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My home has been on the market for 3 yrs. Changed real estate offices 3 times, and lowered price 4 times. Now we are one of the lowest homes in the area. I feel good about the agent we have now, but...
What did you do- that you felt was what your house needed to sell?
We have landscaping, and de-cluttered inside. Tho we painted a few years ago, would repainting inside and outside help?
We work often on farms and acreages... and they are so variable that it's impossible to say without seeing it and knowing your market, why your place is not selling.
Do you want to post a link to it or offer more details? I'll understand if you don't... but it may help us give more specific advice.
The reason is almost always price. But sometimes with farms and large properties, it's not exactly that simple. It can be that the price point is very high for the area and there aren't that many buyers in that range. It can be that the property floods or has some other detrimental topography that is not good. It could be that the property is difficult to finance because it is too big for conventional lenders and would need a farm or commercial loan.... Perhaps it is a dairy and there aren't many people looking to buy dairies in that area. What the property has been used for and is well suited for is important.
I could sit and make blind guesses all day... but a more direct route might be to ask: what feedback have you gotten from buyers who have looked at it?
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 04-09-2019 at 03:49 PM..
With agricultural property, it comes down to the right buyer. Many don't want acreage but those that do are keen to get it.
Take the price of your property and play the game: if I had this much to spend, what could I buy? If there are better properties than yours, you are priced too high. If there aren't better properties than yours, you have to wait for your buyer.
Financing might be an issue, which means you have to wait for someone with money to come along.
Make sure some ads getting into the local farming journals and get it out to the homesteading groups.
You're not selling a home - you're selling a niche lifestyle.
Most people won't even look. You need to specialize to the market that your property is in. Is it a working farm? Is it just acreage? What condition are the out buildings? Could they house livestock? If so, is the property set up for that livestock (fencing, pasture)? Is it crop land? What water sources are available? Are there rights issues?
The house isn't the issue with over 100 acres. At least, not only the house.
My home has been on the market for 3 yrs. Changed real estate offices 3 times, and lowered price 4 times. Now we are one of the lowest homes in the area. I feel good about the agent we have now, but...
What did you do- that you felt was what your house needed to sell?
We have landscaping, and de-cluttered inside. Tho we painted a few years ago, would repainting inside and outside help?
Painting would help. After putting my house on sale, it didn't sell for at least one year. We switched two real estate agents. Though being a newbie in Real Estate business, our 2nd agent asked us to improve the curb appeal of our house. We immediately hired a contractor for lawn maintenance and other minor fixes like gutter cleaning, installing landscape lighting, etc. Post maintenance, he started advertising our property on various platforms. I guess within 4 weeks, we finalized a deal because there were many buyers who were willing to give more price.
I was right in the middle of a year-long project to overhaul my house and property. I'd been putting in 11-hour days and had accomplished a lot. Then one day, my neighbors came over and told me they'd like to buy the place. I said that we should negotiate a price and so we did. We hired a title company to do a search and handle the transaction and that's all there was to it. Sometimes these things can be very simple and sometimes, not.
This is also my question - is it a working farm, or a "hobby farm"? If the former, you're selling a business, not just a residence. As such, it should be a profitable business for the buyer, where they can create income from either growing a cash crop or lease the land to someone who will make it productive. Can it be profitable at your price point? More details are definitely needed if this is a working farm. For instance, what is the water situation?
If a "hobby farm", intended as a place to live for someone like a retiree or escapee from the city who wants to live a rural lifestyle, and who may plant a garden or have horses, but is not going to be dependent on income produced from the property, that's a different story. So depending on who your targeted buyer is, cosmetic improvements to the property may make all the difference. If it were me, I'd look at options such as selling the house separately from the land - many times, surrounding farms may want the acreage - keeping maybe five or ten acres plus the buildings may make it even more desirable for someone who would want it as a residence, keep a few horses and grow hay for their feed. How large are the surrounding farms? Are you near an urban center, where a developer might be interested in turning it into a subdivision? What have your real estate agents told you about your options?
Which is worth more, the house or the land? What is the usual parcel size in your area? Is the land cleared or treed? How close are you to an employment center?
I don’t think price is the only issue so dropping the price isn’t always the answer. Sometimes subdividing into two or a few chunks helps. But then each lot needs to be buildable so is it likely to find water and to set up a septic system. Is there good public road access then to each parcel.
Maybe look at why you purchased the property. Are there others today who want the same thing? Ask yourself if you were looking how much would you pay? Some areas of the country are just plain desolate and almost useless. Painting the house would mean little if you are in the middle of dry desert or remote woods.
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