new to FSBO - selling land/lot - need direction

14 years ago

We have a piece of property on a lake that we have decided to sell and would like to at least initially attempt to sell ourselves. Aside from putting a sign in the yard we are clueless, but are willing to take advice, read, research and learn. We had it professionally appraised, so between that and the tax appraisals have an idea where to start. Please someone, point us in the right direction to available information or websites that might be helpful - there seems to be books and services for different fees; some i am sure are helpful, some not so much. We have found this forum so helpful in the past with information and advice.

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Comments (2)

creek_side
14 years ago
We sold some acreage FSBO recently. We actually got more for it than what a local Realtor suggested we should list it for. We not only sold it for more than she suggested it would bring, but saved by not having to pay her a commission.

Here is what we did. We had the land surveyed. That was an absolute necessity since we were subdividing a larger piece of property. I took lots of photos of the land. Then I put up a web site listing everything good about the property. I put about 30 photos on the web site, all carefully captioned. I had the price on the web site, along with contact information.

I posted the land on craigslist frequently, rotating cities where I felt potential buyers were likely to live. I always included a link to the web site. I was very careful to use key words that I expected potential buyers would be likely to use as search terms.

I also posted the link to city-data.com's free for sale forum. That forum is fully indexed by Google, which will help increase your FSBO web site's Google page rank, if you do it right.

Craigslist's embedded links are not followed by Google, so you can't boost your page rank that way.
I built a large wooden sign, about three feet by four feet. I painted it white and used large black letters that said in essence, ACREAGE FOR SALE and gave the phone number. I placed the sign where it could be seen by drivers passing in either direction.

I see lots of FSBOs with unreadable signs. For a driver to be able to read a sign at speed, it must be large, boldly lettered, and have a simple message.

The combination of the web site, the craigslist postings, and the sign brought in quite a bit of traffic. We had more showings than the fellow down the road who had his property listed with a Realtor. In the end, we ended up selling the property to someone who heard about it by word of mouth. However, they did study the property via the web site once they heard it was on the market.

There are two things we did not do that were mistakes. We did not get an appraisal. We felt we knew what the property was worth, so we didn't bother. However, an appraisal would have been a handy marketing tool.

The other thing we did not do, which caused quite a bit of a headache for us, was to not have a contract available for the buyer to sign. Instead, we used the buyer's attorney. It turned into a bit of a mess, as the attorney went nuts and produced a contract that was, to put it mildly, absurd.

It took several weeks to get past that. The next time, we will have a simple boiler plate contract in hand.
sowngrow (8a)
14 years ago
I am selling lake property also and have put mine on a site I found while searching, it's lakehouse.com. You can sell land or a home on this site. I have a question cameron or creek side if you read this, where do I get a blank contract to have on hand? If you could email me an answer soon, I'd appreciate it. I have a couple coming out to look at my property today. Thank you.
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The land was originally 500+ acres on a land grant from the Governor of NC before the Revolutionary War. So, it's been in my family for 200+ years. We're exactly the same, even the same state. Also have friends that live 30min away from our city because they "wanted to be by their parents, wanted to be out of the city, wanted cheap land with woods..." but nobody goes to their houses for entertainment and they're always the ones driving everywhere. Ick. I grew up in that type of area, and we moved to a more populated area with better schools while the kids were growing up ... but now we're looking to go back. However, I can't relate to the "nobody goes to their houses" part; our family tends to gather out in the country. It's easy to host gatherings: No parking problems, space for cookouts and picnics, kids love playing in the woods and have a barn instead of a playhouse, people feel free to bring their dogs, and we have a go-cart track, an archery range, and a rifle range shared by the family. You can't have a bonfire in the city. When we build, we're going to add a pool to the mix. Also, most kids don't like growing up in BFE, parents end up having to drive them everywhere.. Having grown up in the aforementioned "BFE", I understand you: We couldn't walk to friends' houses, going anywhere required a car, part-time jobs as teens weren't plentiful. However, growing up out in the country comes with some benefits that kids tend to overlook: ample space, learning old-fashioned skills, and programs like 4H. I think it's unfair to say that MOST kids don't like growing up in a rural area. We have no way to verify that.
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I would suggest that the first thing you do is develop your site plan. There are building codes for how far away septic and well have to be from each other (usually 100 feet). I'm in SW Florida and the new well we just put in at our place of business cost $10,000 for a 30 foot well. Expect the septic to cost about the same. You'll also need electric run to the well to operate the well pump. The well water will not be potable so you'll need to consider what kind of filtration system you want. If I had well water in Florida, I wouldn't consider anything less than a whole house r/o (reverse osmosis) system. Your city will be able to tell you what you'll need for your culvert pipe. In New York, where I worked for a company that built new construction, site work was an average of $60-80K for driveway, well, septic, electric, clearing, etc. Consider burying the electric from the street. There may be electric on the road, but if there is not a pole close by, you may have to pay to have one put in. If you're going to set the structures back more than the electric company allowance, you're going to have to pay for a second pole on your property as well. The pole has to run to a meter, so you'll have to look into the cost of the meter and whether you're allowed to attach it to a separate post or if it has to be attached to a structure. Lots to consider!
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new to FSBO - selling land/lot - need direction

Comments (2)

creek_side

sowngrow (8a)

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