LandThink

Research is the key to finding and making good property deals. Most research on a target property should take place before you submit a written offer that includes your offer price. Why research before making an offer when you can put a 30-day, results-acceptable-to-the-buyer study contingency in your contract?

About 10.6 million privately owned acres — an area about twice the size of Connecticut — now carry conservation easements. This land base is growing by more than one million acres annually.

Buyers of country property always ask, “What’s the right money to pay?” They often seek an answer in three ways. One approach is to assume that the buyer’s right money is roughly 15 percent less than the seller’s asking price.

Appraisers are being punched up in the courts and the press for not always providing honest real-estate valuations. What’s going on? What exactly do appraisers do? An appraiser forms an opinion of a property’s current Fair Market Value (FMV) by judging its attributes in relation to recent selling prices of nearby comparable properties.

Here’s the story in most American cities—existing-home sales are down, pending home sales down, new home sales down and average home prices down. Adjustable interest rates are up, delinquent mortgages up, foreclosures up.