How To Sell Land Online

Selling land is not an easy job, even with the advantage of the internet, and a lot of potential sellers wonder about how to sell land online.

There are various steps involved in selling land over the internet. These include: providing virtual tours, working with brokers, knowing the objectives while setting a price for the land, demarking boundaries, and providing as much information as possible.

By using the power of the World Wide Web, you can effectively market your land to a global audience. In addition, digital technology enables you to portray the land in a clearer and more precise manner than if you displayed the land in person.

Through comprehensive research, including interviews from various land brokers and landowners, we will be covering all the essential steps involved in selling land over the internet.

‍Steps Involved in Selling Land Online:

1) Giving virtual tours:

No matter how comprehensive your online real-estate listing is, it is incomplete without drone videos. As far as land goes, aerial footage is particularly crucial. A thorough, bird’s-eye view allows you to capture all the unique features of your land. Hence, if you plan to sell your land over the internet, you will do well to hire a photographer who specializes in drone recordings and photography.

2) Spread awareness about development projects:

No buyer is looking to purchase land just for the sake of it. While it is true that the traditional concept of purchasing land as a form of investment still compels people to consider buying land, hardly anyone would be content with simply taking a seat and expecting the land to suddenly drum up demand overnight. Instead, buyers look to develop this land so that they can expedite their ROI (Return on Investment).

Hence, as a seller, you need to pinpoint the development potential for your land. This could include any nearby trendy locations or local expansion plans.

3) Work with a broker who specializes in land:

Every land broker is a real-estate agent, but not every real-estate agent is a land broker. A land-broker is a specialist real-estate agent, with expertise and experience in the selling, purchasing, and transferring of land. They possess in-depth understanding of zoning restrictions and building codes, as well as a wealth of other essential information.

Hence, such agents can provide invaluable advice and guidance regarding marketing land over the internet. There are several online tools that you can use to find a land-broker that meets your needs and requirements.

4) Understand your objectives while placing a price:

Often, overpricing your land can end up stalling the entire selling process, since exorbitantly high price demands can deter potential purchasers from even reaching out and making a bid that you might consider. Hence, if your goal is to initiate and complete the process in a swift and timely manner, your best bet would be to place a competitive price for your land.

Having said that, if you are like most sellers, you are also concerned about the profit – in which case, you should avoid shortchanging. The pandemic is forcing a lot of people to relocate, especially those in expensive and crowded cities such as New York and San Francisco.

Many people within this demographic want to find lands that will allow them to save money, create social distance, and use the benefit of remote working to initiate a new life. It is very much possible that your land area slots nicely into these requirements.

5) Demark your boundaries:

While the land size is an essential piece of information, it is not sufficient. Potential buyers checking your property out over the internet want to be extremely clear about what they will be paying for. For this reason, you should add the dimensions for the lot-lines, along with boundaries added into the aerial footages and photographs. This will allow your audience to clearly perceive the lay of the land.

6) Add as much information as possible:

When it comes to selling land over the internet, you can never have too much description. Along with detailed text, you also need to include plenty of pictures and videos to help your audience locate and understand exactly what you are selling.

In addition, since a lot of buyers worry about being duped – and are therefore wary about trusting online sellers – you should highlight any lacking or problematic aspects of your land, right from the get-go. This way, a potential buyer will know exactly what they are getting into, which will prevent them from developing cold-feet further down the road.

7) Use keywords in the listing:

You could prepare the perfect online listing, but, if potential buyers cannot find it amidst the thousands of other listings, it is all for nothing. Hence, to enhance the visibility of your listing, try and find some of the most common and popular keywords used by potential land buyers when searching for online listings. Some words that are often used by land buyers and sellers alike are:

• Mountains
• Close to town
• Lake
• Private

Using these and other popular keywords will allow your listing to rank higher in the result pages of search engines such as Google, and will boost your chances of attracting buyers.

Tips for Selling Land:

1) Decide the amount of time that you have:

When selling land, one of the very first things to be clear about is the time and effort that you can dedicate to the selling and marketing process. Do you want to wrap the sale up as quickly as possible? Or, can you wait it out and dedicate some extra energy and time? This determination will help you decide the ideal selling tactic and method for your land.

If you want a quick sale, there are many online land buying and selling platforms that can help you achieve that. In addition, you can also check out any relevant internet land auctions. Although taking these routes might not fetch you the highest possible price, they are certainly effective, easy, and fast.

