Belize Teak Plantation

[Henry Clark]

Actually started this venture about 3 years ago.  I might get some activities out of time sequence.  Sit back and grab some popcorn.

I will chop this up into smaller segments, so each one isn't too long of a read and has a central theme.

Both Retiring and doing Self Storage, we hit the mark where we both had the funding and the time to invest overseas.  My wife has never had a specific place in mind, so got to do my choice.  Have always been interested in Aust, NZ, Brazil, India and Belize.  Have travelled to South Korea, Mexico, France, Canada, Maui and Italy. 

Decided on Belize.  Currency pegged $2BZD to $1USD (low inflation issues), Official language is English since it was a British Commonwealth, Property rights and laws are basically the same as the US since English based, 2nd/3rd world thus still Rough which I like (has flavor), 2 hour flight from Houston/Dallas connections, land is relatively inexpensive. These all play into the "type" of investment we wanted to do.

We are in Iowa where December thru March can be cold and windy.  Belize dry season (less humidity) is January thru May.  Great overlap.

Labor for a great skilled worker is about BZD $30 to $50 per day or USD $15 to $25.  Laborer is around USD $25 per day.  This is good pay for them.  Glad to have the work.  They also have an illegal migrant issue.  You could get workers for USD $3 per day to cut brush.

Local produce is relatively cheap.  Rock crab for USD $3 per pound.  Red Snapper, grouper, barracuda for USD $4 per pound.  Anything imported is really expensive.  Gas $10 per gallon.  Can of Spam might be $8.  Yep a Can of Spam can cost more than Rock Crab or Red Snapper.  I actually like Spam though.

Health care is both very inexpensive and for higher end issues, non-existent.  Most US prescription drugs can be bought over the counter from the Pharmacist.  Broken leg $50.  Cancer/heart need to fly home.

Over the course of this post will cover the following Real Estate angles.  Teak, buying property, building house, few buyers, real estate "fronts", preppers, as an Expat "you" will move back at some point, and "Yes" sometimes means "I don't know".

Below is Ramon, checking on Teak trees.  These are 11 months since transplanted, from about 10 inches tall.

[Reid Chauvin]

This is a very cool read. Thanks for sharing and continuing to update not only on the progress, but on the 'why' behind your decisions, @Henry Clark! 

[Henry Clark]

Made it back to Belize.  This the field we were clearing.  The team got it all planted.  Taking root and new leaves starting to come out.  Just in time for the dry season. Hopefully we get a few rains and they should live till rainy season starts in June.   You can barely see the seedlings in this picture.  By November they will be 6 feet tall.

 Orchids in our orchid gardens are flowering.  

Took a look at some new timber ground.  Grounds are well maintained.  But they don’t know proper thinning and trimming.  Would like to make an offer on their ground but a little big for me.  

Will get more pictures of our new land and how it fits our needs. 

[Henry Clark]

Trees are doing great that we planted 25 days ago.  Got some unseasonal rains so they are set for dry season

Luckily the skidsteer track came off while I was down here.  Showed them how to put back on.  Also why they need to grease every night. Keeps pressure on the tracks so they don’t fall off. 

[Henry Clark]

This property we are on, we are about 4 miles back off the main road.  No electricity or water after the first mile. Three different americas have purchase property and are building houses off grid.   Money starting to flow back in after Covid. 

[Henry Clark]

Saturday. Part of the crew helping plant bananas at our new property.  Local, apple, Cuban and praying hand bananas.  This is actually a bad time to plant going into dry season. But we do things while we are down. Using sawdust from a dump site for mulch to keep moisture around them. 

Next trip get hybrid coconut plants and we have about 100 Jackfruit seedlings to plant.  Will be right before Easter so we will throw a party for all our worker families and egg hunt. 

[Henry Clark]

Headed down for 9 days.  Meet with the one owner and show him how we are doing on thinning and trimming his trees.  

Have a 24 acre property meeting the person to see if we can come to terms.  14 year old teak.  Great location.  Both electric and water close by.  Beautiful stream on a corner of the property.  Nice hill with a great view.  Near our existing property.  Prices higher than I want.  

Meeting with another 3 who own 1,000 acres of of teak and mahogany ground.  Too big for me to buy.   Will talk them through doing a management contract.  

