I'm looking to buy ~50 acres south of Houston that is currently contiguous and heavily wooded, but does not have any ag on it that I'm aware of.

I'd like to keep the land largely the same and hold it as an investment property, but 5 years of property tax just to work my way up to an application for ag exemption is going to be a sticking point, financially.

It seems a little counter intuitive that I'd need to clear the property and practice some sort of ag management before I can even apply for a wildlife / habitat management exemption.

Does anyone know of any waivers in the process to expedite the process or other recommendations?

Sorry I'm a bit new to this, so I appreciate any insight you guys and gals may have.

Look into putting bees on it for your ag exemption and then switch to wildlife after.

I don't have a lot to add, as my place had an exemption on it already that we have maintained.

However, when I was doing similar research I found that it seems to vary county by county. What county are you in? That would help get you good info.

I suggest calling the county appraisal district as a starting point.

@jbob, thats good advice. I have raised bees before, but I think i'd need to lease it out to a professional beekeeper at this scale.

@BootsIsntaRealName
Brazoria.

Good tip, I'll give them a call.

there's an acreage limit for bees - i think 20 acres. you can exempt part of the land maybe. ..and you still have to wait the five years, I believe.


the property i bought last year already had a wildlife mgmt plan exemption, so didn't have to start over with 5 years of Ag and 2 years to get wildlife.. .just had to file a new wildlife mgmt plan with the county.

B-1 83 is the expert you need to consult with on these matters.

If there is no ag valuation on it now, I don't think there is any way out of that 5 year time frame to get there, and you must have the ag to get to wildlife. Are there fences? Can it be grazed? The acreage may be a problem depending on the county.

If it's timber you can claim that but you'd need a forest management plan

Check with the tax office. I believe it's 5 out of the last 7 on ag, so who knows what kt had a couple of years back?

Depends on the county, but we bought 30+ wooded acres that didn't have any exemptions. We had to get a timber management plan by a forestry consultant, then took that to the appraisal district & got it immediately. It had to have a certain amount of timber per acre at least 5 years old. As others have said, check with your appraisal district - we did it before we bought because we wanted to make sure we'd get the Timber Ag. It was an easy process for us. We can convert to wildlife after a year if we want to.

You can look into Ecolab. Been a while but seems like the consultant cost was almost as much as the regular taxes.

I would talk to the local Ag Extension agent. They know all the rules for your county. Forestry plan is the way I have had a couple friends go. Harvesting could decades out but I wouldn't give advice on your specific property. That is for the ex agent to spell out.

Hopefully you could get the Timber immediately, but at the very least, I'd adjust my offer on the property to offset the cost of 5 years teaxes with no exemption.

chilidogfood said:

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5 years of property tax just to work my way up to an application for ag exemption is going to be a sticking point, financially.

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assuming you're going to pay less than 15k/acre for raw mostly wooded land with zero improvements, buildings, structures or utilities on it. ...don't ever tell the county what you paid for it.. their tax appraiser will value that land at less than what you paid. You'll be looking at just a couple grand per year until you get your ag/timber/wildlife exemption. It won't be anything like the annual property taxes you pay on your suburban house.

This is a good thought. Thanks.

I really appreciate all the responses, guys. I'll be calling my ag extension office soon.

I'll try to keep you posted as to what I find out.

How does one avoid the assessor knowing what was paid? Isn't that on record once the deal is closed?

chilidogfood said:

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How does one avoid the assessor knowing what was paid? Isn't that on record once the deal is closed?

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Not necessarily. A deed doesn't always indicate the true compensation for the conveyance of the property. Most of them these days just say "Ten dollars and other consideration..."

Eco lab rules have changed to align with the 5 of 7 years rule.

Look into the endangered Houston toad wildlife exemption for your area. Some might laugh at it but it's easy to maintain yearly, once you get past the initial leg work of getting it set up.

You'll have to be in agriculture for 5 of the last 7 years to receive the ag valuation. Once you've got that, you'll be able to submit the application to switch to wildlife valuation under agriculture. If there hasn't been any ag in the past 7 years you'll have to practice again for 5 years. I usually start applying in year 3 for my clients just to make sure it's on the radar of the county that way in year 5 things are typically pretty simple. After that you'll apply for wildlife in year 6. There are no ways around that timeline although some appraisers are easier to work with than others. With 50 acres you should be well above any minimum threshold as most counties usually will do 10 acres as a minimum. It does vary though as I've seen some counties require 20-25 acres.

oh no said:

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chilidogfood said:

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5 years of property tax just to work my way up to an application for ag exemption is going to be a sticking point, financially.

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assuming you're going to pay less than 15k/acre for raw mostly wooded land with zero improvements, buildings, structures or utilities on it. ...don't ever tell the county what you paid for it.. their tax appraiser will value that land at less than what you paid. You'll be looking at just a couple grand per year until you get your ag/timber/wildlife exemption. It won't be anything like the annual property taxes you pay on your suburban house.

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May depend on your county, projected taxes on wife's family property was $16k without ag, and $2k with it.

Quote:

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May depend on your county, projected taxes on wife's family property was $16k without ag, and $2k with it.

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This. Ours would be about $5K without it & 2024 was $276. So it can make a big difference.

OP - sit down with the appraisal district before you buy. Ours looked at satellite pics, said, yes, it will qualify. They will give you the steps. Hire a forestry guy - that cost will depend on the acreage & terrain. Ours was probably around $300-400 if I remember correctly. We took it back in, filed it and got the exemption.