Saturday, January 14, 2012

Selling a House is not the same as Selling Land

-Fewer people are looking to buy land than houses Land just isn't as popular as houses are. That's pretty obvious, since most real estate transactions are made by people looking for a place to live, not an investment or a place to build. This is important to keep in mind, because simply putting up a sign or running a Craigslist ad won't cut it: it may never be seen by someone looking for what you have to offer!


-How do you "show" land? Everyone knows what it means to show a house, and it's the basic thing you do at the beginning of the selling process. But what about for land? Showing land is a lot less likely to cause a potential buyer to form an emotional connection with the property than if the property was a house, simply because it's easier to imagine oneself living at the new place if the house actually exists!


-Harder to motivate agents The simple fact is that any given piece of land would almost always be worth more if it had a house sitting on it. So, real estate agents will gain a smaller commission from selling your land than from selling properties nearby that have improvements. Now of course, most agents try to do their very best for their clients, but it would be difficult for anyone to completely fight off the disincentive of a smaller paycheck.


The internet is your best friend


It's no secret that a ton of real estate business is done online, but how should you use this knowledge to quickly sell your land? Well, as we discussed earlier, the number of people actively looking to buy land is relatively small, so you need to get your property out to a wide audience. This is easy to do online, with free sites like Zillow and FSBO being great places to submit your property. However, there are also special investor portals online that let you put your property right in front of the eyes of people who actually buy and sell land for a living! These folks look at properties all the time and make their decisions about whether or not to buy based on specific criteria, so it's best to provide them with as much information about your property as possible. Oftentimes you can get an investor to make you an offer site unseen. Now that's how to sell land!