All Forum Posts by: John Lewis

@Tim Swierczek I've briefly talked to some mid sized builders as to their needs. Basically in my area I have a lot of people that want to sell land without an agent and will throw up for sale by owner ads burning deep in the undertow of Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or some other classified ad type thing. The listing will have vague details about what would otherwise be highly valuable and sought after land in areas you would think people would beat hand over fist to get ahold of. I will do research on the parcel number to confirm it is legitimate. They will no joke rather let it stay unnoticed by anyone with any purchasing power for a year or more than hire an agent even at a modest commission and get their moneys worth. I am trying to work with home builders because they buy land and will pay for it. Even if I just get a finders fee or something like that.

Hello! I am a raw land agent who is new to the business. There has been a lot of development activity in my area of Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in terms of building. My brokerage does Agricultural land, Vacant Land and Recreational Land. I've been talking with some farmers on the outskirts of Rochester, MN that were looking to sell part of their holdings to land developers like Lennar, DR Horton, et cetera. Let's say zoning is not an issue. What does this process look like? I want to help them the best way I can. A lot of this interest is sudden given housing demand and not many people I work with have any experience doing this.

I guess a good word to describe me is farmland adjacent. From what you are saying though its very binary. Your an Ag person or your not an Ag person. My family owns a farm in Wisconsin where we harvest maple syrup and honey. Its rented out to people who have horses but nothing hardcore like cattle or row crops. I spent 8 years in North Dakota and worked for a rural electric cooperative for 1 year. I currently as a day job work for a farmland machinery company as an embedded software engineer (display screens for the machines). I guess I need to stick my neck out there and get to know people on a more personal level.

@Delma Kaiga I would be more than happy to connect!

1 hour radius? I did not see that coming. I was going to get reciprocity with Iowa and Wisconsin so I could have access to a larger market. Your saying to go deep in one area and not go broad in many?

I have heard a range of opinions on mailers from "its the bread and butter of all my marketing" to "I tried it and got a response rate of 0.01% and its not worth the money". Rochester has a lot of vacant land that is zoned for agriculture but most likely will be developed into a neighborhood in the near future. Maybe they would be a good mailing list for potential sellers?

This is good info. I appreciate the response.

My experience is that St. Paul side is better for cashflow since rent yeilds are better but Minneapolis is good for equity appreciation. My girlfriend and I have done a LOT of hunting in the twin cities for investment properties. Feel free to message me if you want more information! Would love to help!

I am an agent who is new to the business. Just recently started at a land brokerage that specializes in agricultural land. I am running into a unique problem where I can find potential buyers of raw land and agriculture in particular but they will not sign a right to represent because they are sophisticated enough to purchase direct. "If you get a listing as a seller, feel free to text it to me." is a common phrase I hear. I will find out that they aren't kidding around because applications like propstream will show them as having $40 million or more in equity across many properties in more cases than you would believe. Cold calling has proven very effective at building a buyers list of high net worth individuals but nobody wants to sell anything. Its bizarre!!

What are good strategies to get listings as a seller agent for Raw Land? I am open to a lot but I want to make sure I am on the right track and do not light money on fire so to speak. So far I have focused on trying to get listings for active farms as turnkey sales but maybe vacant land is easier to get listings with as a seller agent?

I have met with other agents at my brokerage and they don't even do mail campaigns or anything like that because response rates for Agricultural Land are typically low according to them. They have gotten away with doing everything word of mouth which does not sound efficient to me.

I go back and forth between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester, Minnesota but could do a larger area even across state lines into Iowa or Wisconsin if I needed to but I think I need to at least get one local listing first.