Mike Browning

Tag: Rural Land

  • Not Ready to Sell?

    Not Ready to Sell?

    Good. Look Anyway.

    Most landowners aren’t thinking about selling. If anything, they’re thinking they never will.

    They’re at a 1 or a 2 on a 10-point scale. If that.

    But life comes at you fast. Kids going to college. Estate planning conversations you weren’t expecting. Something happening nearby that changes how you feel about owning land there. We’re seeing that a lot right now, data centers, crypto mining operations moving into rural areas. Things that weren’t on anyone’s radar two years ago.

    You can go from “I’m never selling” to “I wish I’d sold last year” faster than you’d think.

    So it’s worth having a baseline. Most people agree with that in theory. Most people still won’t do it.

    Because the last time they asked a question like this, they ended up in a conversation moving faster than they wanted to move. Some agent walking the property, running numbers, and applying list-now pressure that would make a timeshare salesman blush.

    It’s uncomfortable.

    So they wait. Market shifts. They finally get serious two years later with worse information than they would have had if they’d just asked the question when they first had it.

    That’s an expensive way to stay comfortable.

    The landowners who make good decisions are almost never the ones who acted fast. They’re the ones who started paying attention early. Understood the market before they needed to. Weren’t scrambling when the time came.

    That takes time. And it starts before you’re ready.

    Looking doesn’t mean selling. Getting a clear picture of what your land is worth, what’s selling nearby, where development pressure is headed, none of that commits you to anything. It just means you’re not guessing when it matters.

    The only thing that makes early conversations uncomfortable is working with someone who treats them like a sales call.

    That’s not how I operate. If you’re at a 3, I’d rather you know where things stand than stay in the dark because you were worried I’d push you somewhere you weren’t ready to go.

    You control the timeline. That part is on you.

    My job is simply to make sure you have the information when you’re ready to use it.

    PS – Most landowners aren’t planning to sell today.

    But things can change quickly. When the time comes, the people who already understand the market tend to make better decisions.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details affecting value that aren’t obvious from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get Yours Here

    PPS– If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

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  • It’s Not Free To Try

    It’s Not Free To Try

    At least not on my end of the deal.

    One thing that makes land different from houses is that having it sit on the market a little while usually doesn’t damage it the same way.

    A house sitting unsold starts raising questions pretty quickly.

    Land is slower by nature.

    So after a Land Reality Check, sometimes the conversation becomes:

    “Okay, if you think this is worth around $8,500 an acre, why don’t we just throw it out there at $14,000 and see what happens?”

    And within reason, that’s not necessarily crazy.

    If somebody is willing to sell around market value, but wants to push a little first just to make sure we’re not leaving money on the table, fine. I understand that completely.

    You’ve probably noticed if you’ve read any of my Land Reality Checks that I tend to lean conservative anyway.

    I’d rather be slightly conservative than explain later why fairy tales didn’t happen.

    But there’s another side to this too.

    If you’re selling a small residential lot, it usually doesn’t take much more than a yard sign and an MLS listing. Which isn’t free, but usually doesn’t involve substantial upfront expense either.

    If somebody wants to throw one of those out there at an unrealistic number “just to see,” I might play along.

    Maybe.

    But marketing a larger tract correctly usually costs real money up front.

    Larger signs.
    Drone photography.
    Aerials.
    Professional brochures.
    Landing pages.
    Targeted marketing.
    Industry websites.
    Paid Google ads sometimes.
    Mailers sometimes.

    It adds up faster than people think.

    A decent custom sign can easily run $500 to $1,000 depending on what’s needed. Drone photography might be another few hundred. Professionally printed brochures are expensive if you want them done correctly.

    And that’s before getting into the less visible costs, the platforms, memberships, advertising accounts, and all the little things that make the marketing possible in the first place.

    Depending on the tract, it’s not unusual for me to spend $1,500 to $2,000 or more getting a property positioned before anything even happens.

    When I take a listing, I’m basically betting a substantial amount on my ability to get it done for you.

    That doesn’t mean every listing sells.

    Markets change.

    Sometimes sellers change their minds. Sometimes buyers disappear. Sometimes a property just sits there longer than expected.

    That’s business.

    But there still has to be some reasonable overlap between where a seller is realistically willing to sell and where the market is realistically willing to buy.

    Otherwise everybody is mostly participating in a very expensive form of wishful thinking.

    PS – Most landowners are not planning to sell today.

    But markets change, family situations change, and sometimes opportunities show up when you aren’t expecting them. The people who already understand roughly where they stand usually make better decisions than the ones trying to figure everything out under pressure.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    It looks at nearby sales, current competition, development activity, utility considerations, and the things affecting value that most people never think about until it matters.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Check it out.

    PPS – If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but enjoy thinking about land, markets, negotiation, and how this business actually works, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

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  • Don’t Get Your Feelings Hurt

    Don’t Get Your Feelings Hurt

    I’d rather be slightly conservative than tell you fairy tales.

    When people ask for a Land Reality Check, sometimes they’re disappointed in what I tell them.

    That’s just part of it.

    A lot of times they heard about some property up the road that sold for X, so naturally the question becomes, “Why are you telling me mine is worth Y?”

    Well, because every tract is different.

    The other property may have had water or sewer. Maybe the frontage was better. Maybe the topo worked better. Maybe more of it was usable. Sometimes one side of the road is simply more desirable than the other. There are a hundred little things that can move value around.

    But the bigger thing to understand is the approach I take when I do these.

    I generally don’t ask ahead of time what your motivation is.

    Whether you want to sell immediately, inherited the property, are under pressure, or wouldn’t sell at all unless somebody got aggressive, I generally don’t build the analysis around that.

    Instead, I make a basic assumption.

    If you were what I’d call a sensible seller, meaning you are not under pressure to sell but you would sell at a reasonable market price, what would the property likely bring?

    That’s the framework.

    And all the comparable sales are there in the report. The relevant ones anyway. I try to show what sold, what didn’t, and explain why I came to the conclusion I did.

    Not a desperate seller.

    Not somebody demanding fantasy pricing either.

    Just somebody willing to make a reasonable deal if the numbers make sense.

    On a million-dollar transaction, that usually means you’re not going to blow the whole thing up over six hundred dollars on a survey when everything else is lined up correctly.

    Most legitimate transactions happen somewhere in that world.

    Does that mean somebody more aggressive might test the market higher?

    Sure.

    Does a more motivated seller sometimes take less for speed or certainty?

    Of course.

    That’s not really the point.

    The point is giving you a baseline grounded in what buyers have actually been willing to pay, instead of just whatever number happens to sound good that day.

    Then you decide whether you want to sell, wait, push harder on price, or ignore the whole thing for another five years.

    PS – Most landowners are not planning to sell right now.

    But situations change. Sometimes gradually, sometimes all at once. The people who already understand what they own usually make better decisions than the ones trying to figure it out under pressure.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    It looks at nearby sales, current competition, development activity, utility considerations, and the things that quietly affect value one way or the other.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Check it out.

    PPS- If you’re not ready for the Reality Check but like this kind of thinking, you can sign up below to get these in your inbox.

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.