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My husband and I are looking to buy a large tract of either raw land and we will build a house or a house with acreage. We are looking in counties that are very small population wise and listings tend to stay on the market a while. Lately we have seen listings that have been up for literally two and three sometimes more years. The prices haven’t dropped that much either. In these cases would a really lowball offer be a good place to start? I feel like the listings definitely aren’t going anywhere and are overvalued by the seller but we don’t want to offend anyone.
Land can be very difficult to sell. I have seen downtown lots posted for sale for many years and used for paid parking in the meantime. The owner gets his taxes paid and waits for the buyer who really wants the property.
> we don’t want to offend anyone
You are too sensitive. As Hyman Roth said, it's business. If the property interests you, make a (real, written) offer. But don't be surprised if the seller says no.
My husband and I are looking to buy a large tract of either raw land and we will build a house or a house with acreage. We are looking in counties that are very small population wise and listings tend to stay on the market a while. Lately we have seen listings that have been up for literally two and three sometimes more years. The prices haven’t dropped that much either. In these cases would a really lowball offer be a good place to start? I feel like the listings definitely aren’t going anywhere and are overvalued by the seller but we don’t want to offend anyone.
It depends on the seller.
My family was forced to sell off some land that had been in our family for almost 100 years. While we needed the money it was more important to sell to the "right person". We did not want to sell to someone who would be a "bad neighbor" to people who had been decades long dear friends and neighbors to our family. There were many neighbors who had been there for multiple generations.
We wanted people who would respect and treat the land well, as we felt that we were just "stewards of the land" and not "owners of the land". We priced the land reasonable, but high, and never budged on the price until we were in final, final negotiations and then, usually, lowered our asking price. We sold lots/parcels ranging from 10 acres to 40 acres.
However, the land that you find for sale might be owned by distant relatives or newer owners of the land, who do not care as much as we did and they may accept a lower offer. Or someone may need the money more quickly than we did.
BTW, we were not offended when someone offered a low amount (usually it was a contractor or someone thinking that they would resell the land for a big profit), but we just told them that our prices were firm and they never contacted us again. Several of our lots were on the market for three or four years.
Last edited by germaine2626; 07-17-2018 at 06:35 PM..
Land can be very difficult to sell. I have seen downtown lots posted for sale for many years and used for paid parking in the meantime. The owner gets his taxes paid and waits for the buyer who really wants the property.
> we don’t want to offend anyone
You are too sensitive. As Hyman Roth said, it's business. If the property interests you, make a (real, written) offer. But don't be surprised if the seller says no.
Hyman got publicly whacked.
I wanna different mentor.
I see properties, including raw land, sit on the market for years at a price that discourages buyers/offers.
You'll never know what the motivations and needs are of the seller. Sometimes they are in a position to hold onto the property indefinitely, sometimes their situation may change. Sometimes they're just on a "fishing expedition" and it's not seriously for sale unless the price is very high.
Land does sit often for a long time depending on the location.
Lots of reasons for this.
One is that it often takes significant cash to buy land.
Typically there's not 100% financing, or 97% financing, or 90% financing.
Often it is 50% financing....at best.
So not uncommon to have lots of interest, but lots of interest with no money to buy.
Get your financing in order and start making orders....show them both your cash and your financing.
Low offers might work...but not with every seller. You just have to hit the right one.
It tells you there is some kind of a barrier making the property unattractive to buyers.
There could be a graveyard on the property, garbage dump, critter infestation, murder scene, hangings, Indian graveyard, hauntings, a scrap heap, abandoned cars and machinery, no electrical access or town water, no access road, grown up with weeds and thickets, predisposed to flooding, and so on.
I think you have to do some title searching and history of the property at the local records office and library. Talk to the locals and law enforcement.
From what I have seen, medium size plots of land in downtown areas sometimes sit for decades with a "For Sale" sign on them. Ultimately, they are developed. One such parcel became a small shopping center 3 or 4 years ago. It's great to have another place to shop now, but the community could have used the shopping center many years before.
Another large parcel was left vacant inside the subdivision where I live. It was promised to be a grade school; however, ten years later the land was subdivided, instead, and somewhat smaller infill houses were built. That seems to be the most common thing happening nowadays around here.
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