Buying and Selling Land

Effect of wildfire on land prices

by

Wildfires scorch the landscape and reduce houses to rubble.  They destroy community infrastructure and recreational resources. The result is a decline in real estate prices.

How much will real estate prices decrease after a wildfire?  Read on.

Reasons Why Real Estate Prices Drop After a Wildfire

The most obvious reason that real estate prices go down is that where there was once house+land, there is now only land.  Vacant land with no house usually sells for less than land with a house.

Further, even if you own vacant land that never had a structure on it, the trees and vegetation may be charred.  Land with unattractive or no vegetation will sell for less than land with attractive vegetation.

Even if your land was not affected, your neighbor’s land was.  All the houses around you are gone; the local market is boarded up; the medical clinic severely damaged; the forest where you used to take your dog for hikes is now a bunch of eerie charred twigs.  The state of community infrastructure affects the attractiveness, and therefore the value, of your land.

Lastly, wildfires increase the perception of risk in the minds of buyers.  All things being equal, buyers may be reluctant to purchase real estate in areas prone to wildfire.

These factors, and others, combine to cause a reduction in real estate prices.

What Does the Research Say about the Effect of Past Wildfires on Land Values?

Several scientists have examined the effect of historical wildfires on real estate prices.  Here is what they found:

Huggett, Murphy and Holmes (2008) examined the 1994 Chelan County wildfires in Washington state and found that real estate prices dropped 13-14% over a one year period afterward.

Mueller, Loomis and Gonzalez-Caban (2007) studied fires in Southern California.  They found that repeated forest fires cause houses near fires decreased in value.  The first fire reduced house prices by 9.7%, while the second fire reduced house prices by 22.7%.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (2001) performed an analysis of how the Los Alamos, New Mexico real estate market responded to the 2000 Cerro Grande fire.  The report showed that after the fire, the average sale price of single-family homes in Los Alamos County declined 3-11%.

Loomis (2004) estimated that house prices in Pine, Colorado decreased by approximately 15% following the Buffalo Creek fire.

Kiel and Matheson (2015) studied the Fourmile-Lefthand Canyon forest fire in Colorado and found a 21.9% decline in sale prices.

The Good News

If I put on my rose-colored glasses and squint real hard, I can come up with some examples of good news regarding the value of real estate after a wildfire.

First, the house that burned to the ground probably had underground utilities.  The water pipes are still there buried in the ground; the septic system or sewer pipes are also there; and if you have a well, the vertical casing is still in the dirt even if the above-ground equipment might be damaged.  Most vacant land on the market does not have utilities stubbed into the building area because there was never a house.  But yours does.  Builders love it when utilities are not just “in the street” they are stubbed all the way into where a new structure might be built.  The presence of utilities adds considerable value to vacant land.

Second, any structures that are rebuilt in the affected neighborhood will be new, and possibly more valuable, than what was there before.  For example, your plot of vacant land may end up next to a brand new 4-bedroom, 3-bath house instead of next to the tired 2-bedroom, 1-bath bungalow built in 1958 that was there before.  This may positively affect the value of your lot.

Third, if you own a nearby rental property that was not affected by the fire, you may find that demand for your units will increase.  This is due to the many displaced homeowners who now want to rent near the same area where they once owned home.  Supply is down and demand is up, so you may be able to increase your rental rates accordingly.  (Don’t price-gouge though, it’s not nice).

Fourth, recently I was listing some acreage located 2 miles from the edge of a wildfire.  After the fire, I noticed an uptick in interest in this parcel, i.e., more calls and e-mails.  This may have been related to displaced families needing to move animals or themselves.  Or perhaps buyers were previously looking for land in the wildfire-torn area and now they have shifted their focus to the area just outside of that area.  Supply and demand can cause an increase in value just outside the wildfire perimeter.

Fifth, sometimes homeowners who receive a handsome insurance settlement want to rebuild a larger home and need more land to do that.  The adjacent owner might be able to sell their land to that person at an inflated price.  One example of this occurring is with the Felton Estate.  This 14,000-square-foot property was built five years after fire destroyed all the homes on top of Schooner Hill in Oakland California.  One owner bought up neighboring land, built a large house in 1996, and recently sold that house for $20.5 million.

