Sadness: Another tale of lease lost

What is it with family politics? Seems like I hear tales often of long term leases begin dissolved just because a new family member takes over running the ranch. Well, now it happened to us. I'd hunted this place for 11 years and it was a big part of raising my son and making him the man he is today. So sad to see it end. All just because the LO's son thinks he can do something different to make it better. *Sigh* I guess I'll be hanging out in the land and leases section this year.

Sad to hear. The last lease I was on was sold after the LO passed away. Llano County lease with plenty of game. OK dove hunting, some decent racks and plenty of pigs. Not to mention good fishing. I was on that lease for 22 years.
I spend my $$ now on out of state hunts and fill my freezer thanks to friends that need does taken off their property.

Hunting with family or in-laws is no different than hunting with complete strangers. There's still your fair share of disagreements

So if you came into some property & wanted to deer hunt it for yourself & family, you wouldn’t?

There are many good things about leasing property. This is 1 of the bad things.

Good luck in finding a new lease.

Sad for sure, always gonna be some rift raft I guess or someone that don't like the rules required to follow and have a nice place to hunt.

Good hunting leases are like good bird dogs. You don’t have them forever, but they leave wonderful memories.

So True!

Great quote!

Sad that it happens but it happens a lot. Hopefully the LO's son is going to use it to make memories with his family in the future. I could not fault him for wanting to do that.

What is meant by LO's son thinks he can do things differently and better, does that mean lease to some other party at double the cost? Were you given any chance to offer more or was that the actual words given to you by LO? Like said, if the LO's son wants to family hunt it only, that's completely understandable, if he's looking for double the lease and didn't offer you the chance at first refusal, an entirely different thing all together...

That's the thing, we aren't sure exactly what he's going to do out there. Run day hunts maybe? We never had as close of a relationship with him like we did with his dad, so he hasn't talked to us about his plans. The son doesn't really hunt very much, and there isn't a bunch of other family that do either. We don't think he is leasing it out to another group for more money, but if that is the case we weren't given an opportunity to negotiate on the price...just left out in the cold.

sorry to hear that..
good luck going forward

Triplesnake, I experienced something similar on an Erath County lease. The LO's son was given the task of running the lease. He had not done this before, and had no idea what he was doing. He did mention that he would be raising the price, which was fair, but never gave us a price, so we never had a chance to respond to anything. I was on this lease about 12 Years, or so. Sometimes, all you can do is move on.

X's 2 Will probably happen on every inch of land over time, things change and that's a better reason than getting booted off for something done by leasees, may still be able to get a good reference, or maybe even a referral around the area idk.

Sorry to hear. Hunt long enough and this is going to happen.

Had it happen to my brother in law on his lease in South Texas. The group had been on the lease for close to 20 years. LO passed away and the kids wanted to do something different with the lease (fancy way of saying they wanted to sell the land).

The lease I am on currently is going through the same thing. I've been there for 7 years and there were some folks in the group that had been on the lease for 25+ years when I joined. LO passed away and the heirs are trying to decide what they want to do with the property. Till they decide, we are in a weird limbo situation where we never know from year to year if the place will be sold, kept in the family, converted to a day lease ...

My advice to those looking for a lease; find one where the LO is in his 40's instead of his 70's. If it all works out, hopefully you'll be able to stay for 20+ years.

Our was in his 40s when some of our guys got on close to 20 years ago in their 20s. Luckily son and family don't hunt so who knows what will happen in the future. Could be 1, 5 or 20 years more for us.

Why doesn't anyone who loses lease due to sale ever buy it... I pay $1,667 a year and land would sell for @ $2.5 mill for 130 inch deer. Hmm. I would just get a better lease if it came to that and pay more of course.

Here is the crux of the problem with leasing. Nobody is gonna buy 2.5mil of land to lease to a couple of guys for $1,600 each, then have them come out & tear up roads & shoot deer year round. 1 of these days, when landowners & deer hunters figure out how much a deer lease is actually worth, prices will skyrocket & availablit will plummet.

& just how many landowners (big enough to hunt deer) are there in their 40’s? Anyone in their 40’s who buys land, won’t be leasing it out.

Be thankful for the memories. It's a matter of when not if.........part of the business model of leasing.

Sorry to hear that and it has happened to me on more than one occasion. I remedied the fact buying a small130 acre ranch I now live on, not the largest place and have crappy neighbors on two of four sides but at least they are not adjoining, seems to always be something testing the patience

Yeah, some day there will be no more leases if you think about it. Ours inherited it from a relative with no kids but grew up on it since he was born. A leader in the community. He has 6 professionals and business owners from the city leasing our place with zero issues. 2 of us for 20 years now, me 9 yrs now.. His land next to us is leased from to a local and a few small town folk. But they all work in the city. They got stuck in the mud this year but we didn't.. hmmm. I did once though years ago.

The LO's son probably already have a person and group in mind that he intends to lease the property. There could also be a middleman involved who has filled the son's head with dollar signs.

Deer leases come and go. I learned a long time ago not to get to attached. Seems like the ones I wanted to stay on something happened and they went south for all kinds of reasons.

It seems to me that lease prices have already skyrocketed!

Have you priced any real estate lately? Have you figured on any improvement like brush control or new fencing?

