South Fla and east Fla leases are crazy. I hear of people spending 20k+. Granted I write my lease off as a business expense, its only $1k. And I make every penny that goes into my account
I'm assuming you mean $149,000 right?
Yep...
I always get a kick out of it when this comes up. I'm actually considering hunting down south next year myself. I also think the prices are ridiculous but it's all about supply and demand. When it comes to how much you spend on a lease it's all relative. Personally it costs me $400 for gas each time I go to the lease and I go a whole lot more than 10 times a year. I also spend 9 hrs driving each way to get there. At only 10 trips that's 180 hrs and I bill myself out at $100 per hour. Where I'm at I couldn't pick up 2 acres for $149,000 let alone enough to hunt. Until you drive 9 hrs every 10 days to hunt it's hard to understand why you would even consider paying that much. Add to the drive the fact that I take off work every other Thurs. and Friday so that I can make it worth my while to drive up there. Going to my lease in Ga takes some planning on my part just to make sure that work goes smoothly while I'm gone. If I was to just go up on a whim I'd lose a bunch more $ on top of everything else.
Whether I spend that kind of money on a lease through my corporation or personally makes no difference to my bank account. The only difference to me is if I pay personal income tax on it. Being an S corp, I'm gonna pay taxes on anything left in the bank anyways at the end of my fiscal year. Also keep in mind that on the leases down south you're not looking at 100 acres per guy. Most leases I've checked on are averaging 2-300 acres minimum per member. A few of them were almost 1000 acres per guy. And for guys to spend that kind of dough on a lease I can guarantee you that you won't have some scumbag member stealing your stuff. I know quite a few guys that have leases down south and they all make a good living so they don't need a used cam or stand.
In the end it all comes down to what all of that is worth to you. I would love to be able to decide at lunch that I'm gonna sneak up for an afternoon hunt. I was able to do that on a WMA this year for small game and it was great. That ain't happening for me right now with my place in Cuthbert. Now that I've put it down in writing it makes even more sense to pull the trigger and find something closer to home. Thanks for the post Batemaster.
Dony is right on the mark I think. Im not to far from Homestead either!
