Steps to Take When Selling Farmland

    Iowa Land Company receives numerous calls throughout the year from Iowa landowners who are considering selling their land. Some landowners that call us are more experienced than others with the process of selling land. The landowners that are more experienced with selling land are typically comfortable with the process, however, the individuals that don’t have experience selling are typically hesitant with the process. With that said, it’s safe to say no matter how much experience the individual has with the selling process, every one of them has questions about what steps to take while selling land. Below is a broad list of steps Iowa Land Company farmland brokers take once the landowner has contacted us that is thinking about selling farmland. 

1. Ask Questions: We like to either set up a time to meet with the landowner or schedule a time where the landowner has time to answer a list of questions that pertain to the farm that can be easily answered. A few of the questions are – How long has the farm been farmed? How long has the farm been owned by the family? Is there any tile on the property? What are your goals when looking to sell the property? The answers to the questions gives a head start on determining whether the best sale method when offering the farm to the market is an auction, sealed bid auction, or traditional listing. If the landowner is not able to answer some of the questions, we have resources available that can answer our questions once we are able to locate the landowner’s property on a map.

2. Determine Fair Market Price: The next step we take is helping the landowner understand what the property is worth in the current market. Iowa Land Company looks at the property location, what recent sold comparatives are, what similar properties are listed for, what improvements the farm has, and what the CSR2 value is when determining what the value for the property is. 

3. Detailed Market Analysis: We then go into detail and put together a fair report that shows how we determined your fair market price for your farm. Our goal within the report is for the landowner to fill 100% confident the properties fair market price given is extremely accurate based on the details within the report. We want the landowner to feel confident they will be yielding the absolute most money out of the property they own.   

4. Establishing a Listing Price or Reserve Price for Auction: As you can imagine, our brokers receive a number of questions from clients throughout the process of selling land for them. One of the questions is either how much should my reserve be or how much should we list the farm for, depending if we recommend the farm to be sold via public auction or traditional listing. We have tried and true methods that our land brokers lean on when recommending clients a reserve price for auction or an asking price for traditional listing. When that time comes, your designated broker will talk in detail with you what their recommendations are for the situation at hand. 

5. Marketing the Farm: We don’t cut any corners, when it’s time to market the property. We feel we are the best in the business, we offer professional videography and photography on all of our auctions and listings. A few things we do for clients are put together a direct mail campaign, send email blasts to potential buyers we have worked with in the past, hang detailed fliers in local restaurants, gas stations, etc. We also put up for sale signs, and list the property on several multiple land listing websites. To understand the entire marketing process, contact us today or view our for sellers page here. 

6. Accepted Offer and Closing: After your land broker has found the buyer that is willing to pay the amount of money you’re wanting out of the property, we head off to closing. We make the closing process as simple as you want it to be. Some sellers like to be more hands on with the closing process; where other sellers don’t want to do anything but show up the day of closing, sign the closing documents, and receive their check.  

    It’s important to seek advice from a professional that works on selling farmland every day when the time has come to sell your farm. There are numerous details inside each step listed above that sellers overlook before hiring a professional to help them liquidate their property. Our brokers are trained to pay attention to detail when going through the selling process. Our goal is to make the process as simple as possible for you while gaining you the absolute most money the property is worth. You can call our main office to get in touch with your local Iowa land broker today @ (515) 962-5048 or send us an email @ info@iowalandcompany.com. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have.