Seus Land Exchange Inc.

1. Locate the property

2. Understand the property rights

3. Value the property

4. Complete the transaction

Finding the best location for your property:

You must clearly define the major intended uses for the land you want to purchase. Have a list of attributes to help narrow your search.  Also identify the important geographic attributes to easily identify where your land should be.

Understanding property rights and do due diligence:

Potential buyers should view the property as if they eventually intend to sell it. Understanding property rights can sometimes be difficult because they are less tangible and encompass issues from verifying ownership to identifying easements. All these stipulations need to be understood during the due diligence process.

Doing due diligence is the buyer's responsibility. Advance research gives you a fact based offering price.

Check into what the seller discloses, boilerplate inspections, fee ownership, general warranty deed, access, acreage, boundaries, easements, and more.

How to value the property:

Valuing land is a specialized activity requiring knowledge of local markets and the influence of property features on prices.

Land price reports may assist buyers as they begin to formulate an offering price. The reports reflect general market conditions rather than particular farms or ranches.  Here is where an informed agent's help is very practical.

How to complete the transaction:

After negotiating a price, a land purchase typically culminates in a contract. Dr. Gilliland. a research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, details how this isn't always so easy:

"A young couple wanted a particular tract and inquired about the property of a nearby homeowner. The homeowner offered to provide a deed for a cash payment. The couple paid the cash, and the homeowner delivered the deed.

The buyers, however, discovered their deed was a quit claim deed instead of the more familiar warranty deed. The quit claim deed simply stipulates that the person providing the deed relinquishes any claim to the property in favor of the person receiving the deed. It does not guarantee or warrant that the person executing the deed even had a claim to the property. Had the homeowner owned the tract of land, title would have passed with the quit claim deed. However, in this case, the homeowner did not own an interest in the property, and the deed conveyed nothing."

Gilliland concludes:

"These difficulties by no means represent all problems for land buyers. Buyers unfamiliar with different properties in their target area, property values and different legal documents should avoid completing a transaction without competent assistance."