We get a lot of calls asking whether recreational land has cooled off like the rest of real estate. I’m glad to tell you it hasn’t. Landowners are still surprised by what their places are worth, and by how far buyers will travel to find them. It’s human nature to picture the market the way it was the day you bought in — but it has moved a long way since most of us did, and demand for good Southern land keeps climbing to record levels.
The buyers keep getting better, too. They value the very things we pour ourselves into — prescribed fire, habitat work, the slow labor of building a place worth handing down. Thirty-five years ago, when I first started carving out this niche, none of that showed up in a price. Today the market recognizes it, and rewards it. Even the press has come around — publications that once wouldn’t say “plantation,” or talk about hunting, without flinching now seek these stories out. In the last two years alone, our listings have been featured in over 700 articles reaching a potential audience of more than 6 billion readers.
Trophy deer hunting keeps pushing boundaries. The larger, higher-quality properties keep outperforming, though we’re seeing some softening at the smaller end. We continue pushing the once-unheard-of $10,000-an-acre mark on the best lands, and conservation-easement properties show less and less diminution every year. How deep this market runs, none of us yet knows — I can tell you that good recreational land is now bringing more than even irrigated cropland.
But here is the thing that keeps causing confusion. The one problem I hoped we’d seen the last of — underpricing — is still happening. As prices and marketing have changed, not everyone has kept up, and I’ve watched good properties sell for what, in our professional opinion, was millions below their worth. I won’t name names. But understand this: when a place sells too low, the damage doesn’t stop with that seller. That number becomes a comp — pulled into the next appraisal, the next offer, the next negotiation — and it quietly drags on every one of us who owns land nearby. A low sale isn’t just one family’s loss. It’s all of ours.
And it breeds confusion. Our firm recently sold a plantation on the Flint River — for the third time — for close to $10,000 an acre, yet another on the Ochlockonee we could only watch from the sidelines as it sold for about 40% less. Similarly, a recent sale of a wild-quail plantation under easement in Alabama traded around $2,350 an acre in dirt-and-timber value; when not long ago we closed a Georgia quail plantation, also under easement, at $6,400 ac. Is Georgia worth 172% more an acre than Alabama? Not in our eyes — but you can see how a buyer would land there. Same category, same quail, wildly different numbers. As a landowner myself, it’s hard to watch the chance to show the value of everything we work so hard for slip away — and not just for that seller, but for the rest of us.
That’s why, with today’s prices and a market splintering into ever-finer submarkets, valuing land the right way matters more than it ever has. It’s the hardest part of what we do. We have the buyers. We have the marketing reach. We can prove the value once we’ve determined it. The whole game is making sure nothing gets left on the table — that every bit of intrinsic value is found and captured. It’s why we’ve broken the best properties out of the simple “quail plantation” bucket into what we call Legacy Sporting Lands™ and Legacy Sporting Estates™ — because they’re managed differently now, and as such they draw a broader, deeper pool of buyers than most folks realize.
Knowledge is value. We lean on something no one else has: the largest private database of recreational land sales in the region — over $1.8 billion in transactions where we sat at the table and negotiated every aspect of the sale, not just what shows up in public records. Public data alone is how you get the confusion above. Too many still think you value recreational land by cutting off the top, cutting off the bottom, and averaging the middle — which is how it was done in the past, and ridiculous in our niche today. Our data is how landowners finally understand both the why and the how behind the prices. We’ve recently opened a good deal of it up — to fellow landowners, and even to other brokers — because this whole niche is better off when these lands are understood and valued right.
So here is what any landowner can do. You don’t have to be selling to call. It’s normal to have questions, and to think ahead — one day every one of our places will change hands. It’s hard even for me to picture Lick Skillet in someone else’s hands, but that day will come, and knowing what’s worth improving and what isn’t is worth having long before then. Too many folks take a friend’s word for it, or lean on an old appraisal, and never really know what’s going on. Pick up the phone for a quick, confidential conversation, the way so many of your neighbors already do. No pressure. No obligation. Just a straight answer. And if you’re ever close to selling, call before you do — not after — so your place helps set the market instead of risking becoming the low number that pulls the rest of us down.
Hopefully this niche stays strong and the buyer pool keeps widening as we reach newer markets. We have something special here — let’s make sure we all receive the value we deserve. As long as buyers keep bringing fire to the land and honoring the legacy and life we cherish, higher prices only draw more good stewards, and reward the ones who sacrificed to get here. If I or any of our agents can ever answer a question for you, give us a call.
