How to sell Vacant Land

[John C.]

Hi Everyone, 

I am new to BP. My experience is 37 years in the finance sector and several years in real estate as both investor and financier. 

I have seen that there is much to learn at BP in a multitude of topics but there is one that I see is a little neglected, which is, how to sell vacant residential land. 

I have put together some ideas which may help you if you are trying to sell or intending to sell vacant land.

Selling any vacant land is difficult. One of the primary reasons for this is that lenders for the most part will not finance it. Therefore the market is mostly restricted to cash only buyers but this can be overcome.

So lets talk about how to sell vacant land. There are several aspects to marketing vacant land successfully but the two most important are "THE OFFER" and "HOW TO MARKET"

Firstly lets talk about the offer. Sales people often say "sell the sizzle and not the steak". This is very true in all sales but especially so in selling vacant land. We have to overcome any obstacles or objections for prospective purchasers and create desire to own.

Obstacles to buying may include - not enough money to buy, no finance available, not familiar with the area, can't travel to see the land and the area and lack of information. You also need give them confidence and peace of mind by offering some due diligence in your advertisement. By removing as many of these obstacles as possible, creating desire and giving peace of mind to purchase, when you are formulating the offer you will make the land that you are trying to sell more desirable to stand out form the rest. 

So let's talk about what we can do in the points below;

1. Removing obstacles or objections to sale and showing your land in the best light, is the focus of formulating the offer. 
2. Obstacles to buying include - not enough money to buy, no finance available, not familiar with the area, can't travel to see the land and don't know the area. Removing as many of these obstacles as possible when formulating my offer, creating a desire for the land and introducing the reader to the area, is how I try to make my land stand out form the rest.
3. My methods of overcoming objections and creating desire.
4. - Not enough money and no finance available. Consider offering Seller Finance in your offer. You can do this easily with a "contract for deed" where the deed does not pass to the purchaser until after final payment is made. This offer of seller finance will make your land more desirable and put it in reach of a much larger market. Plus you can earn much better than bank interest on your money/equity as rates mostly run between 8% and 15% interest for seller finance on vacant land. For example; a $10k lot selling for $500 down payment and monthly payments of $199 per month for 5 years with no more to pay will often become an impulse buy. (note:You can always sell and assign the contract to an investor later on if you need the cash).
5. - Not familiar with the area and can't travel to see the land. 
6. Remember that most land is not attractive at all, it is only a piece of dirt and nothing to look at. People buy a dream to live in an area they like, a dream to eventually build their own home, a retirement or a holiday home or even a place to go hunting or fishing but they don't for the most part jus buy land.
7. To sell land you I use plenty of photos of attractions, sports, parks and activities in the area. I try to put the photos in order of attraction first, followed by the sports, football, golf, fishing tennis etc, then parks and recreation near the land or in the area and finally a lot plan or possibly even a photo of the land itself (if is is clean and tidy) but a photo of the land is not necessary.
8. Next, imbed a google map in your add if possible (if not then a link to the google IP address for your land). This is simple to do on many of the sites you might advertise on. A google map will give prospects the ability to zoom in on the property and travel virtually up and down the street to get a good feel for the neighborhood. 
9. Your prospective purchasers will then be able to go on a virtual tour of the land courtesy of google and get a great impression of what the area is like from your photos. This way they can start to build a desire to buy your land and to live in the area. 
10. TIP: You can get plenty of photos to use from your local chamber of commerce and area tourism authority. Making a youtube video to imbed in your ad is also a great idea if you have the software and the knowhow to do it.
11. Next, make sure that you have all the details of you land available for the ad. This includes the property address, assessors parcel number, county value assessment, lot size, legal description, property use code/zoning, County and the annual property tax amount.
12. - Then we need to offer sufficient due diligence in order to create peace of mind in any prospective buyers. Examples of due diligence which should be included in your ad or photos are; 
13. - reassurance that there are no liens or encumbrance against the property. This can be a copy of title search or even a personal reassurance that no liens are existing on the land and all taxes are paid.
14. - Your most recent tax receipt from the county showing that taxes are up to date. This will also provide proof that you own the land because the tax bill is in your name.
15. - Go to the county website and copy the assessors page for the land which shows the county valuation together with the LAND USE CODE and Parcel ID, include this in your add or photos.
16. - To provide proof of value, include BPO (broker price opinion) and/or links to websites that give an appropriate appraisal for the value of the land. 
17. - any links to recent sales near your land (if any).
18. - Links to website addresses that show an estimated value for your land. some such sites may be Zillow, Homes, Homesnap, EAppraisal, Realtor.com and Visulate to name a few.

Now lets talk about How to Market. There are many professional land marketing websites that you can successfully advertise your land on for a small fee and some for free. Some of these include; Landwatch, Lotnetwork, Postlets and Craigslist. You can also get your listing onto the MLS without using a real estate agent at ForSaleByOwner.com. 

After you have decided where to place your ads then you need to properly structure them. 

1. - First you need to create a good Headline. Make it count because this is the first thing than has to get the attention of prospective buyers. If the headline does not get their attention then they will move past your ad. 
2. - Include a nice description for your property
3. - Include good information and a short story about why the county or area is so desirable.   
4. - Then include all of the things I have mentioned above. 
5. - Finally, include an easy method to contact you by email or phone.

I hope that sharing how I go about selling my vacant land helps some of you to sell yours. I am not a guru by any means so if any of you have any suggestions in return then please post them here so that we can all benefit.