The United States has 1.9 billion acres of land. Does some of that land belong to you?
Selling land isn't exactly like selling a home. You're looking at a different (and smaller) pool of buyers who have specific desires when it comes to purchasing land. If you don't know how to market your land to the right buyers, you can end up sitting on an unpopular listing for months or even years.
This is only one of several common property selling errors that we don't want you to make. Fortunately, we're here to tell you what they are and what to do to avoid them.
Thinking of selling your land? Read on to learn about the ten common property selling errors we've seen and what you should do, instead.
1. Selling at the Wrong Time
While land sales don't always follow the same ups and downs as house sales, there is a fluctuation in the land real estate market. If you try to sell your land at the wrong time, you could face a slow market or find that you can only sell your land if you slash the asking price.
The good news is that right now in 2022, undeveloped or partially developed property values are on the rise. Small-scale farmland, in particular, is a hot commodity among buyers, who are willing to make competitive offers to secure their own acreage.
2. Not Researching Your Regional Market
National trends are useful in determining who the market is favoring overall, but you're going to learn a lot more by researching your regional market. How well is property selling in your county and what are people using it for? What kinds of features, such as water access or proximity to developed areas, are people looking for?
Researching your regional market will help you to determine everything from price to who you should be marketing to. There is a big difference between marketing to individual buyers who want to develop a homestead and companies that want to develop an apartment or shopping complex.
3. Not Setting a Fair Property Price
Let's talk a little bit more about pricing. Oftentimes, when you're attached to your land or want it to give your bank account a substantial boost, you're likely to overprice your listing, leading to diminished interest from buyers or long negotiation periods.
It's important to take the emotional side of selling your land out of your pricing. When you're researching your regional market, look for recently sold properties that have similar qualities to yours. Establish your price based on what people have proven that they're willing to pay, as well as what your competitors are charging.
4. Limiting Payment Options
In an ideal world, every buyer who approached you about your property would offer cash in full. The truth is that many buyers, especially individual buyers, don't have that kind of cash on hand. As a result, you may be pushing out viable buyers and coming up empty-handed.
Other payment options to consider include traditional mortgages and owner financing. Owner financing is a common practice in land sales but it does involve quite a bit of paperwork and does come with the risk of buyers failing to make their monthly payments. If you don't want to consider these other forms of financing, you may want to look for companies that market to sellers who want to sell land fast.
5. Working With an Inexperienced Real Estate Agent
If you don't want to take everything from market research to listings and showings into your own hands, you might want to partner with a real estate agent. However, finding a real estate agent to sell your land isn't as simple as finding a real estate agent to sell a house.
Make sure that you hire a real estate agent that has significant experience with undeveloped or partially developed property sales. If they've only worked with home buyers and sellers, they're not going to have the connections to make a quick and successful sale. They may also not know the best marketing tactics to use for land sales, because they won't be able to appeal to home features or amenities.
6. Neglecting Your Marketing
What if you do decide to sell your property without a real estate agent? You're going to need to put together a listing that will appeal to potential property buyers. This includes high-definition photography as well as a thorough and well-crafted description of:
- the type of land you're selling
- the size, topography, and shape of your land
- the type of vegetation on your land
- desirable features including water features like ponds or creeks
- beautiful views
- onsite utilities like electricity, water, and sewage
In addition, you need to clearly state your asking price in your listing. No one wants to inquire about a parcel of land when they don't know how much it costs.
Finally, make sure that you get your listings on the right MLS for land sales. The buyers you're looking for may not frequent the websites that are popular among home buyers.
7. Letting Your Listing Stagnate
In this market, you should get a few interested buyers inquiring about your listing within the first two weeks of posting it. What if you don't get any inquiries? What if you get a few, but ultimately you aren't getting any offers?
The key is to make sure that you don't let your listing stagnate. If potential property buyers keep scrolling past your listing and see that nothing has changed, they're not likely to change your mind. Consider if there are any updates you need to make (ie improved photography) and if all else fails, drop the price by 5-10% and see if this generates any interest.
8. Being Dishonest in Your Listing
Someone is going to find value in your property as-is, and there's no need to exaggerate or make things up. In fact, this tactic could end up backfiring. Most buyers will want to see your land before buying it and they may even bring a land appraiser, who will reveal the truth behind your dishonesty.
Don't tell people that the land is perfect for growing crops if you don't know if that's true. Don't say that your land has amenities like ready access to utilities if it doesn't. If you want to learn more about your land, get a land appraisal so that you can give potential buyers a more accurate assessment of the property's features and potential uses.
9. Letting Your Land Go to Shambles
As we mentioned already, a lot of property sellers can find buyers who will buy their land as-is, even if that means that it's in shambles. However, we always recommend keeping things in decent condition so that you can appeal to more buyers.
What kinds of maintenance should you do? Make sure that your property hasn't become a trash dump or your own personal storage lot. If your land is delineated or divided up by a fence, take the time to invest in some basic fence maintenance. Unless the land is 100% undeveloped, consider keeping things like plants and weeds under control so that your buyer doesn't have to do a ton of damage control before they can start using the land.
10. Not Getting Your Legal Ducks in a Row
More often than you might think, we've heard stories of land that was passed down from generation to generation, leading one or two people to assume that the land is theirs to sell. The truth is that if the deed for a piece of property isn't in your name, you don't have the legal right to sell it. This is something that you're going to want to sort out before an interested buyer is involved.
Conduct a title search on the property and find out whose name it's in. If it's already in your name, feel free to proceed. If not, you're going to want to sort that out now so that once you have a buyer, they don't have to wait for you to sift through red tape before finalizing the sale.
Avoid These Common Property Selling Errors and Get the Most for Your Land
Selling property is different than selling something like a single-family home or a commercial property. There are several common property selling errors that people make because they don't do the right amount of research into land sales, first. By using this guide, you can make sure to avoid those errors and sell your property without a hitch.
Looking to learn more about the current and projected real estate market? Do you want to find out everything you need to know about finding an agent or listing a property on your own? Take a look around as we talk about all things real estate.