Lastly, real estate prices will not be low forever.  As time goes on, vegetation will come back, infrastructure will be rebuilt, and buyer’s memories of the fire will fade.

So, to Summarize

After a major wildfire, land prices in the affected area are likely to decrease.  Prices decrease for a host of reasons including reduced infrastructure and increased perception of risk.  According to the research, land prices after fires have historically decreased between 3 and 23%.  However, there are scattered cases where the value of land can remain steady or even increase.

Has your property been affected by recent wildfires? Check out this interactive map!

by

As wildfires rage through-out the western United States, many people are wondering whether or not their real estate has been affected.  Get clear answers with GeoMAC.

What is GeoMAC?

The Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination or GeoMAC, is an internet-based mapping application originally designed for fire managers to access online maps of current fire locations and perimeters in the United States.  Now it is available to the public.

How Accurate is GeoMAC?

Fire perimeter data is updated daily based on input from incident intelligence sources, GPS data, and satellite infrared imagery.

How to Use GeoMAC to Research Active Fires

Launch the viewer.  Active fires are marked with green triangles.  Zoom in to see the yellow perimeter of current fires.

On the left, on the Data Layer tab, under Active Fires, check all five options including MODIS Fire Detection, VIIRS IBAND Fire Detection and HMS Fire Detection to get more complete information on fire location from additional information sources.

You may find it difficult to see the bright yellow perimeter of the fire against the light-yellow background of the street map.  Under Base Map change the Base Data to Imagery so that the yellow perimeter will appear in high contrast against a dark satellite map.

On the Legend tab, under Current Fire Perimeters, one thing that initially confused me was the “Not Part of Complex” vs. “Part of Complex”.  I found myself hoping against hope that somehow “Not Part” was some kind of good news that an area was not affected by wildfire.  No such luck.  It turns out that a “complex fire” occurs when separate fires link up together.  So, the yellow boundaries that you see show active complex fires while the green boundaries show active single fires.  What matters though is the boundary itself as it does show an active fire area.

Fires are given names based on where they started.  If you know the name of the fire you want to investigate, you can choose it from the menu in the upper right corner.  Some fires are referred to by the name of street where they began, e.g., the Tubbs fire currently burning in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties in Northern California.  Other fires are referred to by prominent places, e.g. the Chetco Bar fire in Brookings Oregon.

One of the best features of this map is the Go To menu in the upper right corner.  Here you can type in the address or latitude/longitude of any property that you might be worried about.  The map will center there and you can see whether or not it’s inside the fire perimeter.  Or you can check how far away the fire is today and then check again tomorrow to see if the fire has moved closer.  It is common for vacant land to not have an address.  In that case, you can get the latitude/longitude of your land here first and then enter it into GeoMAC.

Using GeoMAC to Research Historic Fires

A couple of decades ago I was working at a consulting firm in Denver.  I lived in Pine Colorado in a new log house that had been built after a fire had torched the previous home and the surrounding forest.  The landscape had an eerie beauty to it as I recall.  Even though there is no active fire there in 2017, I was able to research the boundaries of this historic fire in GeoMAC.  On the Data Layers Tab under Map Layers, choose Past Fires, Historic Fire Perimeters.

The ability to research past fires may be especially helpful to real estate buyers who want to stay away from locations that seem prone to fire.  Or, at least you’ll know what you’re getting into.

Also, when buying land that is landlocked, the seller and listing agent will probably not know whether or not the land has ever been affected by fire.  This is because they can’t get to the land to check it out and neither can you.  But you can research past fires in GeoMAC to assess whether all the timber and vegetation might actually be gone or how many years of new growth there might be by now.

Summary

Using GeoMAC, I was able to determine that none of Land22’s current land listings in California and Oregon have been affected by wildfires.  Yeah!  However, a couple of my listings are two miles from the edge of an active wildfire.  Yikes.

