How do I SELL my LAND in Georgia?
- Hunting Land
- Exchanging Land
- Boundary Survey
- Perc Tests
- Topography
- Selling Through A Real Estate Agent Or Broker
- Real Estate Development
- Rezoning
- Risks Involved
- Sell Your Land To North Georgia Land Buyers
This is Brad from North Georgia Land Buyers and Arbor View Properties.
Today, I’m starting a series of videos for our North Georgia Land Buyers website, and the most common question I receive is, “How do I sell my land?” Whether you bought the land a long time ago or inherited it, if you’re looking to sell, there are a few options you can consider.
1. Sell it Yourself
You can put a “For Sale” sign on your property and advertise it on platforms like Facebook Marketplace and other real estate websites. There are also Facebook groups dedicated to buying and selling land.
2. Hire a Real Estate Agent
This is another option, where a professional can help market your property and find potential buyers.
3. Sell to an Investor or Developer
If you’re looking for a quick sale, selling to an investor or developer might be the best route.
Additionally, if your land is suitable for hunting, there are specialized websites and markets that cater specifically to hunting land.
Hunting Land
If you have land suitable for hunting, you could consider advertising it on various platforms. If you’re not a hunter yourself, it might be beneficial to consult with an experienced hunter who can assess your property and identify what wildlife is present. Potential buyers will want to know about the type of game available on your land. You can promote the property by placing a sign in front of it, posting online, and including listings in local advertisements. If you choose to sell it yourself, keep in mind that you will need to handle all aspects of the sale, including communicating with potential buyers.
You’ll need to address a few important points.
Find a title company or a closing attorney to assist you.
If you’re in Georgia—where most of the viewers are—you should know that it’s a closing attorney state. This means you will need to hire a closing attorney to handle the closing for the sale. The buyer may also have their own closing attorney, but in many DIY sales, buyers often do not have one lined up. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that you have a purchase and sale agreement for the property.
Remember, in Georgia, any valid real estate contract must include valuable consideration exchanged; this could be money or something of value. For example, “I’m trading you this bucket of LEGOs for your land” is an acceptable form of consideration. Regardless of what is exchanged, it must be clearly specified in the contract.
Exchanging Land
When exchanging land, it is essential to have a legal description of the property.
An address or tax parcel number is not considered a valid legal description. You can find the legal description on your deed, which typically describes the boundaries of the property with phrases like “starting at point A and ending at point B.”
This detailed paragraph is written by a surveyor and serves as the legal description of the land you are selling. If you do not possess an up-to-date survey, I highly recommend obtaining one before selling the land. It is crucial to know the property’s boundaries, identify any encroachments, and understand the presence of easements. There are different types of easements, but I won’t delve into those details in this video.
Boundary Survey
It is important to have a current survey completed for your property, as this information is typically required.
The cost of a boundary survey can vary depending on the size of the land; it may start around a thousand dollars for a smaller plot, but could exceed that amount for larger properties. Therefore, it’s wise to budget for this expense. Additionally, while not mandatory, it is beneficial to conduct soil tests on the property, often referred to as PERC TESTS.
Perc Tests
A perc test measures the percolation rate for a septic system. However, a full soil test is recommended, as it also evaluates the suitability of the soil for constructing buildings and other structures. Make sure to consider this when assessing your land.
Topography Of The Land
It’s important to understand the topography of the land when considering a property. Many potential buyers will evaluate the land’s contours, and topo maps are often available online to help with this.
I recall a situation years ago where a man reached out to sell me a lot in North Georgia near a river. The lot was extremely steep—almost straight up and down. While it was a beautiful location, I immediately thought about the challenges it presented. Firstly, I wondered how I could possibly build any structure there without extensive engineering and a solid foundation. Secondly, I needed to consider where I would install a septic system, as there was no public sewer service available in that area.
There’s nothing I can do with this land; it’s almost completely vertical. I can’t access it, and camping would mean sitting on the side of a mountain. I suppose if you had one of those hanging tents that mountain climbers use, it might be possible, but he bought what is essentially a worthless piece of property. While it’s beautiful to look at, he’s paying property taxes on it every year. He tried to sell it to me for $5,000, but I told him, “You’d have to pay me $5,000 to take this property.” Yes, it’s gorgeous, but if I want to relax by a river, I’d rather rent a cabin for the weekend instead of sitting here on the edge of the road and looking down at the river below. It really has no value.
It’s important to understand the topography of the land if you’re considering selling it yourself.
Selling Through A Real Estate Agent Or Broker
Let’s discuss the option of selling through a real estate agent or broker, which is the traditional approach most people think of. I am a licensed real estate agent in Georgia, affiliated with OneSource in Woodstock, and I am currently working towards obtaining my broker’s license.