[Henry Clark]

Pouring concrete pad for our caretakers house.  40x 40 structure.  Most Belizeans are happy with 600 to 800 sqft unless they have wealth.  Told him if he wants he can rent out long term and stay in his original house.  He gets half and we get 1/2. About $600 USD his way. He makes about $500 USD working per month. So this would be a big deal. 

[Henry Clark]

Have a meeting set up tomorrow to make an offer on 25 acres.   If we get the option to buy will go over the why with you.  

Concrete guys

[Henry Clark]

Floating the concrete.  Leaving it a little rough so the tiles will stick better. If they do it smooth then they would have to scratch the concrete to get the tile to stick. 

Running 95 and up for highs so we will keep the concrete wet.  Don’t have burlap cloth to keep wet. 

[Henry Clark]

Looked at 25 acres.  20 acres Teak and 5 acres a cleared hill.  Small stream in back. Electric 4’poles away. City water 200 yards away.  

$7,000 per acre.  Higher than I like to pay.  But great location, has water, electric and water nearby, close to the highway. Great view and breeze on the hill.  Also a good stand of teak about 14 years old.

There are two house sites possible.  The 5 acre hill we can sell for $130,000 easy.  
Can section off one acre with part of the stream and sell for $50,000.

The teak needs another 10 to 12 years to harvest.  At harvest time.  60 trees per acre.   Times 20 acres.  Times 200 board foot.   Processed at $16 per board foot.  Equals a lot of money.  

My Realtor is writing up the deal.  The seller did not want to pay realtor commissions.  I’ll take care of buyer commission.  Titles and land ownership can be shaky here. So you want to do everything in order.  No handshake deals. 
Teak is on the right   Hope to put a dam in the valley for a pond  

[Henry Clark]

Blocks delivered.  Ordered cement and sand for grout.  Start laying blocks Monday.  Cut “Bush sticks” yesterday.  They use sticks under plywood to pour the next floor or in this case the roof.  I was Leary but that’s the way they do here.   Needed about 100.  

[Henry Clark]

Got 4 courses of blocks done. Will finish the remaining courses this week.  Then do columns.

Next will be beams to support concrete roof. 

1,600 square feet building cost will come in around $100,000.  Not including land or utilities.  Another $25,000 to finish out cabinetry and appliances.  Custom made mahogany cabinets and furniture.  Marble counter tops.  Don’t do closets due to mold and airflow, so that reduces cost for framing and doors.  
Normal wages down there are $2.50 per hour and we pay $3.00 USD per hour.  

Our contractor lives on site and is also in charge of our Teak plantations.  We had a few hiccups in our first building. Those are addressed on this one. Basically he sends a list of material needed and for payroll.  Sends me a monthly list of bills.  Pictures of progress.   And we discuss about three times a week about next steps. Key issue is trust, which is great between us. 

[Heather Turney]

@Henry Clark I just caught up on your teak journey and I have learned so much. By far the most interesting and introspective thing I have read on here. I look forward to your posts!

[Henry Clark]

Quote from @Heather Turney:

@Henry Clark I just caught up on your teak journey and I have learned so much. By far the most interesting and introspective thing I have read on here. I look forward to your posts!

Keep the why in front of you on your REI journey. More than just money. Glad you enjoyed even if your end game is different.

[Account Closed]

Nevermind found it! This looks like an amazing thread I'll go through it all.

[Henry Clark]

Anyone size 36 or smaller.  Plus you like to climb trees?

Just bought the gear we need to go another 10 feet to trim limbs.  Currently we use 20 foot extension ladders.   With the lean and our body height we trim up to around 22 feet.   We want a minimum of 3 clean logs 8 foot long. Will climb the ladders to about 18 feet then use the belts to climb up to another 10 feet for now.  Won’t use metal spikes since they would damage the trees.      

Will take two sets down on the next trip.  Hard to find down there.  I’m a 38, but I’ll try it.  If I post a picture of me hanging upside down you will know I didn’t figure it out.  Or I’m more top heavy.  

[Henry Clark]

Wait why do we want 10 more feet of clear lumber?  
We want to get at least 3 clean logs of 8 feet.  If we can trim to 30 feet then we have a greater chance.

3 logs per tree of “A” quality.   
200 board feet per tree.    
60 trees per acre.     

12,000 board feet per acre

$16 per board foot kiln dry, planed.  

$192,000 per acre.

I might have to lose some weight to fit in that 36 belt so we can go another 20 feet up.  

[Austin F.]

Fascinating, thank you for sharing 

[Henry Clark]

Funny.

