Best way of selling palms that need to be dug?

[Justin]

I'm intending to sell a number of my palms prior to selling my house, as I don't think there's any way I'll get any sort of return on them, and if the buyer doesn't value them, I might as well sell and get something.  I know a lot of palms aren't sufficiently valuable to warrant the cost of the digging/crane, but I am hopeful that I can mitigate that to some degree by having multiple palms removed at the same time (thus lowering the relative fixed cost).

Has anyone dealt with this before?  What is the best way of setting something like this up - finding a buyer for the palms themselves and then just splitting costs on the transport?  Going through a nursery?  Something else?  Thanks in advance.

[Steve Mac]

2 hours ago, Justin said:

"I know a lot of palms aren't sufficiently valuable...."

It may be even worse than you think.

The other day I had a realtor at my house, I said to him showing him the beautiful back garden,

"What do you think that this would do to the value of the house".

He said, "Hmmm, don't worry it will only cost a few hundred to get rid of it".  

Well that is a relief, I said, nearly choking.  

I hope that you can work something out with enthusiasts. 

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, gtsteve said:

The other day I had a realtor at my house, I said to him showing him the beautiful back garden,

"What do you think that this would do to the value of the house".

He said, "Hmmm, don't worry it will only cost a few hundred to get rid of it".

I think I would be inclined to look for another real estate agent who might see things a little differently.  Relative to the original question, any plant buyer would discount the value of the plants by the costs associated with digging them.  Good luck.  I'm sure that if you have cycads they will be easier to sell, just because they tend to be smaller and some species will command a healthy price to offset digging costs.  My last move was a whopping 3 1/2 miles, so I dug things I wanted to take with me (exclusively cycads), while leaving all my palms.  I wasn't selling the property though like you are, so wanted some nice lush tropical landscape to appeal to renters.

[MKIVRYAN]

Best to find a realtor that appreciates they beauty and will show it as the plus and added value it can have. When I sold my home in AZ to move to HI my realtor featured my palm garden and used it to upsell the house. The buyers told me point blank it reminded them of their many trips to Hawaii and was a key factor in wanting the home. Need to upplay your strengths. 

[Josh-O]

sent PM

[Justin]

By the way, here is a list of what I think are the best candidates for digging:

• Jubaea, about 10 feet of trunk
• 8 Jubaeas, I'm guessing in the 30"-48" box size
• Parajubaea torallyi, about 25-30' overall
• Parajubaea cocoides, about 20' overall
• 4 Triangle palms, with about 8' of trunk, I'm guessing 48-60" box size
• 2 Butias, about 8' of trunk
• Butia x Syagrus, trunking
• There's also some smaller stuff that would be sought after, including Parajubaea x Butia, Jubaea x Syagrus, JxBxS
• I have some other quite large specimens, including Rhopalostylis Sapida and Cheesemanii (each with several feet of trunk), Bizzies, double Caryota Gigas, Kentia with over 15 feet of trunk, and more, but I don't think these species are as good of candidates in terms of transporting from my recollection

And Mkivryan, even if these were all transplanted, there would still be over 100 palms, lots of giant timber bamboo, flowering trees, and proteas all over the yard.  So while these would be missed by a palm nut, I think they'd be a blip on the radar for a run-of-the-mill purchaser.

[Mandrew968]

Best way is to turn them into Copernicia. In your neck of the woods, Jubaea should sell, but honestly, I have come to the realization that where I am, only my Copernicia will be worth the dig--when those are being dug, maybe some of the other less choice plants will get removed due to convenience, but pretty much only the best of the best are worth anyone's time. 

[Ken Johnson]

In fact almost all the palms I'm buying from yards these days are Copernicia...

[BS Man about Palms]

On 5/22/2017, 9:35:48, Josh-O said:

sent PM

Wow.. it took over 7 hours... 

[Josh-O]

47 minutes ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Wow.. it took over 7 hours... 

[Hammer]

13 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Wow.. it took over 7 hours... 

Josh is slowing down in his old age.

[Hammer]

On 5/23/2017, 11:55:26, Justin said:

By the way, here is a list of what I think are the best candidates for digging:

• Jubaea, about 10 feet of trunk
• 8 Jubaeas, I'm guessing in the 30"-48" box size
• Parajubaea torallyi, about 25-30' overall
• Parajubaea cocoides, about 20' overall
• 4 Triangle palms, with about 8' of trunk, I'm guessing 48-60" box size
• 2 Butias, about 8' of trunk
• Butia x Syagrus, trunking
• There's also some smaller stuff that would be sought after, including Parajubaea x Butia, Jubaea x Syagrus, JxBxS
• I have some other quite large specimens, including Rhopalostylis Sapida and Cheesemanii (each with several feet of trunk), Bizzies, double Caryota Gigas, Kentia with over 15 feet of trunk, and more, but I don't think these species are as good of candidates in terms of transporting from my recollection

And Mkivryan, even if these were all transplanted, there would still be over 100 palms, lots of giant timber bamboo, flowering trees, and proteas all over the yard.  So while these would be missed by a palm nut, I think they'd be a blip on the radar for a run-of-the-mill purchaser.

Got any pics of that Cheesemanii?   I might be interested in taking a shot at it.  Not sure if they move well though. 

[Palm Tree Jim]

2 hours ago, Hammer said:

Josh is slowing down in his old age.

Funny......

[Justin]

Here are some pics.  First, the row of Royals:

[Justin]

The big Triangles up front:

[Justin]

Various Jubaeas:

[Justin]

Jubaeopsis, which has now split into multiple trunks:

Parajubaea torallyi (and big Royal right behind it):

Big mule palm

[Justin]

And, finally, some other cocoids.  First, a Jubaea x Syagrus:

Jubutiagrus

Parajubaea cocoides and Butia x Parajubaea

[Palm Tree Jim]

Some big palms......hope this works out for you.

[Justin]

Tick tock, tick tock.  Everything is still available, with the exception of the Jubaea x Syagrus that I may keep for myself.  I also remembered that I have some good-sized cycads that could be dug fairly easily as well. 

Dean, can this be moved to the "for sale" board, so that I'm not trying to sell stuff on the main board?

Palm Mod Edit: Done

[Justin]

For anybody interested in purchasing anything, please make me an offer.  If you can indicate what the "going rate" for a similarly sized plant is, I'm more than happy to take 25% or so off of that, to send to a good home.

[Scott Cohen]

You will likely need to take the price further down than that. Remember it is very expensive to safely remove palms (for the bigger Jubaea probably multiple dig's spanning 6 months or more) plus the risk of damage or loss.

Hope it works out for you!