Selling property and using a broker need imput

I have some land I might sell (at some point) Question is using a real estate broker, How do you select a good one and select the terms??? What to look out for any upfront fees??? Also the pros and cons of doing it your self??? I do not want to deal with owner finance!! How do they do it in your area??? I would like to avoid low performing brokers; the one that stick a sing out by the road and that is about all that happens. Thanks

(quoted from post at 08:39:19 10/11/15) I have some land I might sell (at some point) Question is using a real estate broker, How do you select a good one and select the terms??? What to look out for any upfront fees??? Also the pros and cons of doing it your self??? I do not want to deal with owner finance!! How do they do it in your area??? I would like to avoid low performing brokers; the one that stick a sing out by the road and that is about all that happens. Thanks

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I have yet to use a real estate agent to sell properties....all you need to do is figure out what you want for the property, put out a few ads and when you get an offer you can live with fill out a purchase agreement with the terms defined. Take it to a title company and they will do the rest.

You did not say where your land is at or what type it is. That makes a BIG difference in how you sell it. An example is farm land here in the mid-west. You really do NOT need a real estate person in the current market. The price per acre has fallen some but the ground is still demanding good prices. So you can sell it very easily yourself around here.

Now if your talking about ground that is more recreational in nature then your going need a broker. You need one that advertises regionally if your land is that type of land. Example would be deer hunting ground. IF it is in Northern MN you need it advertised in the Twin cities. Guys want to hunt away from where they work/live at it seems.

If your ground has commercial or development value then you would need a good commercial broker. You would want one that has done this for a while. You can look at developments around you and see who is selling them.

So it really depends on what you have to sell. Bare farm ground is selling well enough you do not need to give some broker 5-7% to sell it. An ad in the local paper and sign in front will draw you buyers if your price is around market value. Then just have an attorney do the closing paperwork. For the other type of land/property then a broker usually will earn you and themselves the commission. They can easily get you 10-15% more than you could on your own. Especially commercial property. Those buyers are hard to reach and it takes someone that deals with them regularly to help sell that type[e of property.

My Dad used to have rental propertys and said if someone could find a formula to pick a good tenant
they would make millions, finding a good real estate broker could also apply. You have ask around in your area.
$.02

There should never be any upfront fees, all of the brokers in my area charge commissions of from 3% to 6% depending on the total selling price, that being said I would never pay anyone to sell straight land, but in my area land sells itself as long as it is priced within reason because there is not much available, if it is priced ridiculously high no broker is going to sell it either. A lawyer who does mortgage closing and deeds can guide you through the formalities and if you don't know one any good banker can recommend one. Advertising these days is cheap and there are many choices to get the word out, the best way to avoid tire kickers is to make it clear in the advertising that there are no terms offered, one transaction, buyer pays closing costs.

Answers here are just a wild guess, and the advice is about useless, because of lack of details in your question.
What type land? ranch, fenced, farming, county/state road frontage, easements, distance from nearest town and size of town, timberland, wetlands, streams, ponds, distance from electric service, etc. etc.
State and county location at a minimum.
With these kinds of data, a person can give you pretty good advice.
Tom

Just a couple of thoughts.

Around here if you put a sign out that says "For Sale by Owner", no realtor will show it. Won't even mention it to buyers. You will be blackballed by the real estate community. I did this once and it was a disaster. Finally a realtor/client of mine told me what was going on. There are also a lot of expenses involved for a good realtor to sell a property. They advertise it, etc. A good realtor can save you a lot of time and money and risk.

Second thought. I have bought two farm properties in the past four years. One I paid cash but the larger of the two I gave a big down payment and persuaded the seller to take a land contract on the balance. While I understand there can be problems with these, just like there can be problems in every area of life, it is not necessarily a bad thing. On the first anniversary of our purchase, the seller called me on the phone and thanked me. My payments were 2.5 times the required payment and arrived on the same day every month. The 5% I was giving him was WAY more than he was earning at the bank. I hated to tell him the payments were automatically remitted by the bank computer every month, but either way...we both are happy with the deal.