My wife checked her phone Saturday morning.  Around 4:30 am she got a message from our contractors wife/girlfriend he had changed the lock on the gate, and she couldn't get on to the property and she fell and bruised her leg.  My wife asked if I knew if anything was going on with them.  I said no.  Plus, no matter what happens Mark is my guy down there and I told him if I ever made a personal comment about his relationship, to tell me to stick it.

They always lock the gate at night so no one can drive on to the property and to keep the guard dogs in.

Later while my wife and I were driving and checking our storage units, I called Mark to re-iterate we had heard about this and to let her know we will never get involved in their affairs.

He said.  No. No.  She was out with her girlfriends and got drunk and couldn't put the key in the key hole.  Still the same lock.

Takes me back to college. Woke up Saturday morning.  Had two other roommates.  Two of us sat on the couch and watched the cartoons.  We looked at each other and said have you seen Johnny?  Nope.  Looked outside.  His car was there.  We both walked over, and he was laying next to his door sleeping on the concrete parking lot (we are in Louisiana, so okay temperature at night).  Woke him up and now all three of us were watching cartoons.  

Hey Johnny, why were you sleeping on the parking lot?  I couldn't get the key into the house lock.  And I couldn't get back into my car, so I went to sleep.

Real Estate Point-  Mark is my guy.  His greatest value is me trusting him.  I don't butt into his business and we keep a professional, yet friendly relationship.  Working overseas, trust is what I look for most.

[Henry Clark]

On the new field we bought, cleared and planted.  Mark standing next to a Ziricote seedling.  About 12 inches last November, now about 54 inches.  Second picture is a Santa Maria seedling.  You can see how dry the ground is.  They are in their winter season, which means little rain.  Belize stays around 70 to 90 degrees all year; but the rain and humidity gyrate.  By this next December, I expect most of these trees to be 10 foot tall, in one year.  Then 20 foot tall the next year.  

We are mainly planting Teak trees for the India and Chinese markets.  But decided to add some local trees.  Mahogany, ziricote, cedar, santa maria, nargusta, sapote, mamey sapodilla, ceiba, Cortez, purple heart, jackfruit, Ramon (breadnut).  The majority of these local trees put out tons of food, thus we should get lots of parrots, gibnuts, deer and tapirs roaming through.  If you get a chance google Ziricote and Purpleheart wood to see what they look like.  

The outer rows are usually your waste trees on a timber plantation.  They get extra sun and produce a lot more limbs and thus knots, lowering the value.  Decided to put more fruit trees on the outside.  Found a guy who had Brazilian Coconuts.  Truly sweeter than any coconut I have ever drank before.  Bought 40 seedlings ($5 USD each) from him and will plant in June, once the rainy season starts.  Also bought 20 Guanaba or Soursop plants from him.  These also are the sweetest I have yet to taste.  Normally you add sugar and condensed milk, but these were great fresh.  This is part of the fun in Belize.  You can't just google.  You have to play detective and keep asking around.

Although this is a Real Estate deal and will make great money.  Having fun along the way. 

[Henry Clark]

Happy days at the farm.  Bought my brother's tractor near San Antonio and had it shipped to Belize.  Mark went in and bought a bush hog mower for the rear. The circle marks he is just showing me, he has to adjust and level the mower.  He is tickled pink.  This will help keep the grass shorter and easier to spray.

For teak, the first 5 years you have to stay on top of the grass and weeds, or the trees will get stunted or slowed.  This is a very small John Deere tractor but perfect for our needs of mowing.  Has 4-wheel drive and actually is really heavy and strong, can lift 1,300-pound round bales with a spear on the back.  There is a John Deere dealer about 5 miles away.  Don't normally pay the premium price for John Deere, but wanted a dealer close by.

Having trouble getting our new property rows plowed to plant trees.  Looking for a small plow for this tractor.  Dealer says we would have to order.  Limited supplies and month or more for shipments.

Your will notice the Treated Pine boards used for the shed.  Belize has to import all of its pine (some small timber is just starting to be harvested). Theirs was wiped out by Pine Beetles.  Treated boards cost more than the expensive Mahogany and other local furniture grade woods.  Twice as much as up here.  They charge a hefty tariff for imports to keep cash in the country.  You have to use treated or the termites will eat it.

There are very few small farm tractors in Belize.  This is an easy resale later if needed.  Only 70 hours on the tractor.

