Land value

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This past summer we just went through the same thing. With the same results, bottom line is the realtor wanted the land and then would turn around and sell for more $$$. After finding this out we hired an appraiser ($750) and now know what the place is worth. If you truly want to sell get a true market analysis done.
Thanks. Without asking numbers, was there a significant difference between what the realtors said and the appraiser?
 
Thanks. Without asking numbers, was there a significant difference between what the realtors said and the appraiser?
Yes there was quite a difference in the two and the appraisal came in what other farms in the area had sold for in the last 12 months. The flags that went up for us was first, the value that was stated, second the very next day they happened to have a buyer that would pay the quoted price, so wouldn't even need to do a listing if we decided to sale. Ya no thanks!
 
The property on our North side just sold for $1.5 million, 165 acres with new house and pool to folks out of DFW. It's their "weekend" place.
For reference we paid $575/acre for the same size tract 25 years ago( raw land with no infrastructure). We paid $3,0000/acre for the place across the road from our homeplace a couple of years ago. 55 acres with a well and electricity a half mile down the road just sold for $500,000 to another couple out of DFW.

As my daddy would say land is higher than a cat's back around here.
 
Sure does...????.... he's driving a building materials delivery truck... I can't figure it out............
New 130 hp FWA tractor a year ago with loader/grapple, new Aluminum stocktrailer, Dually Diesel PU, about 20 cows. Renting pasture, buying all his winter feed. You figure it out.......
 
Maybe he won the lottery?
Yeah maybe........ True story, I had a call yesterday alerting us that we won Pub. Clearing House to the tune of 2.5 Mill. Only needed to go and pay a $200 processing fee, and the Prize Patrol would be right out in a blue and yellow minivan with balloons, a cashiers check for the 2.5, a Mercedes E class that I needed to test drive before taking delivery, along with $5000/week for life!

.........................................I ran right out and locked in on some high dollar farmland in the neighborhood, and a new pickup.... :cool: (Rrriight!)
 
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My sister signed the contract with realtor yesterday to sell 41ac immediately south of me. Completely unimproved & wooded, currently under ag exemption cattle grazing. (but would lose that next year because it isn't 75% clear open space) 2/3 of it floods badly (worse than mine) Asking $249,900 for it.
The realtor's ad came out on website today. Someone is coming tomorrow to look it over.
People are nuts.

I will be out of cows and out of this county just as soon as I can get it all done and sold.

They started coming to my door at 8PM this morning and there's been a steady stream all day at sister's gate even tho it was drizzling rain all day. Realtor has been there all afternoon on a RTV showing it and she was running thru mud and muck most of the time, and told me late this afternoon, she believed it was sold.
I believe they priced it too low, tho I would never pay that much for it.
It's been on the market 27 hours.
I repeat...
People are nuts.
 
Yeah, I just feel for the young fella's that are wanting to get started in this climate. Only thing they can hope for is that in the end, the land will have appreciated in value similarly to what we've all seen over our lifetimes. I gotta believe that it will continue too... in the long term... especially if whole economy inflation starts hitting the fan, as I expect it will soon, the way we're devaluing the dollar with "funny money"..........
 
Probably the best advice is from the Steve Miller Band....................... "Go on, take the money and RUN!" It'll all hit the fan eventually. Sell high, buy low.
 
Probably the best advice is from the Steve Miller Band....................... "Go on, take the money and RUN!" It'll all hit the fan eventually. Sell high, buy low.
I'm inclined to do the opposite. My ancestors left Europe for a reason. Hearing the acreage sizes and prices in the "better", more established areas most of you live in just motivates me to conglomerate more acres while the going is good. It's still possible. I started with a couple bottle feeders and 90 acres just over 10 years ago. We're over 1200 owned acres, all touching, lots of it cropable now. I hope my kids keep at least some of it in the family as insurance.
 