Consider forwarding this blog post to anyone you know who is worried about recent wildfires.  Knowledge is power.  Once you have the facts, you can deal with it, good news or bad.  Stay safe.

10 reasons land sellers sometimes have so little knowledge about what they’re selling

by

Land owners have a legal duty to disclose to buyers all material facts about the land they’re selling.  This duty, however, is limited to information the seller is actually aware of.  Buyers are sometimes dismayed when they learn that sellers have so little knowledge about their own land.

Here is a typical scenario:  A buyer asks me a question like “where are the exact corners?” or “will this property perc for septic?”  When I say that I don’t have that information, the buyer says “well, could you ask the seller?”

The thing is, the seller has no idea either.

“How could that be?” the suspicious buyer wonders.  “Surely the seller knows everything there is to know about their own land, right?”

Um, no.

The vast majority of sellers are ethical and helpful and will provide the information if they have it.  However, there are many reasons why some sellers know little about the land they’re selling.  Here are the top ten reasons:

  1. Bought it at a tax sale

Seller Larry is an investor.  He buys land at county tax sales at low prices.  Then, he “flips” the land a couple of years later at a profit.  For parcels under $50,000, Larry does not go to see the land in person.  To decide what to buy, he relies on studying satellite maps and other online information sources.  As a consequence, when it comes time to sell the land, Larry does not have detailed knowledge about the land he’s selling.

  1. Just the lenders

Seller Seymour did not invest his retirement money in the stock market.  Instead, he became a hard money lender because the rates of return were higher.  A few years ago, buyer Jane wanted to buy some land and Seymour loaned Jane the money.  At that time, Seymour had the land appraised.  Unfortunately, after buying the land, Jane lost her job and did not pay Seymour.  Seymour foreclosed on Jane and took the land back.  Now he wants to sell it and the old appraisal report is the only information Seymour has about the land.  Seymour will be happy to disclose the appraisal to new buyers, but that’s all the information he has.

  1. Purchased it for someone else

Sellers Wang and Chen purchased a lot for their daughter Lilly to build a home in California.   Wang and Chen live in New York.  Although they are the owners, they have not seen the land.  A year later, Lilly’s company transferred her to an office in a different state.  Lilly moved away from California and so decided not to build.  The family now wants to sell the land.  It is Wang and Chen, not Lilly, who must list the land for sale with a Realtor and complete the official disclosure forms.  This is because they are the legal owners.  Sellers Wang and Chen know almost nothing about the land and their disclosures reflect their lack of knowledge.

  1. Live far away

Sellers Brad and Leslie live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  They purchased land on the Oregon Coast 10 years ago with the intent of someday building a retirement home there.  However, they have now decided to stay in Colorado near their children.  Brad and Leslie live hundreds of miles from the land.  They bought it on a whim based on the amazing ocean view and have little information about the land beyond happy memories of salt air and seagulls.

  1. The person with detailed knowledge about the land is deceased

Seller Myrtle owns land near Crescent Lake in Oregon.  Her husband Fred used to love to take the RV over to Central Oregon to go fishing with his friends.  The guys would camp on the land and Fred would dream about someday building a cabin there.  Fred was a fastidious person and knew every single detail about the land.  Myrtle, on the other hand, preferred the comforts of city life and did not get into detailed discussions about the land with Fred.  Fred is now deceased and Myrtle is trying to sell it.

  1. Have not seen the land in decades

Seller Cecil, age 85, purchased 160 acres of desert land 50 years ago.  Cecil went to see the land prior to purchasing it.  In addition, while on vacation 10 years later, Cecil took a detour to go “visit” his land.  At that time, access was via a dirt road and the nearest electric pole was 1 mile away near a small development of new homes.  Decades have now passed and he has not seen the land for 40 years.  Cecil has no knowledge of whether or not additional development (paved streets, water, electricity, sewer) might have reached his land or not.