Yours in the field,
Jon Kohler
From murky farm ponds to pristine glacier-cut lakes and everything in between, Knox Daniels’ expertise stems from a lifelong fascination of water and the creatures that live in and around it. He recognizes and helps clients appreciate the value water features bring to a property. “My goal is to help buyers realize and sellers maximize the value different water bodies bring to a property, not only in a recreational sense, but also for social storm reasons.” After extensively traveling the country for collegiate BASS fishing tournaments, Knox graduated and worked for the Southeast’s finest fisheries and wildlife biologist, Greg Grimes. With Grimes’ company, AES, Knox managed many of the southeast’s finest private lake estate/impoundment properties, and learned the intricacies of upscale property management. Learning from Greg and other biologists, Knox honed in on the specific conditions and habitat needed for optimal gamefish growth in private lakes. He has also worked as a property manager on several thousand acres and for a commercial developer, facilitating the dirt work and builds of several apartment complexes, but his true passion has always been in the outdoors. “I’ve always had an insatiable fascination with ponds/lakes and am grateful to be able to help to place clients on the properties of their dreams and make their personal fisheries/wildlife goals reality with JKA.” – Knox Daniels
Jason has been assisting landowners for the last 28 years in Georgia and South Carolina obtain achievements the owners did not realize were possible. His degree in Biology from Georgia Southern stemmed from the desire to know how things in nature work. His plantation roots began at just 16 years old outside of Albany, GA and the last 20 years were spent in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. His entire career has been spent developing a global approach to plantation management. That plan included sales. Sales is in Jason’s blood- his mom had a 45-year career as a real estate broker. After college, he chose to pursue his passion of making properties great. In 2011, Jason sold his first plantation. Since then, he has assisted buyers and sellers with over $20 million in sales while most of that time working as a full-time General Manager of a large Lowcountry plantation. Today, he is committed to using his unique skill set and experience to guide landowners through the many challenges of plantation ownership.
Bruce Ratliff is a retired elected official (Property Appraiser Taylor County). Bruce brings years of experience in ad valorem tax knowledge. His property tax background gives JKA Associates & clients a unique insight into the complicated tax process. Bruce held several positions in the Florida Association of Property Appraisers, including member of the Board of Directors, President, Vice-President and Secretary, and served on the Agricultural & Legislative Committees for the Association. The real estate business has been part of Bruce’s life since childhood. His mother, Shirley Ratliff owned Professional Realty of Perry, Florida and his father, Buster owned Ratliff Land Surveying which Bruce was General Manager of before his political career.
Hailing from a long line of outdoorsmen, Tim learned a great deal from his father and grandfather. He saw first-hand what it means to be a good land steward. He believes land is so much more than a place to hunt, fish, and grow timber or crops. “It’s an identity, a resting place, a safe haven and a way of life, said Tim.” Tim’s family ties to Alabama run deep. During his grandfather’s first term, Governor James was responsible for signing into law Alabama’s first state duck stamp which helped to ensure funding for the procurement, development, and preservation of wetlands for migratory waterfowl habitat. He also established Alabama’s lifetime hunting license, so it is no surprise that Tim is an avid outdoorsman with a keen eye as to how best to improve habitat for the greater good of its wildlife.
With Madison County roots, Lori grew up on her family farm at Pettis Springs along the historic Aucilla River. A love of the land was instilled in Lori very early on by her father who was a local farmer. Lori understands the importance of good land stewardship and has witnessed first-hand how her own father, a former 2-term member of the Florida House of Representatives whose district encompassed many rural counties of the Red Hills Plantation Region, with a little bit of sweat equity, so lovingly worked their own family land. These are core values she carries with her today, and nothing gives her more personal satisfaction than to represent some of the south’s best land stewards.
Cole’s dedication to land management lies in his family roots. As a fourth-generation timber expert, Cole’s earliest memories were spent with his father managing timber investments. With a degree in Food Resource Economics from the University of Florida, Cole is the epitome of an up-and-coming leader. He grew up with a hands-on approach to learning land management and conservation and has spent the last 15 years learning every angle of the real estate and forest industry. Cole is a member of the Florida Forestry Association, Red Hills Quail Forever, Southeastern Wood Producers Association and he uses this platform as an advocate for landowners and their land investments. His family has dedicated the past 60 years to providing landowners in North Florida and South Georgia with professional land management services focused on improving and protecting one’s forestland and wildlife investment. In fact, their family business, M.A. Rigoni, Inc., was one of the first to introduce whole tree chipping to the Red Hills Region.
As a landowner of his own family farm, Lick Skillet, along with family land that has been passed down and enjoyed together at Keaton Beach for 40 years, Jon knows what it means to be a steward of the last best places. As a third-generation land broker with more than 30 years of experience in advising landowners in this niche, Jon is known for his innate ability to harvest a land’s unique intrinsic value. Touting several notable sales under his belt, Jon personally closed Rock Creek/Molpus – 124,000 acres of premium timberland at $142,000,000 – which was known as the largest timberland land sale in the Southeast for eight years running. He is a co-founding member of LandLeader and achieved the real estate industry’s highest honor, “2022 National Broker of the Year – Recreational Land Sales,” by the Realtors® Land Institute.