Preserving Texas

Protecting Texas for generations: The Texas Land Conservancy and centennialranches

Bluebonnets at Pike Davis Ranch
Terry and the river
Fox at Pike Davis Ranch
Photo by Matt Hicks
Pike Davis himself with friend Hiram Yost.

Cousins Howard Hicks and Bettie Green didn’t want their grandfather’s Hill Country ranch cut into subdivision lots and corner convenience stores.

“I had this real desire for it to continue to be a working ranch as long as possible, because I felt that what’s my granddad would have wanted,” says Green, now a grandparent herself. “We all wanted it to stay pretty much as it is.”

Hicks agrees. “It’s important to keep it where we could graze cattle on the land and make money from it. But our kids and grandkids have been coming here for years and have feelings for it and we also want to practice conservation.”

Their grandfather, Pike Davis, was one of five grandsons of Alfred Davis, who came to Texas in 1854. The earliest record of Davis owning land is in 1871, the cousins say. He accumulated an additional parcel, eventually owning 4,300 acres. Details are a bit sketchy; some records were lost when the Blanco County courthouse burned down, others when a tornado destroyed the family home in the 1920s.

“Ninety-five percent of land in Texas is privately owned, so the best chance at protecting land here is if private landowners lead the cause by electing to protect their own land in partnership with conservation organizations."

Over the years, pieces of the ranch were sold off. Today, it encompasses 1,415 acres of Llano Uplift in the Colorado River watershed, falling in both Blanco and Gillespie Counties. In 2008, Hicks, Green and other members of their extended family approached the Texas Land Conservancy (TLC), says executive director Mark Steinbach. The land conservation non-profit has been around since 1981 and preserved 108 properties totaling 80,000 acres around Texas.

“We completed a project with two adjacent properties in 2007, and the owner was so happy with the result that he recommended us to Howard Hicks,” says Steinbach. Hicks completed an easement on his individual property adjoining the Pike Davis Ranch in 2008. TLC staff spent the next four years meeting with the various owners and bringing everyone to agreement about how they wanted the preserve the ranch.

Together, these four properties protect 2,115 acres of Hill Country landscape, an area larger than Garner State Park and including frontage on the Pedernales River. It includes abundant native plants and natural habitat, water resources, and a lot of history. The latter means the most to Green. “Just to go around and say, my relatives walked here, that’s the most important thing to me.”

For TLC, one of the most important conservation values is the joining of the four properties. “It’s a tenfold outcome versus one piece of property,” Steinbach says. “Stitching together private lands in this way allows us to protect vast landscapes. With the price of land in the Hill Country, it’s nearly impossible to protect such large tracts without working in partnership with landowners.”

Conservation easements are a tool to help families with their long-term planning goals, he explains. Under a voluntary, negotiated agreement with TLC, the owners retain the right to build houses, within reason, and conduct other activities such as agriculture and hunting. “Easements protect the property from land fragmentation, and large-scale or intensive development,” Steinbach explains. “The landowner can pass it down to heirs, or sell it. The easement is perpetual and so runs with title of the land.” Tax benefits are the main takeaway for landowners, he adds. “By donating development rights to us, the owners can take a tax deduction of that value.”

Typically, the taxable value of the property is diminished by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent. “If the land is worth a million dollars, then perhaps $300,000 of that would be donated. With Hill Country land as valuable as it has become, that makes for a good enough incentive.” But even with tax benefits, the easement is not a money making strategy for landowners. Those who enter into an easement tend to have a conservation ethic in the first place.

“This will be the second centennial ranch, meaning one in the same family for more than a century, for us,” Steinbach adds. “It’s pretty significant that a family could hold land together for that amount of time, and now ensure that the next generation can hold the land. It’s a historically significant piece of property.”