  1. Didn’t do their research when they bought it

Seller Omar received a large inheritance 5 years ago.  He bought 12 lake-front lots at the time.  He chose the parcels based on how pretty the lake looked in the Realtor’s online photos.  Omar relied on what the Realtor told him and did not do any independent due diligence on the parcels prior to purchase.  Consequently, now that Omar is a seller he is is unable to provide much information to potential buyers.

  1. In the hospital

Seller Thelma hired a listing agent to sell her land.  A few months later, when the agent located a buyer, he called Thelma’s home to tell her about the offer only to learn from her family that Thelma was in the hospital.  Thelma is scheduled for surgery next week.  She is anxious to sell her land so that she can pay her medical and after-care bills.  Thelma is of sound mind so, with the assistance of a mobile notary, she is able to sign the offer and escrow documents to sell her land.  However, since she is in the hospital, she is not exactly in the position to be looking through her files at home for additional documents.

  1. Never had plans to build

Seller Juan purchased 10 rural acres from a friend for about 50% of its true value. Juan already owns his dream home so he has no plans to build on this land.  He bought it strictly as a long-term investment and to help out his friend, who needed fast money.  Because Juan never planned to build, and because he bought it at such a bargain price, he did no research on building and has no knowledge about things such as utilities or even whether there is legal access.

  1. No legal duty to research

Seller Tamar owns a view lot in Malibu.  Tamar is an orchestral musician and does not have a background in construction.  Tamar is represented by a Realtor.  Buyer Manuel is considering purchasing Tamar’s lot to build a fabulous architectural house for his family.  Manuel has never built a home before.  He does not have a contractor or architect yet.  Manuel has many questions about whether or not the lot is buildable.  He asks Tamar’s Realtor for information about the degree of slope, whether a flat pad can be graded, the minimum square footage for a house, the cost of a water meter, etc.  Seller Tamar and her Realtor reply that they do not know the answers to these questions.  The Realtor explains to Manuel that the owner is selling dirt and has no duty to research matters related to building. The Realtor helpfully advises buyer Manuel to seek the assistance of a contractor, architect, engineer, or other building professionals to assist him.

What’s a Buyer to Do?

Land buyers should do their own independent due diligence.  Here is a partial list of things that land buyers will want to research:  Zoning, building restrictions, electricity, water/well, sewer/septic, and legal access.

Buyers sometimes wonder whether the Realtor will get answers to all their questions.  Realtors do sometimes have considerable knowledge about the land they’re representing.  In fact, Realtors often know more about the land than the sellers do.  On the other hand, it is also common for the Realtor to have little information.  The Realtor’s ability to provide answers, varies depending on the parcel.  So just ask.  If the Realtor has answers, the Realtor will be pleased to provide them to you.  If the Realtor does not have the information, they can usually be very helpful in advising the buyer where the buyer can go to get answers.

Note however that while the Realtor will happily disclose what they already know about the land, it is not the agent’s role to perform new research, especially on matters related to building.

Further, experienced Realtors have learned that the best way to prevent misunderstandings and lawsuits is for the buyer to get as much information as possible from an official source instead of relying on the Realtor or seller.  A wise Realtor will advise a land buyer to roll up their sleeves and get answers “straight from the horse’s mouth”.  This means that the buyer, not the Realtor, should phone the utility company to get information on utilities or drive down to the Planning or Building Department to discuss building restrictions.

A great side benefit to a buyer doing their own due diligence, is that they may learn things about the land that they did not even know they had questions about.  For example, a buyer who calls the water company to ask about the cost of a water meter, may learn there is no sewer.  Or, a buyer who sits down with a City Planner to discuss building setbacks may discover, in the course of conversation, that the mother-in-law unit they were planning is not allowed by the municipality.

As a buyer, you may feel that you don’t have time to do your own independent due diligence.  Or maybe you feel it’s not that fun and you just don’t want to do it.  I understand completely.  However, in that case it is in your best interest to buy a house or condo, not land.

Conclusion

For the reasons described above, it is common for sellers to have little knowledge about the land they’re selling.  The careful buyer will seek answers from official sources such as the City, County or utility companies.

