Seus Land Exchange Inc.

Curtis Seltzer wrote a fantastic article over at LandThink about how to submit a written offer based on:

• The value you determined the seller's property is worth to you
  
• The appraisal value
  
• The market
  
• The tax-assessed value
  

Seltzer maps out your options as follows:

1. Play it straight

Offer less than you believe the land is worth with hopes that you can negotiate a deal up to what the land is worth to you. Just make sure you justify your price based on your research.

2. Roll High

Offer over the seller's asking price BUT:

• Only offer a $10,000 down payment and insist on seller-financing.
• Make the offer contingent on a three-month study of the property's "assets and liabilities," which the results have to be acceptable to you. If they are unacceptable, you can void the contract and offer without penalty.
• Seller has to pay your closing costs.

As Seltzer puts it, "Your plan from the beginning has been to tie up the seller with your bogus contingency, string him out for three months and soften him for your hardball offer."

3. Take-it-or-Leave-it

Offer the price you are willing to pay with no contingencies and a reasonable down payment.  Explain how your research got you to your price, and make it known you aren't going up.

4. Make a Deal

Seltzer had a great idea in realizing the seller's attachment to his land. Say a seller values his 500 acres for hunting, but needs the cash for retirement. Seltzer proposes offering a 10 year, no cost hunting lease to the seller as part of a offer you're willing to pay.  The seller doesn't get as much money as he wants for the land, but he gets what he wants in the property, the ability to still hunt on the land.

It's a great article that gives insights into a land buyer and a land seller's point of view.

Related posts:

How to Buy Land for Sale

Questions to Ask When Buying Land

Buying Land v. Buying Stocks

Labels: buying land, Buying land in today's economy, land for sale, tips for buying land for sale

Labels: buying land, Buying land in today's economy, hunting land for sale, land for sale, tips for buying land for sale

I just invested in hunting land and recreational property in Georgia. I've never been to the exact spot, but it was a deal I could not refuse!


With the state of the economy, should you invest in land? If it's free you should!

Ok ok, this is sort of a joke.

I stumbled across the Own a Piece of America Web site today. The concept is an interesting one.

Through their Web site you can get land in any state of your choice. It's free and legal, and you don't have to pay taxes or maintain the land. You just can't develop or sell the land either. Through the site you can claim your ownership of one square inch lot. It's not really a land investment, but it's a lot of fun!

The owners have purchased all the land and it is fully legal for them to divvy it out an inch at a time.

You can buy framed deeds through the site to give family and friends as gifts, and your name goes on their list of owners.

Definitely borderline gimmicky, but I still think it's fun.

As always, if you actually want to buy land, check out Southern Land Exchange's land for sale. We have real lots with real value. :)

Labels: hunting land for sale, investing in land, land for sale, Land Investment

Whether you are looking into buying land for sale as a real estate investment or you're looking to find hunting land for sale there are several general things to consider.

As with any project large in scope, clearly define your goals and expectations. Having a clear understanding of why you want to buy land makes the process a little bit easier. This may seem like a "head-smacking tip," but you'll be glad you clearly outlined your purpose.

Determine what you want your land to be near.

Obviously land further from development is cheaper, but it will be more expensive if you intend to build on it. Builders often charge more the further they have to drive to the site. It can also be costly to dig a well or build a septic tank, and these things may have to be built the further you are from the city.

Determine if you can even build on the land.

According to a CNN Money article, the checklist below will help you determine if the land for sale can be built upon:

ZONING How the land is zoned determines what rises on it. Farmers across the country are subdividing their excess farmland into homesites and hanging FOR SALE signs -- but if the land is still zoned for agricultural use, the law may allow just one home for every, say, 40 acres. A five-acre parcel, therefore, isn't worth much.

Back at city hall, find out what your zoning designation means, whether a zoning change is planned and how to obtain a building permit. Ask what kind of setbacks from the property boundaries are required. Check flood maps to see if the property is in a flood zone. And if your land borders water, environmental regulations may limit your ability to develop the land as you'd like.

UTILITIES Are there hookups for water and sewer, electricity and telephone? If not, find out when the city plans to extend access. If there's no sewer, you'll need to order soil tests from the county health department or a local engineering firm to determine whether the land can support a septic system.

SOIL QUALITY Depending on the region, you may need soil borings to determine how far down builders must go to excavate for your foundation -- too much moisture can add tens of thousands of dollars to building costs. Also, if you need to dig a well for water, find out how deep you'll likely have to go; well digging can get expensive.

TOPOGRAPHY Hills or steep slopes will affect what you can build and how much it will cost. That woodsy tract also means you'll spend big bucks on tree removal in order to build.

ROAD ACCESS If your land isn't accessible by a public road, there should be a deeded right-of-way that gives you the right to access your land. That means you and your neighbors will be responsible for road upkeep, adding more costs to the project. Find out if the road floods during heavy rain or snow.

Finding the money to buy the land for sale is the next step in the whole land buying process. It is also a step that unfortunately can't be skipped.

Many lenders see vacant land as a risky investment so they require large down payments. If you finance the land locally, the lenders may be more familiar with the area, and therefore be more willing to take the risk.

Labels: hunting land for sale, investing in land, land for sale, Land Investment, tips for buying land for sale

According to McGinnis Auction and Appraisal Service, an absolute auction is "an auction where the property is sold to the highest qualified bidder with no limiting conditions or amount. The seller may not bid personally or through an agent. Also known as an auction without reserve."

The “absolute sale” in Morgan County on April 5 was indicative of current market conditions and illustrates who the buyers are today. The sale took place in the Morgan County Civic Center on a rainy Saturday morning that brought out everybody in the land business in the area and several from out of the area, approximately 120 people in all.

The auctioneer explained the terms of the sale with some new and confusing rules to snatch money from the bidders in combining tracts.

The parcels ranged in sizes of 32 acres to 179 acres in size:

• 6 of the smaller tracts were 32 to 69 acres consuming most of the road frontage
• 4 tracts were 130 acres to 179 acres being accessed by private drives with cross-over easements

The highest bidder could choose which and how many tracts to purchase.

3 bidders started the bidding at $2000 per acre, not a good sign, since this tract would have sold for between $5500 and $6000 per acre two years ago. A $4050 per acre bid prevailed and the high bidder took the entire 923 acres. All that anticipation and excitement about the “absolute auction” and it only lasted 3 minutes!

After the buyer’s premium, the high bidder ended up at $4455 per acre. The gentleman who purchased the property bought a tract from us just a few months ago at a fair price. There are a few buyers who want to warehouse money with a reasonable appreciation in land, but the auction bidder pool, at this time, is predominantly bottom feeders.

So where is the competition when the rest of the market believes that we haven’t seen the bottom? Waiting anxiously on the sidelines until they see evidence of consumer confidence rising and that is the time to call your auctioneer for an “absolute sale,” no reservations, no restrictions. When optimism is on the rise and the people are excited about the immediate future is when you sell recreational land by auction, that’s when you create a feeding frenzy of bidding fast, bidding last, and selling to the greater fool.

When would I do this? The spring of 2009 is the best I could say today.

Image from John Dixon and Associates

Labels: aboslute auction, hunting land for sale, land for sale, land real estate, Morgan County, recreational property

Labels: Cabela's, Cabela's Trophy Properties, hunting land, hunting land for sale, hunting lease, land, land for sale, land real estate