Product Feature: Forestry Consultant Uses Forest2Market’s Small Business Pricing Service

At the Crossroads of North Mississippi, Tom Vigour of Vigour Forestry Consulting, Inc. does what he’s been doing for decades. As a consulting forester, he works with timberland owners in the Montgomery County area, developing forest management plans and assessing the value of timber.

Vigour works primarily with small timberland owners — the average tract size is about 40 acres — and most of his clients harvest their timber only once. As a result, his success — like that of most independent consulting foresters — depends on his reputation and word-of-mouth recommendations from his customers. "It's extremely important for my customers, who are realizing once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime revenue from their timber, and for the future of my own business that my appraisals are based on up-to-date information about real market prices," says Vigour. One of the tools Vigour uses to accomplish this is Forest2Market's Small Business Timber Pricing Service.

Vigour and Forest2Market began working together in January 2001, when he became one of the earliest contributors to Forest2Market's stumpage price database. He didn't subscribe to the service though. Since opening his business in Mississippi in 1987, Vigour relied on price reports published by Mississippi State University's Extension Program as a barometer of the local timber market. In 2004, however, MSU contracted with Forest2Market to produce its price reports and Vigour made the transition as well. He's subscribed to the Small Business Timber Pricing Service ever since.

Ideal for consulting foresters who deal with dozens of timber appraisals and sales a year, F2M's Small Business Timber Pricing Service allows consultants unlimited access to a database of stumpage prices in 39 wood basins throughout the U.S. South. Vigour uses the service to support many of the services he offers his clients.

• When working on appraisals, Vigour uses the Small Business Service to access weighted average prices in his local wood basin — not an aggregate number for whole state or region — to set a reliable starting point from which to make an assessment. He then fine tunes these numbers by using the Timber Sales Query feature, which allows him to view comparable sales in terms of volume, acreage, loggability and a range of other variables.
• As tax time nears, Vigour gets an increasing number of calls from clients who need to know the value of their timber on the day it was acquired. Using the Small Business Timber Pricing Service, he can query the system based on tract attributes and a date range from the time of acquisition and find comparable sales to determine the tax basis.

Whether valuing timber or negotiating sales prices, knowing market prices from similar sales in the same wood basket provides a consulting forester with an edge. For Vigour, that edge starts with time savings. Before using the Small Business Service, he spent countless hours on the phone gathering information about current prices. Now, he starts with a quick search in Forest2Market's stumpage database. "With Forest2Market’s Small Business Service, I can quickly access current prices," says Vigour. "And when I need to fine tune those prices to match specific tract characteristics, I simply select from drop-down menus on a single page to see individual sales in my area. Not only is the website much easier to use than others I've tried, but the data is always on target. I may make a few more calls to substantiate other factors affecting the market and make minor adjustments as a result, but that's it."

The service also provides Vigour and his clients with peace of mind: "My clients know that the information I give them is based on the best available data and analysis — my 40 years of experience in the industry, 20 of which are right here in North Mississippi, and Forest2Market's numbers," says Vigour. "I stand behind the appraisals and valuations I give my clients and Forest2Market stands behind me."

To see how Forest2Market's Small Business Online Pricing Service can help you save time and build your business, click here or call Suzanne Hearn at 980-233-4010. To reach Tom Vigour, call 662-283-2729.