Reading the “days on market” tea leaves

by

“How many days has that parcel been on the market?”  Buyers call and ask me this question all the time.  They assume that the longer a parcel has been on the market, the more motivated the owner is to sell.  When the “Days on Market” (DOM) are high, buyers think that they can offer a price that is much lower than the listing price and the seller will gladly accept it.

However, as an agent, I know the opposite is often true.  A seller whose land has been on the market for 300 days may have turned down offers received at 30 DOM, 100 DOM, and 200 DOM.  Land owners like this have demonstrated a low motivation to sell not a high motivation to sell.  Sellers with high DOM are often waiting patiently for a buyer to come along who will pay them their target price.

It is my experience that when buyers try to read DOM, it’s like reading tea leaves.

That is, it’s an ancient superstition passed down through the ages.  And it’s not all that helpful in figuring out what price a seller will accept for their land.

To separate myth from the reality, I decided to look at actual data.  I compared the price difference (the percent difference between the listing price and the selling price) with DOM.  If the buyers who call me are correct, the percent “discount” the seller gives the buyer off the listing price should be higher for high DOM and lower for low DOM.  Let’s just see if that’s true or not.

Research

I obtained data from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS).  This Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system covers much of California.  I searched the MLS for the 2000 most recent land sales.  For these 2000 sales, I extracted the listing price, selling price, and days on market.

I eliminated four wonky data points.  For example, in one case the list price was $17,500 and the broker indicated that it sold for $175,000.  While it is not unheard of for land to sell over the asking price, these digits were so similar I assumed that there was a typo and the listing agent just added in an extra 0 when entering the selling price.  After eliminating these four weird cases, I ended up with a total of n=1996 land sales.

I calculated:  Percent Price Difference = (Listing Price – Selling Price)/Listing Price

In Excel, I performed a statistical linear regression to find y=mx+b, the equation for the line that best fits the data.  In this case, Percent Price Difference was y and DOM was x.  M is the slope of the line and b is the y-intercept.

The parameter m is of particular interest.  The m, produced as a result from the statistical regression, tells us how much Percent Price Difference changes with each additional DOM.  If m is a large negative number then the buyers who think DOM is important are right.  If m is zero then buyers are wrong.

Results

The following scatterplot shows Percent Price Difference and DOM for all land sales:

Two things jump out at me in this figure.  The first is that there were a fair number of parcels (n=144) that sold for over the asking price.  Second, 38 parcels were on the market for 3 years or more before selling:

Due to the clustering of points at the left, the scatterplots above, showing all data, are hard to read.  So below is a revised figure.  The scatterplot below shows a subset of the data for the first 365 days on market and for prices ranging from a reduction of 75% to an increase of 25%:

How do you read this figure?  As one example, consider point A.  This point reflects a land sale that occurred after 100 days on market.  The selling price was approximately 39% less than the listing price.  The land sale at Point B also occurred at approximately 100 days on market but this selling price was 0% from the listing price.  That is, the seller at Point B sold their parcel for full price.

Points C, D and E occurred at approximately 200 days on market.  Point C reflects a parcel of land that sold for approximately 25% less than the listing price.  Point D is a sale that also occurred at 200 days on market but this parcel sold at 50% less than the asking price.  Finally, point E occurred at the same 200 days on market but it sold at 18% over the asking price.

After performing the statistical linear regression on all data, the resulting equation for the line that best fits the data was:

y = mx + b

Percent Price Difference = m (DOM) + b

Percent Price Difference = -0.0000546341974725283 (DOM) + -0.103314904970139

What does this equation mean?  It means that the day a parcel goes on the market (0 DOM), the average seller will accept 10.33% less than the listing price.  Further, for every additional day a parcel stays on the market (DOM), that discount changes by -0.00005.

Note that -0.00005 is close to zero.  That means that the slope of the best fitting line will be close to zero which would make the line virtually horizontal.  The best fitting line is shown in pink in the above figure.

