You have a parcel of raw land that you no longer want. Maybe you have inherited the land. Maybe you bought it a long time ago with big plans to move there. Or maybe you were going to build a vacation home there and now you can’t. For whatever reason, life has changed and now you have a piece of land that is costing you money every year in taxes and possibly upkeep. And you’ve decided that you no longer want this burden.
If you find yourself wanting to sell your vacant land quickly, there are a couple of different options. You can sell the property with the help of a realtor. Realtors are real estate professionals that help people sell houses and land. They charge a fee for their services (up to 10% of the sale price for land!), but if they do a good job, they can be worth it. They will know where and to whom to advertise and market your land so that you can hopefully get a top-dollar sale. A good agent knows buyers in your area, and so they can sometimes make the whole process take less time. They manage showings and play the go-between so you don’t have to deal with sellers.
Unfortunately, a good real estate agent is hard to find for land. Most agents specialize in houses. Most agents aren’t interested in selling land, because they don’t get paid enough money to make it worth their time. And many agents don’t love land or know land buyers in their area. In the end, you could be paying a high percentage of your sales price to someone that isn’t really able to get you top-dollar for your property.
If you decide that you want to try to sell the land yourself, you can save that agent fee, and put the money in your pocket instead.
Listed below is an outline of the steps you will need to take to sell your property yourself.
- Prepare Your Land For Sale
If you want to get the highest price for your land, it will be necessary to make it shine. Clean up any debris or trash that takes away from the beauty of the land. Remove old cars, tires, or other objects. Then determine if any landscaping needs to be done. If it needs to be mowed or bush-hogged, get that taken care of before your showings start. The more maintenance you do now, the nicer the property will be for your potential buyers.
2. Determine A Fair Price
You will need to do some research to determine how much to list the land for. Websites such as Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and LandWatch.com can show you how much similar land in your area is selling for.
This kind of research takes time and should not be rushed. In some cases, there may not be many sales to compare your land to, and that makes coming up with a fair price somewhat difficult. But you do need to have some basis for the sales price. It’s not a good idea to price your land based on the value that a relative gave you, or based on what you hear it is worth. Having another similar property to match your price to will be the best way to come up with a price for your land that helps you sell it quickest and for the most amount of money. “Similar property” in this case means that the other property needs to be roughly the same size, have the same amenities or features, and the same distance to town. This step could be the most difficult and most crucial step to selling your land solo.
3. Market Your Land
The next step involves creating ads and marketing materials that will help sell your land. This can mean lots of different things depending on the situation, but at the very least, you will need to write an ad that highlights why buyers should buy your land. In reality, it usually takes many different kinds of ads written to appeal to different kinds of buyers to get the property sold. You will need to be able to write a compelling story with just a few words about how great your land is.
Secondly, you will need to get great photos of your land. This does not mean shooting one picture of the land out of the car window with your cell phone. That will not earn you the best price! It does mean getting quality photos of your land that will draw buyers in and want to know more. You won’t need a degree in photography, but learning how to take good photographs to sell land for top-dollar is important. Alternatively, you can hire a photographer locally to take photos for you. If you go this route, be sure the photographer is qualified before giving them the job. Ask to see other land photos they have taken, and check references to make sure they won’t take your money and deliver a poor-quality product.
Next, you will need to package together the right words with the right photos to tell the full story of your land. If you decide to post your ads in more than one place (and you should!), consider what kind of audience that website or place caters to before deciding on what kind of ad to place there.
Lastly, it is helpful to put together a marketing document that you can put into a buyer’s hands or that you can email to them. This document should contain pertinent details about the property, your beautiful professional photographs, directions to the property, and information on how to contact you. This will help your land stand out when someone spends a day out looking at multiple properties. It also helps cut down on questions buyers might have for you.
4. Find Buyers
It is finally to time go find a buyer for your property! Take those awesome ads and post them. Where might you find buyers for land? This varies by location, but possibilities include Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, local buy/sell groups, Landwatch.com, and any other group that is active in your community. Some of these options are free and others charge a fee to list.
Don’t overlook old-school methods like paying for an ad in the local paper or putting a sign up at the local supermarket or barber if those places are active hubs in your community. And if you can, don’t forget to put a sign in the front of the property, too. The bigger the better.
5. Field Buyer Questions
Once you have your ads published or posted, hopefully you get some calls or emails regarding your land. You’ll have to field questions about the property while also feeling out the callers to see who might be truly interested in buying your land.
Unfortunately, you will probably get a lot of calls or emails from people who are just interested in talking about the lot (or anything else you can imagine!), and they aren’t really serious about buying land. You’ll also get your fair share of calls from people who are just dreaming of buying land or are just getting a feel for the area. Either way, these folks aren’t ready to buy just yet. Be prepared to spend time engaging with potential buyers during this time.
6. Complete Buyer Showings
After you’ve fielded all the questions, it’s time to show off your land. Schedule a time to meet the buyer and be prepared to do your best selling. Remember, you are trying to highlight your property’s best features, so play up the positive. Always make sure to answer questions honestly, even if it isn’t to your advantage. No one wants to feel like you have lied to them about a multi-thousand-dollar purchase. Try to make the buyer’s experience on your land the best part of their day! Bonus tip: be sure to confirm your appointments before driving to the property to show it! People have a way of forgetting such appointments.
7. Negotiate Your Deal
Once you’ve got a buyer interested in your lot, be prepared for a bit of back-and-forth negotiating. Try your best to get the price you have offered the property for, but it’s not uncommon to come down at least a bit on price if a buyer feels strongly about it. Account for this when you price your land in the first place. If you are good at reading people this will be your chance to shine, as you will be better at knowing how much to push back on a counter offer without the buyer walking away. If reading people is not your strength, you might find that negotiating is the most challenging part of the whole selling process.
You might vary your response to an offer based on how many people have shown interest in your property. If folks are lining up to see your land, then it’s possible you can demand full price for the property. But if the buyer you are talking to is the only one who has shown interest in buying your land at all, you may want to consider taking a lower price. After all, your time costs money, too.
8. Writing the Contract
After agreeing on a final sales price, you’ll need to draw up some kind of agreement on paper to formalize the deal. It can be as simple as writing it all up on a piece of paper in plain English, but a formal Purchase Agreement contract is best as it protects your interests better. A Purchase Agreement or contract document spells out the specifics of what land is being sold, to whom, for how much, and any other important information about the sale.
9. Hire A Closing Agent
The next step is to find a reputable title agency or attorney to complete the sale for you. These professionals will turn your contract into an actual legal sale. It costs money to hire a title agency or attorney to finish your deal, but it’s well worth it to make sure the sale is done correctly and legally. A title agent or attorney will make sure that all the proper paperwork is completed and signed, and will send the signed paperwork to the county to list your land in the new owner’s name. Regardless of whether you sell your land through a real estate agent or not, expect this process to take a couple of weeks.
10. Finalize The Deal
After the sale is closed, you’ll work with your title company or attorney to finally get the money that has been paid for your land. You can get it wired right into your bank account (usually for a fee), or they can send you a check. Congratulations! You have sold your land.
Not For Everyone
Using a Real Estate Agent to sell your land is not for everyone. But neither is selling your land by yourself. If you decide to sell your land yourself, be prepared to substitute a substantial amount of your time to save those fees. It can pay off, though, if you can stick to it long enough to get to the end of the sale.
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