The second way to make money in real estate has to do with timber land and I have seen big money being made with this method. It can also be done with little or no out of pocket money. It involves using an investor. The key is to find a large acreage parcel 20 acres and up that has a substantial amount of timber on it. The timber must be redwood, pine, fir, or cedar. No hard woods like oak. The trees must be at least 18 inches in diameter at chest height in order to be of value in this case and bigger is better. We are trying to buy the land and have the trees after they are harvested to pay for the land. A lot of the time the timber value is not factored into the equation when pricing a property. You can use an investor to pay for the property while you get a finders fee for finding the real estate and then you walk away with cash.

If you have cash you can do all the work and receive all the benefit like the investor would. The work involved is paying for a timber harvest plan and coordinating the efforts for getting the logs to the saw mill. Lately, many individuals have been doing this but on a smaller scale. The buy a portable saw mill and cut the timber themselves and basically cutting out the saw mills as a middle man. They then sell the logs or make boards that they later sell on Craig’s List or on their own website.

You may need to know the various laws concerning what areas allow harvesting, coastal commission laws, general timber laws and regulations, and CDF requirements.

There is a lot of Shasta County Land that is ripe for this kind of opportunity. Shasta County Property is usually very affordable in the first place making it affordable for most people to begin this venture here. In searching you will eventually stumble across the area of Shasta County Land known as the Trinity Alps Preserve. This area has very affordable 40 acres pieces of land but the elevation is too low for good trees. You will mostly find Digger Pine Trees which are known for not being harvestable due to their odd irregular shape.