Rising rural land values spur auction
Rising rural land values spur auction

By Richard Mize

Published: May 10, 2008

With rural property land values on the rise, property that's meant income for the University of Oklahoma, an Edmond church and the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma could fetch pretty pennies when auctioned later this month.

Farm, ranch and hunting land bequeathed to the University of Oklahoma Foundation Inc., the diocese and Edmond's St. Mary's Episcopal Church by Henry D. and Ida Mosier will be sold at 4 p.m. May 27 at Redlands Community College Conference Center in El Reno. Auction auctioneer Eddie Haynes of Yukon will handle the sale.

The foundation has 60 percent ownership of the 2,840 acres on 18 parcels in Oklahoma, Logan, Canadian and Kingfisher counties.

The diocese has 30 percent interest and the church has 10 percent, said Don Hensch, senior warden at St. Mary's.

Surface rights only will be sold, not mineral. The foundation wanted to sell and the church and diocese had no objection, Hensch said.

Henry Mosier, who attended OU from 1908 to 1912, was on the track team and graduated with a pharmaceutical chemist diploma, according to OU. He and his brother, William B. Mosier, also on the track team, were druggists in Edmond and Guthrie for many years.

Henry and Ida Mosier bequeathed land and other assets to OU, mostly to benefit the College of Pharmacy.

Some $1.5 million helped pay for the Henry D. and Ida Mosier Building on the OU Health Sciences Center campus in Oklahoma City. Other bequests help fund the Henry D. and Ida Mosier Centennial Chair of Toxicology, the Mosier Scholarships, Mosier Senior Scholar of the Year Award and the Mosier Scholar Program.

Mosier's eye for land investment is behind it all, said Guy Patton, president of the OU Foundation. The foundation, church and diocese have leased out the land, acquired in stages, for many years. The foundation's lack of expertise in land management led its board to decide to sell the property, he said.

The decision to sell is "part of an ongoing program,” he said, but this is the first time for the foundation to sell land by auction.

"We've not done it before. A couple of members of our board who have had experience selling significant amounts of surface recommended it. From our perspective, it seems like an efficient way to do this,” Patton said.

And, he said, selling at auction creates a competitive setting for fetching the best price.

With commodity and cattle prices strong and demand up for recreational and investment land, rural property values are ratcheting up and it's a good time to sell, Haynes said.

"There's some people out there pulling some money from the stock market and putting it in land because it's a more secure return,” the auctioneer said. "There's a lot of available cash out there for land. We've got a lot of oilies with cash — they're putting it in land.”

Haynes guessed that some of the parcels in the auction could bring from $1,000 to $7,000-$8,000 per acre.

"Every place is a good farm in itself. There's really something to suit everyone,” he said. "There's good water on most of it, running water on some of it.”

The land includes pasture and timberland, he said, but each parcel has some cropland except for one with a commercial lease held by an oil company — surface only, not minerals — in Logan County.

And it looks good for hunting, he said.

"The game is outstanding,” Haynes said. "I saw turkeys on two places just driving around putting signs out.”

Haynes has styled the auction the "Oklahoma Land Rush of 2008.”

Land to be auctioned includes parcels of 147 acres in Oklahoma County; parcels of 80, 160 and 320 acres in Logan County; parcels of 80, 159, 160 and 240 acres in Canadian County; and parcels of 120 and 160 acres in Kingfisher County.

For exact locations and legal descriptions, go to www.eddiehaynesinc.com

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