How To Sell Land

To sell land, as with any real estate, you sometimes have to choose between getting the highest price versus selling faster. The following tips can help you get a higher price AND a fast sale, but keep in mind that if speed is of the essence, lowering the price is the surest way to sell land more quickly. Fortunately a lower price doesn't always mean less money in the end. This is because you avoid the costs of continuing advertising and the costs of holding onto your land.

3 Things To Do When You Sell Land

1. Have The Land Ready To Sell

You know you should clean a house when selling it, but many think that land doesn't need preparation. Not true. Imagine a pile of brush, a rusty barbed wire fence, and a few puddles of mud. Now, it is true that some people can imagine what the property will look like cleaned up, but do you want to limit your market to buyers with good imaginations?

A better plan is to help buyers see the potential in a property by cleaning it up. Burn or remove piles of brush and leaves. Fill puddles with dirt and level them. Remove old fences that aren't useful. If there isn't a driveway, outline one, or at least designate an area for cars to park and rake it out. One days labor can easily help you sell your land faster and for more money. If you don't want to do it yourself, pay someone.

Most people want to know what they are getting. Unfortunately, they can't read a legal description and from that visualize the boundaries of the land. Mark the boundaries. Pay for a survey, or at least put a white post at each corner of the parcel. Spray paint costs two dollars, and you can use wood from your land for the posts. Just be sure you can clearly show buyers where those property lines are.

2. Offer Financing To Sell Land Faster

My first piece of real estate was a couple acres of land. Two weeks after I bought it, I sold it for 35% more than I paid for it. I was able to do this because I bought for cash, and offered easy terms when I sold it (0 down, 0 per month). The buyer thought the price was too high, and I agreed, explaining that this was why it had easy financing. She didn't have the cash in any case.

Offering easy terms is the simplest way to add value and raise the price when you sell land. A house sold this way can be easily damaged and worth less if you have to foreclose, but it is much safer to sell land this way. Also, in the above example, I received 11% interest, another nice benefit of selling this way.

3. Prepare For Buyer's Questions

Nobody likes uncertainty. The less there is, the more likely a buyer is to make a decision when looking at your land. Be prepared with answers. What is the zoning? How deep are they drilling wells in the area? Where is the nearest town, and store? Make a map to these. Have the phone numbers of companies that can drill a well, prepare a building site, cut trees, or whatever else may be needed. You can collect all this information by telephone.

Bring a friend out to look at your land before you try to sell it. Tell him to ask you every question he can think of about it. Prepare for those questions and others you think of. You can always sell land more easily if all the buyer's questions have ready answers.