All Forum Posts by: Zac Caudell

That's a good point, but in general, I'm not dealing with real estate investors. These buyers mainly just fall into the "general public". The property is vacant land so the buyers are people who just want to own some land, people who want to build there one day, or contractors who want to build a spec house.

Currently, my contract doesn't allow for due diligence. It states that the buyer is responsible for independently verifying any information about the property prior to signing. So far this hasn't caused any problems, but if it does in the future then I may add in the due diligence clause.

I’m trying to sell a property and now have multiple parties interested. I’ve never been in this position before so I don’t know the best way to proceed.

I have one buyer who is ready to sign a contract. The other two are still doing their due diligence, which may take 2-3 weeks (waiting on soil test results). Do I make “ready to sign" guy wait until the due diligence guys are finished and then call for highest and best offers? If I make “ready to sign” guy wait then I may lose him; he is anxious to get moving. And if he bails, then what if due diligence guys change their minds after doing their research? I could go back to “ready to sign” guy, but he may have found another property by then.

Also, what are the unspoken rules of negotiating a bidding war? Do I let the other parties know what the current offer is? Or do I just keep quiet and ask for highest and best (which to me doesn’t seem that easy, given the situation above)? Do any of you seasoned sellers have some tactics for keeping things fair without losing your bidders and your chance for extra profit?

This may be obvious, but be sure to clean the glass on all the windows. I have a friend who always thought the windows in his office were tinted. Then he went to clean them one day and found out that they were just coated in years of smoke and tar.

Thanks for your thoughts Greg. I actually went with a combination of your suggestions. After talking to the buyer more he told me that he definitely wanted the property, but he had to have the survey. I decided to drop the price by $1500, but I'm requiring him to put down $3000 in earnest money in the contract. Once I have the earnest money I'll use it to order the survey. Then if he backs out I don't lose anything and I gain a survey, and if he buys it I'm only down $1500 on my profit.

Also, I now have another interested buyer. So I may be able to use that to get the price back up to cover the $1500, or maybe even more. I'll have to tread lightly though, I'm not that experienced in managing a bidding war. In fact, I may start a new post on that topic

Thanks for the responses, folks. Technically, the buyer didn't request the survey, but he wants to know where the lot lines are when he walks the property. A survey is the only way I know to accomplish this with certainty. The neighboring property has a bunch of tires and other trash piled up near, and possibly over, the line, so I can see wanting to know exactly where the boundary is.

@Matthew Deines - I thought about splitting the cost with him. $1500 beats $3000, but I'm still not sure it's worth it with no guarantee.

@David W. - It's a 10 acre parcel that hasn't been platted in 50-60 years. The $3000 is a ballpark estimate from the surveyor. I think you're right though, if he really wants it he'll pay for the survey.

@Wayne Brooks - He has seen a copy of the county GIS map but I guess that wasn't enough for him. However, given certain context clues from our conversation, it's also likely that he isn't very internet savvy, so it may be more difficult for him to get full use out of the GIS map.

I'm working on a vacant land wholesale deal and one of my potential buyers wants a $3,000 boundary survey done. He claims to be very interested, but I hesitate to drop the money on a survey because it doesn't necessarily guarantee the sale. There's a potential $19,000 profit in it so it's not like I won't make anything, but I'm not sure it's worth losing $3,000 to maybe sell it now versus 1-3 months from now. Anyone have any ideas about how to structure the deal so that he gets his survey and I don't lose $3,000 if he decides not to buy?

@Seth Williams, @Mark Podolsky How have you guys handled the survey issue with your land deals in the past?

Thanks.

Just submitted my info to you through the google docs form on your profile. I'll be ready to move on something in about a month. If you need more clarification let me know. Looking forward to see what kind of deals you come up with. I'm finding it really difficult to find deals in Gwinnett right now.