[Henry Clark]

Continuing to work on Second home for our Caretaker and Plantation manager to live in.  This will be a 1,600 square foot residence, 40 x 40.  Will end up costing around $120,000 once tile is set, bathrooms and kitchens installed, and custom cabinets/Doors/ and furniture are built; windows installed.  We don't do closets for better air flow and less chance of mold.  Labor is cheaper down there, USD $2.50 per hour, which is normal rate.  Materials are higher due to import tariffs.  Example Plywood is the same price as the US, but add on Freight and about 50% import tariff.  Will use HVAC splits for air conditioner.  They won't run it much, since Electricity costs $.21/KWH versus ours is $.07 KWH. 

This is the roof of the first floor.  We will put a metal roof over it about 9 foot above.  Leave this as an open canopy to sit and enjoy, just like our first roof.  

Took a while for us to get the Cement Pump truck to come pour (month).  There are limited number of companies and equipment.  You just wait your turn.  

Through the rebar, you can see the Plywood.  Earlier I showed a picture from underneath showing the plywood held up by bush sticks.  I'm always worried I'm going to get a call the plywood or bush sticks busted, and the cement blew out.  But never happens.  They know what they are doing.

The second picture we are using a powered trowel to smooth the surface.  Normally they leave slightly roughened for tile to stick to.  This will end up smooth since we won't put tile on it.  Will put grey epoxy with "colored sprinkles" on the surface to help seal the concrete. You can also see the metal rebar sticking up.  This will be used to form 9-foot columns up.  Then we will put a metal roof over the whole upper section.  

We have to wait 30 days for the concrete to dry.  Before we take the bush sticks out and take off the plywood form boards underneath.  Before we poured, we sprayed oil on the plywood and form boards to make it easier to take off from the concrete.  These plywood boards can be used 3 times before they are useless.  Last time we sold ours because I didn't think we would build again.  Now we will spray with diesel to keep the termites off and store them in our shed for our next project, if we have one.

[Henry Clark]

On the forestry side.  Planted or are planting 25 acres more in total at 3 spots.  Spent all of the "Dry" season clearing land, bulldozing, burning, discing, then plowing rows. You then wait for two good rains to moisten the soil once the Rainy season starts in July to plant.  Otherwise, the dry ground will suck the moisture out of the ground. We have 5 acres left to plant.

My last trip down, we went to the Mennonite nursery to get our plants. Took the entire middle row you see empty plus some more portions of rows later.  Total of 5,000 seedlings, plus left overs from last year and ones we bagged and seeded ourselves.  Bottom picture are Teak seedlings.  They were actually getting a little too big.  Would have liked them to be about 6 inches shorter.  In the picture they are 18 to 24 inches tall.  By December they will be 4 to 6 foot tall with massive leaves.  The next December they will be 15 to 20 feet tall.

[Henry Clark]

Got back from our recent trip.  Continued working on our caretakers home.  It will have an open roof top with a metal roof just like our house.  Guys are putting up beam support posts.  Using 18 inch plastic water pipe cut along one side length ways.  Then put metal bands around.  Home will is 40x40 or 1,600 sqft.  Will have roof porches on two sides.  Covered open roof on top.  Still have to build stairs to top, install roof, plaster/paint inside outside, run electric, tile floors, build/install cabinets and doors, build porches, order and install windows.  Will put two Splits for hvac.  Will end up around $130,000.  Wish I could build 1,600 sqft up here for that much.  Told my caretaker he could stay in the shed house we built and rent this new house out for $1,200 USD per month.  He gets half and we get half.  That would be $600 USD per month for him.  He makes $800 USD per month working.

[Henry Clark]

Not everything is Rosy.  We planted some Mahogany and Cedar saplings.  Nearly all of them got Stemborer.  A special month at night stings the top leader of a seedling and lays an egg.  The larvae travels inside the tree and downwards.  You can tell a Seedling has been impacted by seeing many limbs at one spot or sawdust powder on the outside near sores on the seedling.  We cut these down to about 2 inches off the ground.  They will send up new shoots without the worm in them.  Hopefully dumb luck there won't be any moths around when they regrow.  If they can make about 12 feet high, then they are okay.  The months don't fly that high.  We are also going to plant Teak seedlings which are not susceptible, between these mahogany and Cedar trees, just in case we keep getting the stemborer larvae.  Larvae is on top of the broken seedling below.