Three cheap ways for land sellers to improve their marketing

The devaluation in real-estate values that began in metropolitan areas in 2007 with over-valued residential properties is starting to roll into the country. Sales seem to be slowing.

Sellers lower their asking prices to move their properties in a market that’s turned against them.

A cut in price will have more impact on buyers if it’s packaged with three trust-building gestures that position them to make a deal.

1. Provide complete property information.

I advise sellers to put together a packet that includes the following: Read more »

How to sell land: A buyer’s market begs for seller-financing

No one likes getting kicked in the teeth. Particularly, repeatedly.

That’s how Americans feel this week as the sinking economy flails about, dragging down banks, sales, jobs, credit, savings and hope.

Things that almost all of us had no part in–derivatives, credit-default swaps, subprime mortgage pools — have stomped everyone into the financial dirt.

It’s a bad time to be in the jam of having to sell real estate. Buyers are spooked, and rightly so. Big lenders appear to fear lending, particularly to each other, even though money is available. They want debt off their backs, as do we all.

It’s a “buyer’s market” in real estate, except buyers are afraid to buy even if they can.

We have a lot to fear, including fear itself. Read more »

Sellers: Sticking on price keeps you stuck

I’m trying to figure something out: With rural property showing for-sale signs rusting in place, why haven’t sellers lowered asking prices and offered financing?

I spent several hours this weekend looking at rural listings around the country. Thousands are advertised, with many of each type in the same place at about the same price.

Few sellers appear to have come off their original asking prices during the last six months. In most areas, sales seem slow. Suburban sellers have cut their prices by 25 percent or more. So why aren’t rural land sellers doing the same?

First, rural sellers may not have as urgent a need to sell. Turnover in rural property is lower than in suburbs where homeowners are subject to job transfers and financial volatility. Rural sellers are often able to wait longer.

Second, sellers in a weakening market are inclined to imprison their asking prices with backward-looking expectations. Since prices and sales were strong a year or two ago, therefore, seller reasoning goes, they should be strong now (even if they’re not). Read more »

Sellers! Help your buyers

I looked at a small wooded tract a couple of weeks ago.

Before visiting, I asked the seller if he had a deed that he could send me so that I could run the calls through a deed-mapper program to check the acreage. He said that he did, but that he would not provide it. “Go get it at the courthouse,” he said. The courthouse was a five-hour drive away. I asked for the deed book and page number, so that I could phone in a request. “Look it up,” he said.

Most questions were met with stonewalls and an I’m-too-busy-to-be-bothered attitude.

What advantage could this seller have thought he might be achieving by acting this way? Beats me.

I’m reading an excellent book on negotiating by Steve Cohen, Negotiating Skills for Managers, McGraw-Hill, 2002, $14.95. Steve runs The Negotiation Skills Company outside of Boston, which provides professional negotiators and assistance. www.negotiationskills.com.

Sellers will help themselves in negotiations by being civil, helpful and honest.

Why you should survey before you sell

Among the countless problems that can occur during the “sale pending” period of a land transaction, a survey is at the top of the list. Along with title issues, survey problems adversely impact more land closings than anything else. In this article, we will explain surveys and their significance to landowners, particularly those making preparations to sell. Let’s start with a little insight into the practice of land surveying from a historical perspective and then compare that with modern methods utilized today.

Surveying is the art and science of making measurements to locate points on, above or beneath the earth’s surface. The surveyor cannot by his own actions establish new boundary lines. However, he can use his experience and knowledge to formulate an opinion concerning the location of a boundary line in question. The actual survey is the measure of an area, calculated in acres in the U.S. One acre is 43,560 square feet.  Why such an odd number? Acres are based on “chains” or rather 66 ft. increments. An acre is exactly 66 feet x 660 feet or 1 chain x 10 chains. Another measurement based on chains is the mile which is 5,280 feet or 80 chains. A more common way to envision a one acre area is that it covers approximately 208ft. X 208 ft. A typical subdivision lot of 100′ of frontage x 200 feet of depth is about 46 hundredths of an acre. Read more »

Hey, Hey. Ho, Ho. Fabulous has got to go!

Words mean as much in selling real estate as they do in selling a Presidential candidate. Every campaign — whether in politics or property — spins its words to feature its candidate’s assets and redecorate the liabilities.

Often, the best tactic for selling anything is to tell the customer: Don’t look at this; look at that. “Sure, this pickup truck only gets eight miles to the gallon, but you won’t find a redder paint job this side of Beijing, and those cupholders…they’re the best in our weight class!”

As I read the real-estate classifieds on Sunday, I was struck by the number of properties that were awesome, beautiful, breath-taking, charming, elegant, exciting, extraordinary, fabulous, gracious, great, ideal, incredible, lovely, luxurious, magazine-incredible, magnificent, must-see-to-believe, one-of-a-kind, picturesque, pristine, private, spectacular, stunning, superb and terrific. Read more »

Property sellers can help themselves: Think outside the hole

Many sellers are stuck. They want to sell, but can’t because buyers are stuck too.

Why is everyone stuck? Fear and money.

Sellers are afraid to sell at prices lower than a year ago, and buyers are afraid to buy until the market bottoms out.

Sellers and buyers are afraid to lose money; lenders are afraid to lend it.

Everyone is scared of the future.

Might it be said that the main thing we have to fear is…ourselves.

Doing the same will not solve this mess. Doing different — lenders lending, sellers selling, buyers buying — will. Read more »

How to sell country property in a crummy market

Many sellers today may feel quietly desperate. Recession is here; credit is tight; buyers are scarce; property is not moving.

Real-estate gurus advise sellers to cut their prices, pay more of the closing costs and improve their properties, if only cosmetically. Gurus, in my experience, usually urge followers to spend money, often on them. Read more »