10/24/2016

Dear Matre Forestry Newsletter Subscribers,

Thanks to all of you who participated in our survey, and congratulations to Dave Darty, the winner of our $50 gift card to Gander Mountain.  For those of you interested, following is a summary of our survey with some brief commentary:

1.  Are you familiar land marketing websites?  76% yes

2.  Which site is your first go to website for searching for land deals?  We were expecting to see a clear winner hear, but Lands of America, Land & Farm, Landwatch, and Landflip all had similar ratings between 3.2 and 3.6 out of 5.  Loopnet had the lowest, 1.7.  It is worth noting that Lands of America, Land and Farm, and Loopnet are all part of the same company.  We expected Loopnet to be low, because it is a commercial property website and is not land focused like the other four.  

One great comment was that searching by map is important, and that person felt Lands of America was best in that category.    

3.  Which search engine do you use most often?  85% Google, no surprise there.  11% Yahoo.  2% Bing.

4.  Do you use print media to search for land deals or to keep up with the land market?  70% No

5.  Do you have suggested print media for land searches?  Common suggestions were Georgia Outdoor News,  Wood N Water

6.  How likely are you to stay subscribed to the Matre Forestry Newsletter, likely or unlikely?  100% said likely.  Glad to hear!

7.  Do you ever forward the Matre Forestry Newsletter?  67% said yes.  Thank you!  Please forward.  Just think, say you forward one of our email blast about one of our land offerings, you may help 3 to 4 parties get a deal done!  You could help Matre Forestry make a sale, you could help a seller sell, you could help a buyer buy, and there may be a second broker that gets a piece of the commission as well.  Then there is also a closing attorney that gets some work out of the deal, maybe a lender gets to make a new loan, maybe a surveyor gets a job, maybe some professionals are hired to conduct due diligence work, etc.  See the possible snowball affect, from just you simply forwarding an email!

8.  Do you ever post our newsletter to social media?  Unfortunately, 96% said no.  See comment on number 7.  Go ahead and post to social media, and help spur the economy a little!

9.  What social media do you use, if any?  Multiple answers were allowed.  We had some surprising results here.  46% said they were on Facebook, and 41% are on Linkedin.  17% Instagram.  12% on Google+ and only 10% on Twitter.   Surprisingly a full 29% are not on social media.  

10.  How often should we send our email blast out?  85% approved of our email frequency, which is good to hear.  13% said it is okay for us to send them out more often.  0% said we send emails out to frequently.

11.  Please rank in order the main reason you subscribe to the Matre Forestry Newsletter?  Highest possible rank is 5.  To keep up with land offerings won with a rank of 4.3; Land Market info 3.9;  Timber Market info 3.7;  Land and Timber Management Tips 3.3; Current Events related to forestry and land, 3.2; Keep up with hunting leases we may offer, 2.6.

12.  Check any of the statements you agree with:

Ag is a good Investment:  70%

Timberland is a good investment:  89%

Land in General is a great investment:  74%

Land is enjoyable to recreate on? 89%

Land is good to own for safe retreat in the event of war or social/political unrest? 59% 

One person commented "too broad of a statement. Some land is a good investment, some is a terrible investment."  Well vetted, sensible land investments is what we had in mind when formulating the statements.  The purpose of number 12 was mainly to get a feel of the type of subscribers we have (do they lean towards timber or lean towards ag, or are they open to either type of land investment).  We also were curious how subscribers feel about recreation, and owning land as a safe retreat.    

13.  And for a little fun, we asked the following:

Are you more likely to buy land if Trump wins?  30% said yes

Are you more likely to buy land if Clinton wins?  4% said yes

The election will not affect my likelihood of buying land?  63% said yes

As you can imagine, the last question had some lively comments.  One of our favorites is "God help us - but I believe whole heartedly anybody other than Hilary will help our economy. So I guess that means trump."  Another one that stood out is "we are in a hell of a mess with either as president".  The good news is God is in control, and his will will be done! Amen.

Have a great week.  God bless, and get out and vote!