In other words:

  • At 1 DOM, the average seller may accept a 10.3% reduction in price.  (This was calculated as -0.0000546341974725283 (1) + -0.103314904970139)
  • At 30 DOM, the average seller may accept a 10.5% reduction in price.  (This was calculated as -0.0000546341974725283 (30) + -0.103314904970139)
  • At 90 DOM, the average seller may accept a 10.8% reduction in price.  (This was calculated as -0.0000546341974725283 (90) + -0.103314904970139)
  • At 180 DOM, the average seller may accept a 11.3% reduction in price.  (This was calculated as -0.0000546341974725283 (180) + -0.103314904970139)
  • At 365 DOM, the average seller may accept a 12.3% reduction in price.  (This was calculated as -0.0000546341974725283 (365) + -0.103314904970139)

Discussion

Are you a buyer interested in knowing the lowest price a seller will take on a parcel of land?  What is their bottom line – that’s what you really want to know, right?

This research shows that the amount of time a parcel has been on the market is a poor indicator of seller flexibility on price.  There is almost no relationship between the price a seller will accept and how long their parcel has been on the market.

For example, a parcel listed at $100,000 that’s been on the market 30 days might sell for 5%, 25% or 50% less than the asking price.  Or it might even sell for more than the asking price.

On average, a parcel that is sold the day it comes on the market listed at $100,000 will go for 10.33% less than the $100,000 asking price or $89,668.  In comparison, a parcel that’s been on the market 180 days might sell for an average of 11.3% less or $88,685.  The difference between $89,668 and $88,685 is only $983.

Fortunately, for buyers, there are better ways to figure out how flexible a seller may be on price:

  1. Pick up the phone and call the listing agent and ask.  (As a listing agent and fiduciary to the seller, I personally won’t reveal to a buyer how flexible a seller is on price, unless the seller has sent me strong signals that they want me to share their flexibility.  However, other listing agents might reveal this information.  Try it.)
  2. Ask the listing agent if the seller has received offers that they turned down.  What prices were offered but declined?  For example, if a parcel is listed at $100,000 and the seller has turned down offers of $80,000 and $85,000, that’s a pretty good indication that the seller will not accept your offer of $82,000.  (Again, as a listing agent I may or may not give a buyer this information, depending on whether I think it’s in the seller’s best interest.  But other listing agents might.  It doesn’t hurt to ask.)
  3. If the parcel recently fell out of escrow, ask the listing agent what price it was in escrow at.  While the seller’s motivation to sell may have increased or decreased since they accepted their last offer, the answer will at least tell you what price the seller was willing to accept historically.  (As a listing agent, the only time I might reveal this is if the seller was previously in escrow at full price.  This is because I want to convey to the new buyer that the previous buyer clearly thought the property was worth full price and, in any case, the seller is unlikely to accept less.)
  4. Float a verbal offer.  For example, ask the listing agent to check with the seller on whether they will accept $90,000 on that parcel listed at $100,000.  (Personally, I often decline to do this and insist that buyers submit a written signed offer.  Listing agents are required by law to present all offers.  However, a verbal conversation is not an offer.  A true offer is written and signed by the buyer and contains lots of other details such as how the buyer plans to pay for the land, who pays the closing costs, and the closing date.  Nevertheless, there are situations where I will present a verbal offer to the seller and other agents may too.)
  5. Submit a written signed offer.  Ask your agent or the listing agent to prepare an actual offer on proper forms with all the other details in addition to price.  Sign it.  Then the listing agent will present it to the seller.  A seller who receives a written signed offer is likely to respond, via the listing agent, and tell you whether or not they will accept your price.  The seller may counteroffer.  Then you’ll have your answer!

Conclusion

This research shows that it is a fallacy that the longer a parcel of land is on the market the more likely a seller will accept a significantly lower price.  This is because high Days on Market does not always lead to extreme motivation to sell as buyers assume.  High Days on Market could be an indicator of the reverse, low motivation to sell.

Attempting to read the meaning of Days on Market is like reading tea leaves.