Selling through an agent involves listing your property on various Multiple Listing Services (MLS), depending on whether it’s a residential or commercial property. For commercial properties, your agent may list it on platforms like CoStar or LoopNet, which are dedicated marketplaces for commercial real estate.
Additionally, the agent will typically place a “For Sale” sign on the property and advertise it through various channels. This is the conventional route for selling real estate. They will handle all the contracts and negotiations for you, including getting everything to closing. You will, of course, pay them a commission to sell the property.
In Georgia, there is no standard commission, but for land, it typically ranges from 5% to 10%. Ultimately, the commission is entirely negotiable between the parties involved, so there isn’t a set amount. However, those percentages are the common range you might encounter.
You have two options: you can work with an agent, or you can sell the property to an investor or developer like me. I am both an agent and an investor, as well as a developer. I purchase single-family homes, commercial properties, and land. I have experience with development deals, where we acquire land, subdivide it, and build new construction homes. Sometimes, I might also keep a piece of land for myself.
Real Estate Development
I purchased a larger parcel of land and divided it into smaller lots. I partnered with a home builder to construct several houses on the land, selling off some of the lots in the process. Additionally, there was an old house on the property that had been vacant for ten years. We completely gut-renovated that house and resold it, making it feel almost like a brand-new home. I also kept a piece of land for myself, where I built my own personal home. Over the years, I have gained a lot of experience in buying and selling lots and land.
Selling to a developer or investor can be a viable route. Some people may say, “I’m not going to sell to an investor because they’re going to lowball me.” However, it’s important to understand that investors and developers are in the business to make money. When they make an offer on your land, they do so with the aim of achieving a profit. In our experience, depending on the county or municipality we are dealing with, the timeline can vary. If we are purchasing a parcel of land or attempting to divide it, and no rezoning is required, we typically face a waiting period of six to twelve months before we can successfully divide the land and sell the smaller parcels. This timeframe does not include any potential delays related to rezoning.
Rezoning
If we need to go through the process of getting that land rezoned, it can significantly prolong our timeline. Depending on the municipality and county, this process can take anywhere from two to three years to secure what they call “entitlements” for the land. This is necessary before we can divide it up, resell it, or take any other action.
During this time, we incur carry costs associated with our bank loans. If we are paying cash, we also face an opportunity cost. For instance, if we have a million dollars invested in a land deal, that’s a million dollars we cannot use for other investments that might yield a quicker return. Additionally, we have ongoing expenses to consider. We must pay property taxes, as well as fees for surveyors, soil tests, and civil engineers to complete all required work.
There is a significant amount of behind-the-scenes work that requires substantial investment. Sometimes, we purchase a parcel of land with the expectation of being able to develop 15 or 20 lots from it, only to find that we can only create 10.
Risks Involved
There is a property located directly behind my personal house. I made an offer to the seller, but he declined it in favor of a better offer from another developer. This developer had high hopes of subdividing the 18-acre property. Initially, he pitched the idea of developing 17 lots to the county, but they rejected the proposal. He then returned to the drawing board, paid an engineering company to revise the plans, and proposed a new plan for 12 lots. However, the county denied this proposal as well. He continued to approach them with revised plans.
After two years of ownership and significant investment in entitlement work, he finally received approval to divide the 18 acres into eight lots. Ultimately, he sold the property to another builder-developer. While they have begun construction on the development, he didn’t profit from the deal because he paid far more for the property than we initially offered the seller. The seller benefited from this, making several hundred thousand dollars more from the large parcel of land than they would have if we had purchased it. Unfortunately, this developer’s plans did not work out as he had anticipated. Between his interest carry costs and the expenses incurred from the development work, he either broke even or possibly lost some money. After two years, there’s not much to show for his efforts, illustrating the risks involved in real estate investments.
If you receive an offer from us as a builder or developer, we want you to know that we’re committed to being straightforward. We’ll let you know what can and cannot be done with the land.
People think they can do a lot with the land, and while technically that may be true, the costs can be prohibitive and may not provide a good return on investment. From our perspective, it’s essential to have a return on our investment; without it, we won’t proceed with the deal or purchase the land.
If you want to sell a piece of land, you have a few options: you can sell it yourself, enlist the help of a real estate agent or broker, or sell it directly to an investor or developer like us at North Georgia Land Buyers.
Here are your options, and it’s important to decide which one is best for you. We encourage you to check out our other videos on the North Georgia Land Buyers and Arbor View Properties YouTube channels, which focus on land and may help answer any additional questions you have.
Sell Your Land To North Georgia Land Buyers.
If you have a property you’re considering selling, and you’d like to receive an offer from us, or if you want to discuss having us as your listing agent or broker, we would be happy to talk with you. Please fill out the form on our website, northgeorgialandbuyers.com. Once you submit the form, a member of our team will receive it and call you back right away. They will likely ask you a few more questions to gather additional information, and then we’ll proceed from there.