I'm inclined to do the opposite. My ancestors left Europe for a reason. Hearing the acreage sizes and prices in the "better", more established areas most of you live in just motivates me to conglomerate more acres while the going is good. It's still possible. I started with a couple bottle feeders and 90 acres just over 10 years ago. We're over 1200 owned acres, all touching, lots of it cropable now. I hope my kids keep at least some of it in the family as insurance.
With global warming your area seasons may slowly become less and less cold. You will be setting on a gold mine. It may take a few years.
 
With global warming your area seasons may slowly become less and less cold. You will be setting on a gold mine. It may take a few years.
My thoughts exactly. In the meantime I'm having a good life doing something I love. At the very least I have enough for my family to survive on -bush, fields, wells with solar pumps, game and livestock.
 
An appraisal may or may not tell you what actual market value is. Kinda depends on whether they can find true 'comparable' properties to base their analysis on.
We have a piece of family-owned lakefront property in east-central AL. No one in the family has used it in nearly 20 years... neighbors and the general public getting more use out of it than any of us. So... finally got all family members on board to sell it.
One real estate appraiser valued it at $125K, another at $165K. Realtor I'd been talking to, who knew the property, area of the lake, demand/availability of properties for sale, etc., said they were both way off on their evaluations... she KNEW she could sell it for at least $205K... but would start it out at $225K and go from there.
 
An appraisal may or may not tell you what actual market value is. Kinda depends on whether they can find true 'comparable' properties to base their analysis on.
We have a piece of family-owned lakefront property in east-central AL. No one in the family has used it in nearly 20 years... neighbors and the general public getting more use out of it than any of us. So... finally got all family members on board to sell it.
One real estate appraiser valued it at $125K, another at $165K. Realtor I'd been talking to, who knew the property, area of the lake, demand/availability of properties for sale, etc., said they were both way off on their evaluations... she KNEW she could sell it for at least $205K... but would start it out at $225K and go from there.
That's an issue that I think we would have as well. There are comparable tracts of land in the county however most are in either a traditionally higher valued part of the county, or on a county road much farther from town. Some have much older houses, and some small tracts have some real big new houses, so it seems to me that it would be difficult to make anywhere near an apples to apples comparison.
 
ANY appraisal is ALWAYS only an estimate, a GUESS really, and numerous appraisers will always come up with different numbers unless they're "colluding" together. And keep in mind that EVERY property is unique, and different buyers may be seeing different things about the property that appeal to them. In a volatile sellers market, it can become nearly impossible to "guess" what the highest bidder might be willing to go to.

The only REAL appraisal of value is when you put it on the market, and a buyer that wants it shows up and makes a serious offer with earnest money on the line. It's always "only worth/is worth as much as" what someone is willing to pay for it.

Some buyers will be willing to pay more than other buyers obviously... so right there you have several actual "honest appraisals" from "serious buyers" that would be willing to put their money on the line... but their opinions of what it's value is varies between them. Every auction proves this out. A good number of people go away shaking their head saying it's going too high, and they're not willing to pay that much for it, and someone goes away agreeing to pay what the sale price was.

When it's put up for sale, if you ask too little, you'll never know then what the market MIGHT have been willing to pay. If you ask too much, they can counter offer, but if you put your "ask" too high, you might also just be chasing away potential real offers that might otherwise have been made somewhat under your ask price, because they don't want to insult you with their offer, ...they may feel that you're just completely unrealistic in your ask and you're trying to take advantage of them, and so then they just don't want to deal with you,... or they may feel they'd have no chance at being accepted so they won't even try.

Remember that at an auction, alot of times, the "first bidder" starts out the process with a very unrealistic low-ball offer, but by the end of the "negotiations", they end up going home with the item at a MUCH higher price. He WAS a serious buyer, willing to go much higher............. but he also wasn't willing to make that high offer right up front, in case he would be able to get it for less.
 
My sister just called.
SOLD!
My gut feeling is they (her and realtor) priced it too low, but she wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.
 

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