Cost-effective improvements you can make to sell your land faster and for more money

by

Sellers sometimes ask me what they can do to improve their land for sale?  Land owners want suggestions that will yield a positive return on their investment.  They want to spend $1 on an improvement and get back $2 on the price, that kind of thing.  And they definitely want to avoid the hassle of spending $1 to get a return of $1.  No point in that.

Based on 13+ years of experience in land sales, and no hard data whatsoever, I have noticed that some improvements really affect the price my clients get for their land.  Other improvements, not so much.  So here are my top suggestions on things that you can do to improve your land that might offer a positive return on investment:

Mark the Corners

Buyers just love-love-love to know exactly-exactly-exactly where the corners are.  Aerial maps are useful, definitely.  But there’s nothing like actual corner markers in the dirt to give buyers a sense of security that they know what they’re buying.  However, don’t mark the corners yourself as that may open you up to more liability if they’re off.  Hire a surveyor to do it.

Money saving tip:  Don’t spend money on a new fence just so buyers will know where the boundaries are.  If there’s no fence already it will generally not be cost-effective for you to install one now just to sell your land.  Fences are too expensive and you may not get your money back on it.  Plus, there are some buyers who will actually consider your fence a negative.  They may not like the look of it and think it’s an eyesore.  Just arrange for a surveyor to mark the corners in some highly visible way.  Corner markers go a long way toward improving the value of your land and the ease of selling it.

Record an Easement

Many land parcels do not have legal access for ingress and egress.  They’re not on a road.  They are surrounded by privately owned parcels and there is no easement across the neighbor’s land.  That is, they are “landlocked”.  That dirt path you’ve been taking across your neighbor’s land to reach your parcel will not be enough for the title company to insure for access.  When buyers see the title report, they may get scared and run away.  So, take care of the situation before you put your parcel on the market.  Talk to the neighbor, hire a surveyor, and arrange to record an access easement with the county.

Money saving tip:  There is usually no need to bulldoze a road.  My suggestion is to create legal access, not necessarily physical access.  It’s a paperwork-thing not a dirt-moving-thing.  With legally recorded access, the title company will probably insure for “marketable access”.  That’s the main thing you need to get more money for your land.

Drill a Well

City folk, who are used to water districts providing the water that comes through their faucets, have a hard time wrapping their brain around the idea of buying a parcel of land with no district water.  They imagine nightmare scenarios of buying the land and attempting to drill a well only to find no water.  Further, they are unsure about the cost of drilling a well.  So, take all of this uncertainty and fear out of the equation and drill the well for them.  Provide a well report showing the flow in gallons per minute etc.  (This suggestion to drill a well obviously applies to land in rural areas where there is no district water in the street.)

Money saving tip:  I am not necessarily suggesting that you install expensive equipment on your new well.  There is no need for that yet because you are selling the land, not building a house, and there’s no need to pump water anywhere.  Plus, above-ground well equipment may be stolen.  To get more money for your land what you need is a hole in the ground with well casing (i.e., a capped well) and a written well report.

Order a Perc Test for Septic

In areas where no sewer is available, a septic system will be needed.  Buyers will wonder if the land has had a percolation test for septic and whether that test was favorable.  Without a perc test, buyers will imagine scary scenarios where they buy the land and then find later that the parcel does not “perc” for septic.  How will they ever build a house with no toilet, they wonder?  How will they resell the land?  Savvy sellers can take buyer’s uncertainty away and pay for a perc test in advance.  Provide a perc test report.  Then, charge more for the land.

Money saving tip:  Bear in mind that any reports you have on the land, such as a perc test report, must be disclosed to buyers when selling your land.  Regardless of whether the perc test is successful or unsuccessful, you must disclose.  If the perc test reveals that an unusual expensive engineered septic system will be needed, sellers must disclose this too.  Land owners should keep disclosure requirements in mind when considering whether or not to even order a perc test to begin with.  You do not want to create a situation where you pay for the perc, get bad news in the perc, fail to disclose, the buyer purchases the land, and then the neighbor toddles over and tells the buyer about the failed perc test.  Because then you will have a lawsuit on your lands.  That will cost you lots of money in attorney fees.  So, my two money-saving tips for sellers are:  1) Pay for a perc test prior to selling your land only if you are fairly certain the result will be positive, and 2) always disclose material facts to buyers regardless of whether they hurt you or help you.

