How Property Owners Are Making Serious Side Cash by Selling Mature Trees Found in Their Own “Backyards”

Seems like new ways for making extra cash on the side are popping up each day.

Everything from the more “traditional” food delivery and grocery shopping services, all the way to pet walking and renting your own car out to strangers.

The “gig” economy has empowered many folks to supplement their income or in some cases rely on it entirely and walk away from traditional employment altogether.

Today, you’ll learn more about a brand new way — one that may just be the most unexpected “side income” method you’ve heard of to date with a mission that goes far deeper than just “selling trees”.

I am of course talking about selling exotic, mature trees right off your own property.

And the profits? They can be quite significant.

Here are just a few recent sales to get you an idea.

• Bloodgood Japanese Maple: $3,500
• Bloodgood Japanese Maple: $750
• Weeping White Pine: $500
• Purple Fountain Weeping Beech: $1,000
• Kousa Dogwood: $600

Not bad for an essentially no-effort transaction.

But how does it all work? Glad you asked.

You’ve likely heard of eBay.

Think of RE-TREE like eBay that focuses purely on mature trees and includes a “done-for-you” service aspect for relocating them between buyers and sellers.

With that in mind, here are the steps a seller (potentially you) would take:

1: A seller places their tree — which must meet a specific criteria (more on this below) — for sale on the RE-TREE online marketplace. To upload a tree, all we require are some photos and measurements of the tree. Most folks can get everything they need to upload in under 5 minutes.

2: Our team evaluates your submission to ensure that the tree is a suitable fit for our marketplace. If that’s the case, we appraise the tree and get back to you with the value. Assuming everything is peachy, your tree is made available for purchase.

3: A buyer comes across your listing while browsing the catalog and decide they want to buy. They then work with RE-TREE to sort out the logistics. Once all parties are in agreement and the necessary paperwork has been signed, the RE-TREE team heads over to the seller’s property to extract the tree responsibly and soon after, replant it at the buyer’s desired location.

Oh, and of course you get paid!

The beauty of it all is as a seller, almost no work is required on your part — and you’re not responsible for any sort of relocation fees either — those primarily fall on the buyer! (There is of course a transaction fee which helps us to keep doing what we love)

Nearly all the work revolves around photographing the tree, providing a few measurements and then uploading to the marketplace. RE-TREE handles the heavy lifting.

If this is all you wanted to know, you can jump right to the site to learn more about the specifics and get to selling. Otherwise, stick around

OK, what kind of trees qualify for the marketplace?

First, some specific guidance.

• We want the tree to be 85% or greater in health. No disease, no visible damage and no structural issues.
• The tree has to be accessible by heavy equipment. Unfortunately we can’t rely on just our bare hands…
• Size limitations. Yep, we have them. 24 feet in terms of height and a 44 inch trunk diameter.

In terms of species, our (and the buyer) preferences are somewhat broad. Think exotic, uncommon trees.

Trees that set a property apart from everyone else’s.

For example, trees like a Japanese Maple, Dwarf White Pine, Tricolor Beech, Korean Lilac, Camperdown Elm, Kousa Dogwood, English Oak, Arborvitae so on and so forth.

You can also check out the Catalog to see what is listed right now to get an idea.

Not sure if your tree qualifies? Please feel free to ask! We get questions all the time and are happy to discuss your specific situation.

Why would someone want my tree, anyway?

For a certain kind of customer, time is more valuable than money.

These folks would rather have a just-in-time, fully grown and beautiful tree in their yard today than plant one and wait for years for it to grow…. and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Buyers also love the fact that they are helping to protect our ecosystem by preserving the carbon sequestration benefits and the oxygen the tree produces each time they make a purchase.

There are also commercial buyers that include architects that build exotic properties and landscapes for their clientele.

(BONUS) Why pay for tree removal? Sell your tree instead.

So far we’ve discussed selling strictly for pure profit, but that’s only half the story.

Maybe you have guessed this already; selling a mature tree can be a great, eco-friendly way to eliminate the costs of tree removal and actually profit in the process.

Tree removal isn’t cheap — enough said.

So if you’ve got a mature tree you’ve been thinking about destroying, whether it’s overgrown or for any other reason, there is no longer a need to pay hundreds of dollars to get it done.

Instead, sell it on the RE-TREE platform, make some cash, and ensure the tree continues to thrive elsewhere — which is a win all around.

Sure, it may take a bit longer than destroying it, but you’d be saving some serious cash — and even then, some trees sell in just a few days.

(While we aren’t going into detail for the purposes of this article, RE-TREE offers tree relocation services for those that simply want to move their tree on their property, as opposed to selling it.)

Ready to do some good & get paid for it?

Visit the RE-TREE sell page to get started.