Can anyone tell me the best way of marketing a 2.5 acre plot of land in Western Pennsylvania? We moved back here to Northern Ireland but still have this piece of land to sell. Seems like it would suit someone who wanted to build and grow their own. We left it with an agent but would like to know if there is some other way of getting it in front of the right sort of people. Any suggestions welcome.

-- sarah matthess (william@matthess.freeserve.co.uk), March 07, 2000

Answers

I had some land for sale and listed with an agent for a year with no results. Not even a nibble.

When my contract with that agent expired, I went to another agent and told him that I would finance the sale for 5 years and pay the commission and closing cost out of my pocket.

It sold within the month.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), March 11, 2000.

You might check out the website: http://www.ruralproperty.net

-- J Werner (jwerner15@hotmail.com), March 12, 2000.

A "quick and dirty" way that real estate agents in my area use which you could do yourself is to get a copy of your local tax map showing the adjoining property owners so you could see exactly who has land adjoining yours. Find out what the tax valuation is on your land and how it relates to fair market price (some taxes are based on fair market prices and some a percentage lower which information the Tax Assessor should give you if you write a nice letter of inquiry). Then write a letter to various agents saying you are interested in investing in the area and asking them what they think is a fair per-acre price. This is kind of a dirty trick, but you want to get a FAIR price for your land, not too high nor too low and if the tax people are behind and your area is growing, you could lose thousands of dollars).

Okay, with a fair price in mind, then get the names and addresses of all the contiguous property owners and sned them all a nice letter offering your property at a higher price than you actually want, since they will come back with a counter-offer. I should think that anybody with land adjoining yours would jump at the chance to buy it.

I have seen several properties sold in my area by real estate agents using this simple technique of contacting the adjoining land owners with a simple offer to sell at a fair price. In one case, there was an offer of five acres at $15,000 (tax value) and the neighbors got into a bidding war and the property finally sold at $30,000, with the owner making the offer and no real estate agent involved.

Of course you have to have a lawyer to close the deal but in this case the seller paid for the title search (he's supposed to anyway) and for the lawyer to prepare the deed, pay recording fees and so on, so the seller walked away with a nice gain!

Good luck!

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), March 30, 2000.

Sarah, I am a real estate broker in Ohio, but not licensed in PA. however it has been my experience that the number one reason that property does not sell in a reasonable length of time is that it is overpriced. So if that is the case you know how to fix it. The number two reason is usually that the folks who are interested do not know that it is for sale. An example would listing homestead type property with a broker who normally sold newer homes in the city. He or she may not have the right type of prospects to make the sale.

As has been mentioned in another post, to offer financing is a very good way to get the property sold. Often a property will be sold even if it is a little overpriced, if the seller is willing to take payments, with a small or no down payment. You might mention these ideas to your agent. Let us know of the results, and be patient.

In the process of the seller carrying the financing, a note (or other debt instrument) is created. It is sometimes possible to sell this note, at a discount; for cash shortly after the sale is made. This may provide another option for you.

-- Ed Copp (edcopp@yahoo.com), July 22, 2000.