Prices for everything has skyrocketed. Pickups, healthcare, taxes, groceries, etc.

When you lease, you should always go into it as a short term even with a so called long term agreement.
As long as you don't own the land, you are setting yourself up for a disappointment down the line, or as they say, "sooner or later!"
Spend thousands on a lease fixing it up, and then watch how soon the rug gets pulled out from under you!

This sure seems to be true. Same thing applies to all of the effort to manage the deer herd. Grow bigger bucks and watch how the price goes up.

A bud and his brother took over a 900ac south tex lease that had been abused. Started out really cheap...they did tons of work and managed it properly. After 9yrs there they had it clicking right. Seeing good deer but they only took one trophy a year. LO had been raising price a bit each year as hunting improved. After 12yrs, in consecutive years, they took a 160 and 171...and had many good bucks. These boys knew the game so went to LO with a huge price offer to like 7500ea...15K for lease (were paying10) with just the two of em being only hunters. LO made a verbal with em and said he’d amend the lease agreement on the new price.
Two weeks later he sent em an email saying it’s a no go. LO avoided them like the plague when they moved their stuff off. Then they found out LO leased to 6 guns at 4K ea........just another lost lease fiasco
Ouch....that one had to hurt

That had to suck!

Yep that blows dogs for quarters.

The key is to finding a landowner that isn't leasing for money, but instead leasing for the group to do the right thing with his land and wildlife. These type of owners aren't around every corner.

Sorry about your lost lease OP. Been there.

Unfortunately it's my opinion this trend will only continue. In this day and age, the generation that can afford to purchase, or inherits, a large enough piece of land to lease probably doesn't need the trivial amount of income (in the larger sense) that lease fees generate. I see more and more people preferring to just use land for "family purposes" and not deal with outside lease hunters.

Yep, that's the other part about my saga that stings. We had a great relationship with the LO because, while they enjoyed the money, they more so enjoyed being part of the hunting experience and sharing the ranch with people who enjoyed it. Over the years, they did youth hunts and veteran hunts and lady's hunts on the property too and we got to enjoy helping run those and being part of sharing the hunting experience. And, he took my boy under his wing and taught him how to work cattle, fix fences, and trap coons among other things. It was a unique relationship and a big part of my son growing up. Now, the LO's son doesn't seem to want any part of that. Oh well, I know those good people are out there. This week I've mentally come to a better place with the situation, and I've already had some contacts for a new hunting spot. One door closes...another one opens...

I would have to agree......I have been on the best place ever for the last 13 years because I was bought out by some offering a lot more money.

I suggest you look at large ranches that lease for wildlife stewardship and security reasons, not money being the be all end all. That’s the Pitchfork’s priority for leasing.

Same exact thing happened to me this year, wink wink.

Maybe one should not tell LO anything except here is the money.

After it happened to me a couple times, I finally bit the bullet and bought a ranch. Best decision I ever made.
I understand that there are circumstances where that solution is not possible, so be it.
My suggestion, try harder!

Buying a ranch isn't an end all either.
You don't have control of what happens on the other side of your fence, and good neighbors grow old, just like landowners who lease, and their kids grow up and have wives that have their own ideas as well.
Even a few hundred acres won't be enough if you have lousy neighbors.
Oh, but you can high fence your place for thousands of dollars, and then have your neighbor push up a dirt berm and open his own rifle range.
Bought my own hunting land many years ago that I thought was the best thing that I ever did.
It lasted for about 15 years and then the neighbor decided to subdivide his property and sell small lots, and allow mobile homes, and also opened a dump on one end of my property near the fence....Not really, it was a creek that became a catch all until someone lit it on fire and they stopped using it.
Also the stray packs of abandoned dogs, the occasional dirt bike, and target practicing that the guy never ran out of .22 cal. from morning until sundown it seemed.
And some will say, the deer get used to it, and maybe they did, but I never could get used to it and began to miss the peace and quiet on my couch at home.
Yep, owning land can be the best thing you can do, but it's not a cure all to leasing as I mentioned.

Agree Jimbo. I bought my 133 acre place about 35 years ago for $350 per acre. It was, and still is, what is considered junk land. All trees and rocks. Just what I wanted. My issues over the years involve neighbors dogs, poachers, etc. I solved the dog problem by telling neighbors that I was going to start trapping to clean out coyotes. They almost crapped their pants and I did catch one dog that had to be put down. That ended the problem. However, they stated shooting and target practice on weekends during deer season. I tried talking to them but they told me that it was their property and they would shoot anytime they pleased. I started shooting at 4 AM in the morning so they got the message.

Since I don't live there, I have fought a lot of poacher problems. I still am but that happens everywhere to non resident land owners.

Hate you're having to deal with this, triplesnake. Unfortunately it seems to be becoming more and more common. After losing a place I leased and managed for several years I can relate, especially when you pour so much of your heart into it. I changed my focus several years ago to hunting small "permission" farms and public land. I basically priced myself out of the lease game (at least in Texas) when it became clear that I was raising kids who also wanted to hunt. There are still issues to deal with in this system, but fortunately I have my interests spread out when issues do present themselves (and they often do).

Hope you find something that works well for you before next season.