The ranch will not be open to the public, which is the case with many conservation easements, but it will contribute to the public good, says TLC Outreach Coordinator Callie Thompson. “Ninety-five percent of land in Texas is privately owned, so the best chance at protecting land here is if private landowners lead the cause by electing to protect their own land in partnership with conservation organizations. Because Pike Davis will never become a shopping mall or parking lot, it will continue to be a public asset through its preservation of scenic views for everyone, protection of water quality, and conservation of native plant and animal species.”

Without the easement, the ranch most likely would be developed at some point. “Areas in Texas that are not under some kind of conservation easement, or that aren’t large properties that someone can afford to keep, are going to be developed,” Howard says.

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credit talk

Making the impossible possible: How to salvage your credit after a financialcrisis

Bad things can happen to good people — unemployment, divorce, medical problems. It's life. If not tended to carefully, these bad things can result in more bills than you can pay and, in extreme situations, bankruptcy or foreclosure. While these events can devastate your credit score, it is possible to recover from a financial crisis and qualify for a mortgage.

Why so low?

First, let's review the guidelines for negative credit. Negative items placed on your credit report, like late payments and collections, stay there for seven years, ten years for a bankruptcy. A bankruptcy or foreclosure will also disqualify you for a mortgage for two to seven years. After a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you typically are ineligible for a government loan (FHA, VA, USDA) for two years and for a conventional loan for four years.

For a Chapter 11 bankruptcy two years must elapse from the discharge or dismissal date to qualify for a conventional loan. A foreclosure, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, or short sale will sideline you for three years for government loans and two to seven years for conventional loans.

However, don't just focus on the waiting periods. A financial crisis can easily drop your credit score by 200 to 300 points. During the waiting period, it's important to reestablish credit, and this can be difficult as few creditors may be willing to extend it.

Getting back in good credit graces

To qualify for a mortgage, you typically need two to four active credit accounts with a history of at least 12 months. But what kind of credit can you get after a financial crisis? One option is a secured credit card. For this type of account, the creditor typically requires that you deposit money that acts as security if you fail to pay. If you have a relationship with a bank or credit union, inquire about a small personal loan.

Another possibility is an auto loan. Some creditors specialize in making auto loans to folks with damaged credit. Your interest rate may be higher, but an auto loan is a great way to establish a new, positive payment history.

It's important to keep in mind the purpose of these new accounts is not for the credit itself. Creditors are likely to offer you very low credit limits. Instead, you're doing this to improve your credit profile by creating a record of paying the accounts on time.

The added benefit of getting new credit accounts is that after a period of on-time payments, your credit score will improve. In fact, I have worked with customers who have experienced a bankruptcy who have raised their credit scores above 700 (a good credit score) during the waiting period by purposefully reestablishing credit.

To counsel or not to counsel?

Some folks seek credit counseling in response to a financial crisis. While this can be a responsible approach to getting your debts under control, please understand that it can affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage.

Credit counselors typically negotiate with your creditors to lower your payments, interest rates, and fees so that you can affordably pay off your debts. If you participate in a credit counseling payment program, you can qualify for an FHA mortgage after one year in the program with on-time payments. You also must receive permission from the credit counselor.

The appearance of credit counseling on your credit report does not affect your credit score. Instead, creditors may report that you're not paying your accounts as originally agreed, and that will depress your score. It's also true that many folks don't seek credit counseling until they've already hurt their scores by getting behind on their payments.

Don't ditch credit

After a financial crisis, some folks swear off credit. While this may seem financially responsible, it may make it impossible to qualify for a mortgage. (Most of us cannot afford to pay cash for our homes.)

Negative items stay on your credit report for seven to ten years. If you never add positive accounts to your credit profile, the credit bureaus only have the negative items for scoring, and your score will never recover. While we sometimes can qualify folks who have never used credit (no credit score), we never can qualify folks with low scores who have stopped using credit.

Next time, we'll look at our second factor for qualification — employment. Can you qualify if you recently changed jobs? Can you qualify after unemployment? We'll sift through all the rules. And, as always, leave me a comment if you have a special situation you want me to address.

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