How do you come up with a listing price for land?

I have searched the current listing, and had a friend search closings in the last 2 years, and I have not been able to come up with any comps that seem to fit the bill.

I have a 30 acre tract in Anderson County that I MAY decide to put on the market ( I changed jobs, and we moved, so I do not get to enjoy the property as often as I used to). It's a small tract, which is not hard to find a lot of listings for, but my property has frontage on the Trinity River, which seems to rarely come on the market. This seems to greatly complicate the valuation process. On one hand, the river frontage has value, but about 1/4 of the property is in the floodplain, which I think will reduce the value.

We also have paved county road frontage, electric, are on a rural water system, have state minimum septic system, and have a small 12'x24' cabin. (We originally planned on building a home, but the job change kind of put a halt to that. )

I have tried talking to a couple of agents from that area, but both barely gave me the time of day...I suppose its because I'm a "city slicker" and not one of the locals. I'm afraid these folks are looking at pricing for easy commission, not for the best deal for the seller. I just did not get a feeling that I wanted to list with either of these folks.

Anyone have any ideas?

Eh, can really just start with comps from recent transactions, adjust up or down for qualities your property has versus the comps, and then come to a ballpark.

Land is pretty illiquid - not like houses. You can have a property appropriately priced and it still may not sell for a year due to lack of buyers in the area.

You can also hire someone for like $400-ish bucks (no idea what it costs in your area) to give you an appraisal and they will tell you what it is worth.

Now, that should be close to what you can sell, but no guarantee... heck, you may be able to sell it for more as well. I watched a guy buy land for about 150 above the appraised value because it was good land and what he wanted, but I have also seen people ask for a LOT of money due to being emotionally attached to the land.

You cannot go wrong with having an appraisal prior.

Check with a title company for a ballpark mainly. Plus they know good agents since they have to deal with them. I did that with a property up the road where I hunt.

your local county tax office is a good place to start

get an average , divide taxable value by acres

add $$$ for your emotional attachment to things that you've invested in:
cabin, patio, etc ...

nak, tell us more about the land. Is it mostly wooded, etc., good deer hunting?

Is it in an ag, forestry, or wildlife tax exemption with the county?

Pull it up on Google Earth, outline the boundaries and post it so we get a feel for what it looks like.

5 days since his post, and he has not responded,,,, wonder if the real estate agents he talked to got the same impression from him and didnt want to waste their time?

Try other agents, ones that mainly deal with farm and ranch land, or hunting land like Whitetail Properties. Or try to sell it yourself. I just sold 40 acres in Leon County by posting it on this forum.

First you need to be serious about selling it, and maybe the agents you talked to didn't feel you were seriously committed to selling it. The higher the price you put on it, the longer it normally takes to move it and letting it set on the market for years throws up red flags.

I tried talking to him as soon as he posted this.. I have yet to get ahold of this man. He is not serious at all.. hate when people throw stuff out there and don't have the courtesy.. to say I decided to not sale or something. Thanks for no reply

Do yall not understand "MAY decide to put on the market"? It seems to me he wants to find comparisons and get an idea of what he could sell for before he decides whether or not to sell.

Nak I say just hire an appraiser to find out what its worth. Then have one of the land realtors here on the forum sell it for you if you decide to sell

"MAY decide to put on the market" is another way to say "I'm looking for an idiot to overpay for my property". When people are ready to sell, they'll put a price on it. Till then, they are looking for suckers.

Sorry about going so long without a reply. I was on the road for work for a couple of weeks and kind of forgot about this thread.

We are considering putting the property on the market because we don't get to enjoy it as often as we used to. We moved (making it a longer drive) and my new job puts me on the road during the week more...making it a tough to spend as many weekends there as we used to.

I got a couple of PMs, with some really great info, about realtors and selling rural/hunting acreage. Based on what I learned from the PMs, we might try to sell without going through a realtor, just using a lawyer for the closing paperwork. If we go that route, I would probably spend a few thousand on dozer work, clearing some more of the road frontage and property lines, and putting in some additional food plots. That would make for some very nice pictures for LandsofTexas or similar website.

We bought it after it was foreclosed on, during the mortgage mess in 2007-08...at a pretty sweet price. The property is fully paid for and we are not under financial pressure to sell. The reason we trying to figure out the current value is almost the inverse of what a couple of posters have speculated above. If we learn that the property values are appreciating enough to at least keep up with what taxes and basic expenses run us, we may just hold it and see if my work situation changes over the next few years. If the value is not appreciating enough to keep us near break-even, we will probably put it on the market and look for a few acres closer to where we now live. But... all of that said, a stupid money offer could definitely help make up my mind.


For those wondering about the property itself.
It has ~1100' feet of frontage on a paved county road and 575' of Trinity River frontage.
All 30 acres are HEAVILY wooded...most is virgin river bottom, never having been cleared. Underbrush has been cleared, leaving anything bigger than 8" from about 3 acres near the road, where the cabin sits. This is a 50'X 50' clearing where the previous owner had a horse pen. The tree cover is mostly oaks. There is not a spot on the aerial/satellite maps where you can see the ground through the tree cover. As mentioned above, the back portion is in the flood plain and if the river comes out of its banks, the are a few acres that will get underwater.

There are ducks, deer, hogs, bobcats, and MANY squirrels (which completely destroy the pecan crop each year). There are several guide/outfitter operations in the area. Our property adjoins this hunting operation: The Bigwoods on the Trinity ...they are NOT high fenced.

The link above includes a map that gets you pretty close. If we decide to move forward with selling the property, I'll post here first, but for now, we're just trying to get a better feel for the market value. I did talk to one appraiser in the area, he said he would be happy to do the work, and take my money, but he said since there are no recent comps with river frontage, he had no real way of valuing that frontage.

Have you considered reaching out to The Bigwoods on the Trinity to see if they would be interested in buying it?

Not yet. I tried to find Doc last time I was out there, but he was not around that weekend. Regardless if he is interested in buying or not, I figure he will be a great source of info on how to value river frontage vs normal woods and pasture lands.

He has mentioned in the past the he leases a lot of land. I have not heard of him buying anything lately.

Nak, Hunting & Recreational land is what I specialize in across the state and I'd be more than happy to speak with you regarding your property! Please don't hesitate contacting me if theres any questions you have about valuation or about selling. Look forward to speaking with you!

Seems to me around where I live (Missouri) that land 'For Sale by Owner' is priced by a procedure known as "OUT OF THEIR RECTAL CAVITY".
I saw a nice piece of property to my west side that abuts my current acreage. Thought it would be a good extension to what I already have. Contacted the owner and asked price. What he wanted per acre was 7 1/2 TIMES what I paid for mine 5 years ago. We are talking undeveloped agriculture land with no utilities to property unless you extended from MY east border. Checked county assessor office and was quoted an evaluation price slightly higher per acre than what I paid for my property. Called owner and told him what the property was worth- HE HUNG UP ON ME!!!

I have Doc's phone number if you want it.