Selling Land and Lots
Buyers get nervous about land, and a nervous buyer offers low. Showing what the parcel actually carries is most of the job.
A Nervous Buyer Offers Low
A house sells itself partly by being obvious. Somebody walks in and knows what they are getting.
Land does the opposite. A buyer stands at the road looking at trees and has to imagine everything: whether they can build, where the house would sit, whether water and power reach it, what the back of the parcel is like, and what the drive looks like after a wet spring.
Every one of those unknowns comes off the offer. Not because the buyer is trying to take advantage, but because they are pricing in a risk they cannot measure from where they are standing.
So selling land well is mostly the work of removing unknowns. Every question answered in advance is money that stays in your price instead of being discounted away.
Where would you like to start?
The Questions That Decide Your Price
These are the ones that come up on almost every parcel out here, and a listing that has the answers ready is a listing that gets taken seriously.
Whether it will carry a septic system, which is the question that decides whether a parcel is a building site or a hunting spot. Where the water comes from, and whether a well is already there. What utilities reach the property line, and what it costs to bring in anything that does not.
How the road frontage sits, and who maintains the road, which is a different answer on a county road and a private drive. Where the lines truly run, against the record rather than against a fence somebody put up. Whether any of it is wetland or floodplain, because a buyer will find out and it is far better coming from you.
Not every answer will be the one you want. A parcel with a known limitation still sells well when the limitation is stated and priced. What does not sell well is a buyer discovering it themselves halfway through a deal.
In their words
What working with me is like
Going with Tamara as our realtor was a fantastic decision! She is honest, calm, professional, and a fantastic listener. I would most definitely recommend her to anyone!
Tamera was the best ever! Give that woman a raise!
What I Do Before It Lists
I walk it. Not the road frontage, the parcel, including the part nobody walks to.
I check where the lines actually run against the record, what the ground looks like away from the road, how the access behaves in every season and who maintains it, and what the parcel will realistically carry if a buyer has plans for it. On a back lot near water I time the walk to the shore rather than estimating it, because a buyer will time it too.
Then the marketing goes wider than a house listing would. The Lakeshore Demand Method puts the parcel in front of a paid and targeted audience before it reaches the MLS, and on land that audience deliberately includes builders and people already searching for a site, not only people browsing homes.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before. Land is a real part of that rather than something I do occasionally, and reading parcels is the work I am known for on the buyer side too.
Weekly, in Writing
You get a written report every week, whether it was a strong week or a quiet one, with showings, the questions buyers asked and what I want to change next.
You can cancel at any time if you are not satisfied with the work.
If the parcel is on or near water, the waterfront approach is at selling a waterfront home. The full seller process is at selling your home, and the buyer side of land is at lakeshore land.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a perc test or a survey before I list?
Not always, and it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default. On a parcel whose buildability is the main question, having the answer ready can be the difference between offers and silence, because it removes the single largest unknown. On others it is money spent to prove something nobody was worried about. I will tell you which one yours is before you spend anything.
My parcel has a limitation. Does that kill the sale?
Almost never on its own. Wetland, a shared drive, no utilities at the line: each of those has a buyer who is fine with it at the right price. What damages a sale is the limitation surfacing late, because by then the buyer is not just re-pricing, they are wondering what else they have not been told.
Is land slower to sell than a house?
It often reaches a smaller pool of buyers, which is exactly why the marketing has to go and find them rather than wait. That means reaching builders and people actively searching for a site, not only people browsing homes. What I will not do is give you a timeline I cannot stand behind.
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Ready to make your move with Tamara Hekkema?