokers are interested in selling the ranch not leasing the hunting on them


I know that's what I'm interested in.



And I've never listed or sold a ranch that ran "day hunts" either

ya mean the credit adviser was right? leasing is a bad investment .. Back then deer lease was the norm... First lease had hogs on it 24-7-365 hunting for less than $1.oo a day... It was family lease... Person has ta look at price & decide for themselves.. Best wishes ta all this coming year...

It's a commodity that is market driven, just like anything else. I agree this thing has gotten crazy. What bothers me more is the price of land. A fellow THF member just bought 200 acres across the HWY from us. He paid over $800K. My taxes will be going up to reflect the craziness in this particular area

Back in the 90's land was selling for $300-$600/acre in a lot of the areas of the state. Of course the avg. salary was $25k/year, a new truck was $15k, a home was $100k, etc

$4K per acre sounds respectable in this day & age Erath. Of course, depending on location, but I know in the central Gulf area unless you are looking at swampland a guy needs a bucket full of cash to "play the game". Txtrophy brings out some great points related to the flexing land markets, and of course inflation. Also, we can drop $1500 bucks running into Cabelas, $1K on a blind & feeders, a grand on a gun, ect. ect. which would've been the equivelant of a nice acre of land in the bank!! It's all in what a guy wants to do. I will end by saying, buying land has been a good thing for me, and I will continue doing so.

So many people don't want to hunt east Texas, but when you lease from a timber company you have fewer worries about that. I have had one lease for seven years, one for six, and one for three. As long as you don't run afoul of the TP&W or cut down their trees they will pretty much leave you alone.

All relative to where its at and several other things. Buddy got their place 3 years ago for 800 an acre... it wasn't a forclosure or an under the table deal it was a marketed property.

So what do you do when you invest your life savings on a place of your own, and then find your neighbor starting a day lease operation with a new set of hunters with fresh tags hunting every weekend?

That's why you don't buy property with hunting as its sole purpose. Have to be fine with not hunting it at all.

;


nothing you can do. that's a property rights issue and you are free to do the same

Sell it and start again.

high fences are a option as well

Agreed. HF was our back up plan if we were ever faced with a similar issue. So far we just have a quail hunting farmer that we get along with well.

A new law that requires a high fence for day leasing might be in order. If they want to shoot up everything that lives on their property, more power to them.

As I see it, the true threat with low fence day leasing is the potential impact on deer numbers when you have a new group of hunters with a full set of tags hitting the same property each and every weekend.

Dan! You nailed it! We need more laws to tell people what they can and can't do with their property to fix a problem thst isn't a problem!

Most real estate brokers and agents are horrible people and not worth the money. Keep that in mind as I am an agent have worked with agents and still can't stand most of them

I think the key to keep them out of the leasing side is to have a site like AirBnB or something along that idea that would be a disruption to the industry offering leases.

When it comes to sales, I think a good agent can get you more for your land and help with some of the legality of the deal as they would tend to do these deals more often and have some insight the average person may not. The key word there is a GOOD AGENT, but like I said in my first sentence most are horrible and not worth the money.

With that said, if you want to list your property.... haha just kidding. I don't do much in sales any more, mostly commercial property management and some commercial investment sales.

Good luck with that new law...

What's worse is when your neighbor splits his up in 200 acre or less tracts. Permanently screwed. Truth is that's why so many high fences have been built.

When you consider how many acres are developed into residential property every year they available land for natural habit for game animals is continually shrinking. A 160 acre pasture developed into 10 acre ranchitos and you lost a small deer ease.

Around Abilene it used to farm and ranch land from the city limit sign to Buffalo Gap, Tuscola, Lawn etc. Now most of that land I developed about 16 miles top 20 miles out and continually expanding. A place I hunted in the 1970's is mostly small rural ranchitos that people live on, it was about 20 miles form door to gate southwest of Abilene.

This discussion can be "what if'd" to death.

But buying land has brought a lot of peace-of-mind to me respective to the original question.