120 Acre Eco-Tourism & Wildland Habitat Restoration

[Mike Costello]

Investment Info:

Other other investment.

Purchase price: $65,000

120 acres of wildland surrounded by national forest, in the midst of the Dixie Fire (2021) burn scar. This 5500-6000' elevation forest & range parcel is a diamond in the rough. Over the next 5 years we'll tap into USDA and state wildlife programs to completely rehab the grasses, shrubs, deciduous and conifer trees with no less than 4 dozen different plant species seeded or planted. From wildflowers to bald eagles, the forage and critters will be brought back to life.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wildlife needs habitat, and I need more time off-grid! Prime recreational land costs $$$ but burned, scarred and neglected land that is hard to access can be found for a reasonable price. I can't make this property easy to get to, but I can steer the habitat restoration with creativity, patience, and sweat equity.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found the deal for sale in 2022 and stayed close to it for ~18 months. Rode it though some funky seller issues whereby it changed hands between 2 different owners while I had it in escrow (fun!). Set an all-inclusive not-to-exceed price for what I would contribute and waited until the decided it was time to let go. All parties were in TX as well... had not seen the property in over 4 years.

How did you finance this deal?

Private money lender, 100% financing no payments for 30 months, interest only months 30-60.

How did you add value to the deal?

Adding value will slow and heavy on sweat, dependent on cycling through several seasons of seeding, planting, growing. We'll install year-round water for wildlife, forage plants and grasses to bring critters onsite and create an oasis of biodiversity which will compound and spill over to the National Forest lands that surround the property.

Eco-tourism (outfitter tents) for off-grid wildland camping, bird watching, mtn biking, hunting and dark-sky stargazing will bring incremental revenue.

What was the outcome?

TBD... just getting started.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Anything is possible.