Realtor commissions can be steep on vacant land. Be aware that if you negotiate the commission lower, this will be known to outside agents and they will show other properties before they show yours because the commission is higher. Your agent will likely spend less on ads, etc also. Make sure you ask more than you are willing to take and hopefully can offset some of the commission this way.

Dave I understand land contract but just not what I want in this particular case

Do you know of anyone who might be interested? Might not hurt to contact them.

Several years ago when my sister and I decided to sell some property we owned jointly, I approached our next door neighbor's wife one evening, asking if they would be interested.

He was over the next afternoon with a loan officer from Farm Credit Association and before the day was over he made me an offer at my price. No dickering. I had our attorney draw up the paperwork.

The neighbor said afterword that he'd had his eye on that property for years, but didn't think he'd ever have a shot at it in his lifetime.

Doesn't hurt to talk around.

I sold some land earlier this year. I refused to list it with an agent, even though they called frequently. I posted it locally on Craigslist and on one website and ended up selling it without a broker. When agents called, I told them my price and if they could get their 3% above that, I would sell it. I would sign an authorization to show with a limited time specified so that they were protected but I wasn't tied to them for any length of time. You can create your own contract by doing a little internet research or hire a lawyer to draft one for you. The rest is mostly handled by the Title Co.

In our area there are two types of properties listed by realtors: If there's more than two trees it will be listed as a "Hunter's Paradise!" and if not it will be a "Fantastic Horse Property!", whatever that is. (I guess Mr. Ed is on his computer now....)

Being a realtor requires special training in order to be able to take particularly bad photographs. If a house is listed there will be only two fuzzy, crooked photos: one of a toilet and one of a ceiling fan. If prime farmland is for sale then the listing will have 50 fuzzy photos of a deer track and none showing the lay of the land, meets and bounds, etc.

Also anything larger than a city lot will be listed as a "Ranch".

In short, I don't think you would do wrong to try to sell it yourself, at least for a while. When property changes hands it's the title company that does the heavy lifting. If you need an agent at some point the best thing to do is get some face time and basically interview them. Anyone can pass the tests and get a license but what you really need is a good salesperson. You need to meet them in person to see if they have the personality for it.

Realtors will be able to access data on properties that have sold recently in your area and how much money actually changed hands. Part of what you get for commission is the research they can do so you don't start the price too high or too low. Keep in mind that it is _buyers_ that ultimately set the price.

I spent most of my career in Government service and have bought and sold property in Michigan, West Virginia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. I have dealt with a LOT of real estate agents. Believe you me, there is a Lot of differences in agents. A really good agent will do and equal amount of work for a prospective buyer as he does for the seller. He will write up an honest description of your property, make sure the deed is clear, make sure that all offers are legitimate (affordable by bidder) perform an accurate estimate of the worth of your property based upon local recent sales. The way I understand recent legislation, realtors can no longer high pressure a bidder into something way out of his price range. That is one of the main things that got us into the recession of 2008 (shisty RE agents and banks that went along with them.) Selling you property yourself will save you the 10 to 15% real estate fee but I don't know if it will protect you from a buyer who defaults. If you do go with an agent , and they will save you a LOT of work and worry) make sure you get them to commit, in writing, exactly what their duties will be. They are making a tremendous amount of money for their work effort.

A good agent will earn his commission and then some. Six percent is just about standard, although it's negotiable. Understand that the commission is usually split two ways and may even be split four ways (listing agent, listing brokerage, buyer's agent, buyer's brokerage). So even with a six percent commission, your agent may only see 1.5 percent.

Best bet is to look for an agent who specializes in your particular type of property, be it farmland, single family home, condo, commercial property or whatever. You can pretty much tell by how they treat their current listing how they'll treat you. If their other listings sell quickly, yours should to.