Palm Trees In My Mind, Not in the Yard

September 29, 2015 10:59 PM

If you have a 60 ft tall Californian palm, and someone off Craigslist wants to buy it, can you sell it? If so, how? More details inside.

Posting for a friend of mine. The palm tree is in my friend's backyard, and there are small side fences. The palm tree itself is 60 feet tall. They found someone on Craigslist who says that they have a palm tree nursery, and pay and relocate your palm trees for you. My friend already contacted the person, who said to send them the picture, and also their home address so they could Google Earth the palm tree (??)

According to my friend, they heard that they could sell it for $15 a foot, and that if someone was to remove a palm tree, it should be written in contract that they will not incur any damages, and will clean up after, and a agreed upon extraction time and completion of the project.

I personally think this sounds like it's a setup for a sitcom episode. However, I want to be a good friend and I am invested in them having a good experience with this, so I'd like to ask the hive mind for your help. What is the most ideal thing to do in this situation?

posted by yueliang to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Response by poster: Additional information: the potential buyer also gave their phone number and their website. This is also in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Any other recommendations for what to do with a 60 ft tall palm tree would be helpful as well.
posted by yueliang at 11:00 PM on September 29, 2015

Large trees can be picked up and moved with a tree spade and layed flat-ish onto a truck. Speaking from Michigan experience, deciduous trees can be in shock for a long time after moving and the survival rate isn't 100% but if you're selling as is, it isn't your concern. A good arborist or landscape company will be insured for damages like other tradesmen. Several hundred dollars for a mature tree is a perfectly reasonable retail price - they can't offer you as much since they're taking on the risk it won't survive.
posted by BinGregory at 12:20 AM on September 30, 2015

Palm tree retail pricing is more like $100 to $150 a foot, not $15. Fifteen dollars a foot is almost an insult. This is Houston pricing.
posted by GregorWill at 12:29 AM on September 30, 2015 [5 favorites]

The question isn't what it's worth to them; the question is what it's worth to you. There's nothing stopping you ringing around to find a better deal, but if they're willing to take on all the expense of removal (and insurance - and restoration of the ground!) this is basically free money. Also, the palm trees I'm familiar with drop branches, or accumulate them and become unsightly; they're fire risks; and they eventually get so tall and spindly that the crown breaks off.

I'd be happy to sell mine, is what I'm saying.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:07 AM on September 30, 2015

As GregorWill mentioned, palms are expensive, to the point that LA at one point had a rash of thefts of trees from the public right of way. There was an episode of 99% Invisible that talked about it. Palm trees have relatively compact root systems, so they transplant very well, even when mature. Most types of tree only survive the ordeal when they are quite young.
posted by wierdo at 2:09 AM on September 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

Selling a 60ft palm tree for $900 is giving it away. People buy palm trees a lot here in Florida. They are crazy expensive, especially tall ones. You could pay $900 for a 10ft palm.
posted by Flood at 3:58 AM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

This article may help.
posted by dogmom at 4:49 AM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: LA at one point had a rash of thefts of trees from the public right of way. There was an episode of 99% Invisible that talked about it.

Episode 155, "Palm Reading." I listened to it just last night, and it talks about retail prices for a certain variety being up to $20,000 at one point. It also mentions that prices have come down for that same variety due to the spread of a disease it is vulnerable to. There's enough money at stake that it would be worth the time to learn more about the market and find the best buyer.

it should be written in contract that they will not incur any damages, and will clean up after, and a agreed upon extraction time and completion of the project.

Your friend needs more than promises -- even written ones. Your friend needs proof of liability insurance. Not a just business card that says "Bonded! Insured" either.
posted by jon1270 at 5:06 AM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks! This all sounds really good, but can anyone please help me out with concrete steps that my friend should take? Like we are not sure how to talk and find a palm tree seller who would then take our palm tree for an appropriate price, and understand if their insurance works out. AKA please don't let them be scammed!

The palm tree is Washingtonia filifera.
posted by yueliang at 10:57 AM on September 30, 2015

Best answer: I think your friend should shop around, find some other palm tree nursery people. I mean, the retail price of a palm tree in Florida isn't actually going to have that much relationship to the price your friend should expect to be paid for her tree in California - the retail price has all those insurance and transport and equipment costs built in.

Your friend should call up more than one nursery, ask what kind of price range they would give her, and ask what kind of insurance they carry and what the process for getting the tree out would be (i.e. how long will her fence need to be down, is this a one-afternoon project or a multi-day event).
posted by mskyle at 1:23 PM on September 30, 2015