Create a Clearing and Walking Path

Buyers like to walk the land.  Naturally, they want to see what they’re buying.  If your land is completely wooded, or if it has impenetrable brush, carve out a walking path.  Cut back the vegetation to create unobstructed lanes in the vegetation so that buyers can reach parcel corners, which they will surely want to verify.  Clear a larger location where a house might go.  If there is a view, clear enough vegetation out of the way so that buyers can appreciate the panorama.

Money saving tip:  Don’t clear the entire parcel leaving large areas of bare naked dirt.  Many buyers like natural vegetation.  While you might view that sage brush or yellow flowering gorse as just a nuisance, just in the way of walking and building, buyers might appreciate its natural beauty and view it as “god’s creation”.  Buyers may want to decide which areas get cleared and which areas don’t and it will take years for natural vegetation to grow back.  Also, when it comes to trees, be aware that there may be rules about tree removal in your area.  So, don’t go crazy with your clearing.  Just make sure buyers can walk the land, see one area large enough to build, and enjoy a view of distant scenery that is unobstructed.

Grade a Pad

If your land has a fairly steep slope, you may find that buyers lack insight into how they will build a house on an incline.  The wonder if a flat area can be graded that is large enough for a house. They will want to walk on the parcel but they can’t because it is too sloped.  So, reduce their uncertainty and grade a flat pad.  Or tiers.  Also create some kind of access to the flat area, like steps.

Money saving tip:  Grading requires a permit.  Without a permit you could be fined, so look into that first.

Haul Away Debris

Remove any debris that creates an eyesore.  Examples include anything manmade such as old tires, a shopping cart, an old broken-down car, etc.  Your land will photograph better.  Plus. you will avoid the situation where buyers try to negotiate down the price in anticipation of having to deal with the debris themselves after closing escrow.

Money saving tip:  Consider that there may be “good” debris and “bad” debris.  What I mean is there are certain situations in which some kinds of debris are actually helpful in selling your land.  For example, one time I was selling a parcel buried deep in a forested area.  The seller had wisely cleared some open areas creating paths and meadows in the forest but he left a big pile of twigs and branches.  He asked whether he should remove it?  I advised him that the pile was actually helpful because it served to “mark the spot” where the land was located making it easier for buyers to find the parcel amidst all the trees.  As another example, I was selling a parcel with an old fallen down rickety shack.  This was actually helpful debris because it served to reinforce the idea in buyer’s minds that the land is buildable.  After all, there was once a house there so it’s easy to imagine a house there again.  As a final example, skilled photographers can use fallen logs and branches to add visual interest in the foreground when photographing an otherwise bland parcel of land.  So, to summarize, save money by hauling away only “bad” debris.  Discuss with your Realtor before investing the money.

Remove Negative Barriers to Entry

Take down those no trespassing signs.  Remove the lock on the gate.  Leave the gate open.  Roll out the red carpet for buyers while your land is on the market.  You want them to feel like they are invited and valued guests when they arrive at your land.  Buyers should feel free to walk the land, unaccompanied by an agent, without worrying that they are not supposed to be there.

So, to Summarize

Land buyers love certainty and hate uncertainty.  Anything you can do to reduce their uncertainty about the features of your land will likely yield a positive return on investment.  That’s why things such as flagging corners and obtaining a perc test for septic are so helpful.

But don’t go hog-wild improving your land for sale.  Invest only in those things that you expect to yield a positive return.  Consider also that there are situations in which the best investment may be no investment.  In some situations, selling land “as is” for whatever price it can fetch is the best option.

Your Realtor will be able to guide you on whether or not an improvement that you are contemplating will yield a substantially higher selling price and/or make the land much easier to sell.