A word of warning to the Green Screen community, do not do business with B&N Logging out of Livingston. They are fraudsters.
Several months ago I got a call from “Ryan West” (female) from B&N saying they would be working in the area (Houston County, west of Grapeland) near our family land and she wanted to know whether we would be interested in selling our timber. I told her I might consider selling the pines and gave her permission to assess they property and make me an offer. She came back with an offer to pay us $16k, all upfront. I passed as I thought this was too low.
A month or so later she calls back saying they have another crew in the area, a “high volume crew” that doesn’t usually do tracts under 60 acres (ours is 42), but since they work on a $/ton basis, it was an opportunity for us to get more than the upfront offer. I said that this sounds interesting, could they give me an estimate of actual dollars since I don’t really know how to assess my 42 acres in $/ton terms. She said she would speak with the office and get back to me. She called back and says “the old guy in the office say it would be north of $20k” and her estimate was about $22k. The was in the neighborhood of what we wanted to get so I said we would move forward.
She sent a contract, I signed. They logged it, and sent only $11k in checks. I’ve spoken with the owner, Billy Rowe, and he won’t make good. Says she (Ryan) is young and shouldn’t have given me estimates of what I would get, but that’s all we were going to get.
I’m fine with estimates, I do that for a living, but a 50% difference is fraud. I obviously passed on $16k, I only moved forward because she represented that it would be around $22k.
I have had discussions with the Texas Forest Service law enforcement folks, a forester, and a lawyer, but anyone here that may have advice I will certainly listen. Also, any foresters looking to earn some money doing a stump appraisal, I am thinking about going that route. I would like to see these guys hit with civil and criminal challenges to hope they don’t do this to others.
Several months ago I got a call from “Ryan West” (female) from B&N saying they would be working in the area (Houston County, west of Grapeland) near our family land and she wanted to know whether we would be interested in selling our timber. I told her I might consider selling the pines and gave her permission to assess they property and make me an offer. She came back with an offer to pay us $16k, all upfront. I passed as I thought this was too low.
A month or so later she calls back saying they have another crew in the area, a “high volume crew” that doesn’t usually do tracts under 60 acres (ours is 42), but since they work on a $/ton basis, it was an opportunity for us to get more than the upfront offer. I said that this sounds interesting, could they give me an estimate of actual dollars since I don’t really know how to assess my 42 acres in $/ton terms. She said she would speak with the office and get back to me. She called back and says “the old guy in the office say it would be north of $20k” and her estimate was about $22k. The was in the neighborhood of what we wanted to get so I said we would move forward.
She sent a contract, I signed. They logged it, and sent only $11k in checks. I’ve spoken with the owner, Billy Rowe, and he won’t make good. Says she (Ryan) is young and shouldn’t have given me estimates of what I would get, but that’s all we were going to get.
I’m fine with estimates, I do that for a living, but a 50% difference is fraud. I obviously passed on $16k, I only moved forward because she represented that it would be around $22k.
I have had discussions with the Texas Forest Service law enforcement folks, a forester, and a lawyer, but anyone here that may have advice I will certainly listen. Also, any foresters looking to earn some money doing a stump appraisal, I am thinking about going that route. I would like to see these guys hit with civil and criminal challenges to hope they don’t do this to others.
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