Okay you Wildlife Management gurus...

I have a question for you gurus.. maybe you have tried this, heard of it..

We have our WLM and it is pretty solid. The guy next to us lost his WLM a few years back. He is now looking to sell. I am trying to see if ECAD will let us buy it and extend our WLM over it since we are contiguous. If so.. we may get it.. if not.. not worth 3k a year in taxes.

Anyone ever heard of it or know if it is allowed?

Russ

I'm no GURU and not sure on you being able to use the WLM to annex /carry over, but if it is good property, it would be worth getting it and doing what you need to get it. May have to run cows, or some other exemption for 5 years or whatever it is now. Just my 2 cents.

Russ,

The place I purchased North of Rocksprings had WLM, but lost it right before I purchased it. I did the whole running cattle thing to get the Ag exemption back. When Mrs. Jones was chief appraiser, it was hell. Always changing the rules so people didnt qualify. When she was run out of town, Mrs. McNeil became the new chief. I wish she was still there, very nice woman. One of my neighbors sold because he couldnt afford the taxes anymore and first year, the new owner got AG exemption right away. I read in the paper about a month ago, Mrs. McNeil had resigned and I believe another woman named Judy Harris is the new chief. I dont know anything about her.

Everything in Edwards county has been screwed up for awhile with the Appraisal District. I thought they had it finally figured out and headed in the right direction with Mrs. McNeil. I guess I was wrong though.

Only way to be sure is to call them up and ask them to see for sure. I have a feeling the answer will be NO though.

You'd have to talk to the chief appraiser might be able to work something out, I wouldn't get my hopes up. The state does give counties the ability to operate/regulate their CAD in the best interest of the county.

One of the requirements for WLM valuation is the property must already be 1-d ag or 1-d-1 open space prior to WLM.

Can't get it back. The new rules for an AG exemption in Edwards County is 400 minimum acres. Have to have that at least. Now, total, we would have like 430, but I own 78 and he owns the rest. Plus, we would have to re-fence all of that tract.

I am waiting on a call back from them now. The law says you can have the wlm/ag on contiguous land, not sure how it handles if you buy it contiguous. IMO.. it should let you do it...but we will see.. heh

We don't need the extra 100 acres, but better to buy it than let it be bought by someone we would not want as a neighbor. We don't want the tax liability. If it is 3k a year now, 10 years from now it will be a lot higher and we would have to make the tax we paid into it back before anything else, if we ever decided to sell. That is not worth 100 acres. 2 other tracts WITH wlm and electricity just sold a few tracts away for the same price per acre these folks will be wanting and they are very stuck on that. Someone wanting "A" ranch will pay that, but we already have a ranch so.. heh. It's WLM capable or we will let someone else deal with it :P

Thanks guys.

Russ,

Only reason I qualified under the 400 min rule, was because me and my neighbors leased our property together to a local rancher. I have 223 acres but with all neighbors combined, the rancher leased 1500 acres of continuous (pooled) land. Therefore, I qualified under the 400 min rule.

This was 4-5 years back when Mrs. Jones was chief.

Buy it, lease it to someone with cows, wait amount of time and then add to existing WLM?

Well, spoke with ECAD. GOOD news is, they actually did not pass the ruling to raise the AG exemption to 400 acres minimum so people can actually get a AG/WLM if they own at least 50 acres.


Problem is, we cannot extend ours.

So, the choice would be to buy it, fence it, pay taxes for 5 years and then reapply.

Not worth it for 100 acres. Don't need/care about it that badly.. heh. If it were behind my gate, maybe, but it is outside my gate so not worth messing with. Will let someone else deal with the taxes etc.

Thanks folks!

Russ