LANDFLIP.com Launches New Land Auction Tab as the Number of Real Estate Bidders Surges

As auctions become an increasingly popular marketing tool for selling property, and investors race to ‘name their price’, LANDFLIP.com launches a new land ‘Auctions’ tab to capitalize on the bidding frenzy taking over the real estate industry.

Atlanta, GA — November 18, 2008 — In recent years, real estate auctions have become increasingly popular among sellers, agents and other industry professionals who want to create a sense of excitement and urgency to move property quickly. Auctions have also become the preferred method of purchasing property among savvy buyers and investors searching for the best deals in the industry. In response to this trend, LANDFLIP.com has launched a new land ‘Auctions’ tab, featuring homesites, farm land, hunting land, commercial lots and other types of property across the United States. In addition to luring eager buyers, the new section is quickly becoming prime real estate for land auctioneers with new listings eager to reach prospective bidders.

While residential home sales and values have plummeted sending the market into distress, land sales have remained steady, and rural land property values have continued to appreciate. In 2007, auction sales grew 5.3 percent, with agricultural, residential and commercial land auctions comprising a significant portion of the market. Additionally, a number of prominent real estate firms have launched auction divisions to capitalize on this growing trend, and buyers are increasingly scouring the Internet to learn more about how they can strategically profit from auctions to diversify their portfolios. Read more

This land is our land

I was lying in bed at 3:30 a.m. a couple of weeks ago recounting dumb things I’ve done and making a to-do list when a new thought slipped into line.

It was this: I was warm and dry, fed and watered. I did not fear a knock at my door and a one-way trip to jail. Since I have a long and undistinguished record of hostility to power in many forms, maybe I’m just too old to bother with anymore.

Had I been born in most other countries, I would probably have found myself as a left-wing opponent of a right-wing dictatorship or a right-wing opponent of a left-wing dictatorship. My fate would have been the same unpleasantness in either case.

I’ve had a long, blemished tussle with authority acting arbitrarily. I attribute this to poor breeding and too much early Bob Dylan on my part along with bad rulings by bad rulers on authority’s part.

So why was I feeling pretty safe in my own mortgaged home on my own mortgaged land? Read more

Mastering The Art Of The U-turn

You know the scene all too well….. you’re driving down the road and all of a sudden, you spot some really interesting piece of property - you know nothing about it, but something tells you it might be worth a closer look. Now comes the hard part. Do you keep on truckin’ or do you do what any savvy land investor does and slow down, pull over, then do a U-turn and head right back up the road, to check things out?!

This is huge, folks and it takes a monumental effort to interrupt the flow of your day,  but it could mean the difference between investor mediocrity and finding the kind of deals that people write books about. Just think how many other people have spotted the exact same parcel and probably had the exact same thought as you just did, but carried on driving. I’m here to tell you it’s time to change your behavior. Land deals generally don’t fall in your lap, but the harder you work, the luckier you’ll become.  Think of your business as a treasure hunt - it’s exciting when there’s a good chance you’re the only one going after a particular opportunity. That derelict shed at the side of the road might be sitting on 100 acres, or give access to who-knows-what to the rear of the property.

Any of you had this type of experience?

Good luck out there; keep thinking outside the box and before you make your move, check your rear-view mirror!

Richard Dale-Mesaros

Land Specialist with www.NorthernAcres.com

…..and Chief Deal Weaver at www.BlackWidowNetwork.com

Americans wanted land 250 years ago, and still do

Fifty years ago, I stood on a stage at Morningside School, dressed as a British officer from 1758. My eighth-grade class was celebrating Pittsburgh’s Bicentennial.

I was Colonel Henry Bouquet, second in command under General John Forbes who, though ill and litter-bound, had led 7,000 British soldiers and colonials across Pennsylvania to the Forks of the Ohio River.

The French had staked a claim to the Ohio country a decade earlier, then built Fort Duquesne at the point where the Allegheny joined the Monogahela to form the Ohio. This gave them a water highway to the Mississippi and New Orleans.

George Washington and a handful of Virginians had taken a run at the Forks in 1754, only to be whipped badly and allowed to withdraw. This defeat initiated the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and brought immense consequences. Read more

Out-of-State Owners A Good Bet For Land Deals

Before I dive in, I wanted to thank Ryan Folk for inviting me to join the illustrious ranks of the LandThink blog contributors. I have seen some very insightful posts and a great deal of stimulating discussion in the comments sections!

Having started my land investment career basically with fresh air and a hunkering for a good deal, I had to (and still do) employ some out-of-the-box strategies, to get my phone ringing with folks who want to sell their land. One particularly successful technique has been sending letters to out-of-state owners.

I guess there’s a whole mess of theory surrounding how to write effective direct mail letters ( …and we’re not going to get into that here!), but one of the cool things about this type of campaign, is that you can test different versions of your letter, to see which one generates the best response - just use different colored paper, or some other means of identification, to let you know which letter the seller responded to. This way, you can go from complete garbage to something that gets results, without really needing to be a letter-writing genius. Read more

Next Page »