On the other hand, if you have the luxury of time, you can seek out the services of a land-broker. However, once you take this option, there will be some time before you can expect an offer.

2) Get it thoroughly cleaned:

If you want someone to buy something that you have, you must make it worth their while and money. This means that you need to get rid of the yard junk, rusted cars, fallen branches, and toys that your now college-going children had when they were kids.

It is vital to see things from the point-of-view of a potential buyer – if you were only just viewing the land for the very first time, would you have wanted to buy it in its current condition?

3) Do not let the absence of a house deter you:

Often, land owners feel that they will never attract buyers because their property does not contain any houses.

Well, that is certainly not true. In fact, there is quite a steady and strong vacant lot market – so much so that there are companies that actually specialize in vacant lots, and are even willing to pay quick cash against such properties.

Empty pieces of land can be very alluring to buyers looking to build new houses, park trailers, or storage units. In addition, empty lands can also be used for gardening or farming, running a business, or even for hunting purposes.

The point is that not every buyer wants a house on the land that they purchase, and some would even prefer the exact opposite.

4) Keep checking your mail:

As strange as it seems, people who are marketing their land can expect a potential buyer to contact them out-of-the-blue.

In general, land sales and purchases belong to public records – and mailing addresses are part of those records. Hence, buyers who are interested in your property might reach out to you with an offer or other questions pertaining to the land.

Should this happen, it is time to put your detective goggles on, and use the internet to learn more about the legitimacy and authenticity of the person or company who has reached out to you. While it is crucial to operate with a great deal of caution, it is also important that you do not outright dismiss such mail offers. More often than not, such offers are legitimate, and might even culminate in a successful sale.

5) Prepare and find all essential documentation:

Do you have your property deed at hand? If not, it is time to start searching for it. Once you find the deed, make sure to get it scanned, as that will allow you to send a digital copy to anyone you want.

This is particularly important if you are selling your property through the internet. Any buyer who is interested in purchasing your land would want to make sure that you are the legal owner. Hence, providing evidence such as tax bills or the property deed can alleviate a potential purchaser’s fear, and make the rest of the process that much smoother and simpler.

Since you can expect an offer at any time, make sure to keep all important land documents handy at all times.

6) Identify and target the niche audience:

If you think that your land might be attractive to a smaller segment of a larger market, make sure to leverage that attraction. For instance, if the land is close to a tennis court, a golf club, or a swimming pool, you can use that to promote your land to the right audience.

Similarly, if you own hunting land, you could consider posting an ad in websites that market hunting properties. If the property is close to a worship house, someone who actively participates in the congregation might want to make an offer.

Specialized hobbies, such as clubs, camping, and sports, all possess specific markets – markets which can be tapped into to attract possible purchasers for your land.

7) Do not worry about quitclaims:

There are sellers and buyers who use quitclaim deeds for selling or buying properties. A quitclaim deed is just one type of deed that is used for legally conveying land from one party to another.

There are some scare stories regarding quitclaim deeds being used by frauds, including various scam artists who try to sell properties that they do not legally own.

So, if a potential buyer has reached out to you and you think that they are trustworthy, you could consider using a quitclaim deed for the transfer of ownership.

If you make use of an online land selling company to sell your land, and find that the company makes use of quitclaims, you should research this company’s track record and overall reputation. Reach out to the company with any questions that you might have, and verify their responses from other, independent sources.

8) Interact with the neighbors:

Before starting the selling process for your land, get in touch with people who own the surrounding properties. It is always possible that you might want to make your property a part of their holdings. Always be confident in knocking doors, placing notes inside mailboxes, or just simply asking around.

9) The sign:

Placing a ‘for sale’ sign is so obvious that people often end up not doing it at all.

Do not be one of those people. You have no idea who might be looking for a property, and the ‘for sale’ sign is a fairly inexpensive way of letting any passerby know that your land is up for sale.

If you can get it done yourself, stick a ‘for sale’ sign, along with your email address and contact number. If you cannot do it yourself, assign this task to someone else.

10) Use a combination of selling methods:

Just because your initial selling method did not work does not mean that you should throw in the towel. Just because a tactic worked for you in the past, does not mean that it will be effective every time.

So, if online auctions are not fetching you the results that you desire, it is probably time to explore a different road. Similarly, if you have exhausted your possibilities with free advertisements, perhaps it is time to use your local newspaper for paid promotions.