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Opinions/advice on permanent CREP properties

Rous14

Rous14

PMA Member
Hey guys, looking for your insights and opinions on a piece of property that I’m aware of that the owner would sell to me in Illinois. It’s a relatively large piece of ground, over 300 acres. The problem with it is that it’s nearly all in a permanent CREP program other than like 15 acres of it. My understanding is that as a result it can never be split, farmed, or built upon (other than the 15). So there’s basically no income whatsoever, the original owner has received all of the payments for the crep. The habitat from a deer hunting stand point is fantastic...very thick, tall grasses, all kinds of different species of young tree growth scattered throughout (some just natural but much of it was planted w trees when the program was put in place). It’s your classic river bottom low ground in the Midwest.
The farm is definitely discounted from what typical rec farms sell for in the area, probably by 25-30% in my estimation maybe a little more.
Guess my question is how much of a “discount” makes properties like these something u would ever consider buying?
 
Can you put a percentage of the crep into food plots ? Clover fire breaks ? If not the deer will have to leave to eat ? Hard to grow nice bucks if they are leaving your ground every evening ? My personal feeling is the right 80 will out produce the wrong 200. Just my 2 cents worth ..

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Wi transplant said:
Can you put a percentage of the crep into food plots ? Clover fire breaks ? If not the deer will have to leave to eat ? Hard to grow nice bucks if they are leaving your ground every evening ? My personal feeling is the right 80 will out produce the wrong 200. Just my 2 cents worth ..

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Thanks for the reply and good questions. Yes, I’m nearly certain that I can put like 10-20% of the property in to wildlife food plots so I could, in my opinion, have food sources that would help hold a lot of deer. Majority of the farm is very high quality bedding cover. Also fwiw, there’s probably around 3/4 of a mile of river frontage ( good and bad, the river does come out every handful of years when we get a really wet spring-like this year)
 
That is a huge game changer ! I would 100 pct verify that you can do that . then take your time and layout a total plan food plots entance and exit stands for all different winds ect. Even have a proven consultant help layout if need be ! And you will create your own paradise! Good luck !

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I personally do not like to buy properties that have permanent easements unless they are dirt cheap. Food plots or not, you are putting out a lot of money with 0 return. I'd pay more and have half CRP or farm land, just my thoughts. If it is 1000/acre or less than it might be worth it?
 
Make sure you get a copy of the restrictions/conservation practice and see if you can live with it. It'll be harder to sell, and won't appreciate as much is my thinking.
30 percent discount wouldn't be enough for me personally.
 
deerdown said:
Make sure you get a copy of the restrictions/conservation practice and see if you can live with it. It'll be harder to sell, and won't appreciate as much is my thinking.
30 percent discount wouldn't be enough for me personally.
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I agree, ^^. But it still might be something that you would be happy with...only you can make that call. For me...it would probably need to be "half price" before I would give it strong consideration. Good luck.
 
Better advice might be to buy a farm and put them into CREP or other easement programs ....than you can buy another farm with the proceeds. These programs are not always available. So it’s not a slam dunk.

Keep in mind the owner got a big chunk from the CREP payment.
 
My neighbor put a farm in crep and regrets it and tried to get out of it. He was told after the program was in place he could no longer ride his ATV on the land. I’m not sure what repercussions exist if he continued to do so. I don’t like the idea of not being able to do whatever I wanted to on land that I own and pay taxes on. Easements are forever. I also agree with what’s already be said here. 1/2 price, if you can live with the restrictions. I’ve seen these properties lay stagnant on the for sale list for a long time. What if a harvest needs done for the health of the timber or wildlife? Are you allowed to do that? What if you get an invasive plant or grass, how is that handled, do you have to get permission to kill it?


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You can get a list of do's and don't from a local NRCS office. Probably online somewhere. Timber sales can be done with a plan. There were 3 types of CREP. 15,30 year, and permanent.
 
What I saw happening was people buying up bottom land, putting it into the permanent wetlands program and then immediately selling it for a very nice profit. All at taxpayer expense.
 
Tim Hull said:
What I saw happening was people buying up bottom land, putting it into the permanent wetlands program and then immediately selling it for a very nice profit. All at taxpayer expense.
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Most of these programs have ownership restrictions. You can't simply purchase and "flip" into an easement - at least not with WRP. CREP I am not as sure about. They have to be owned for several years before eliguble. We would have even larger voids in public land in Iowa without this structure in place, but I do understand your take on it.

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DannyBoy said:
Most of these programs have ownership restrictions. You can't simply purchase and "flip" into an easement - at least not with WRP. CREP I am not as sure about. They have to be owned for several years before eliguble. We would have even larger voids in public land in Iowa without this structure in place, but I do understand your take on it.

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Must own for 7 years now a days. I looked into it.
 
Another angle.... If it's bottom ground.... Is it one that floods OFTEN? If so, does the WHOLE THING flood or just part? Income & investment aside, if the majority of it goes underwater, it could be a frustrating & difficult issue!!!
Aside from the water issue... Permanent easements - rec only, no income..... larger farms.... I'd want to buy it 50-70% less than other ground that does not have restrictions. If "hunting land" is going for $4500 for example.... I'd want to be in the $1500 range. Bigger tracts, middle of no where, no where near a big city.... $1k or less unless I had $ to burn. Be different if closer to a big city or could add on some non restricted ground to mix it up. My 2 cents.
 
I could see being the guy that bids it in and then resells it. He will get to sell it twice. The discount would have to be 30 cents on the dollar. Also worth noting is sounds like prime EHD areas which anymore is a big deal.
 
Sligh1 said:
Another angle.... If it's bottom ground.... Is it one that floods OFTEN? If so, does the WHOLE THING flood or just part? Income & investment aside, if the majority of it goes underwater, it could be a frustrating & difficult issue!!!
Aside from the water issue... Permanent easements - rec only, no income..... larger farms.... I'd want to buy it 50-70% less than other ground that does not have restrictions. If "hunting land" is going for $4500 for example.... I'd want to be in the $1500 range. Bigger tracts, middle of no where, no where near a big city.... $1k or less unless I had $ to burn. Be different if closer to a big city or could add on some non restricted ground to mix it up. My 2 cents.
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Appreciate all the replies. I tend to agree w the thoughts that it needs to be a minimum of half off what typical rec farms sell for. As for the flooding, the river does come out once every few years it seems like and so when it does I’d say up to half of this property worse case scenario can have standing water on it. Seems to last a couple weeks at most when it happens. Not ideal but not a complete deal breaker imo. I’m just not sure how big of an X factor that the 15 acres that isn’t in the easement is. Certainly it’s nice that someone could build a nice home on it, have 10-12 acres of tillable ground to help cover some of the tax bill etc. I’ve seen farms that are 100% in the easement and that seems even one more step less desirable/valuable.
 
Duckriver said:
CREP Is a special program between farm services agency and state agencies. Nrcs provides some of the technical planning assistance for fsa. Its actually part of crp program authority.
I think most all of you questions can be answered at
https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/conservation/CREP/Pages/default.aspx

The is a food plot section, faqs section etc. That answer most all of your questions.
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Thanks for the link! Says I could turn up to 10% of the easement acres in to food plots but food plots are restricted to a 5 acre maximum. So if it’s a 300acre farm I could do up to 6 different food plots that are 5acres in size each. Have to be like 220’ away from each other too.
 
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