Does anybody have any experience dealing with MOP real estate? Good or bad?

Overall, an honest group of guys with good inventory and a top notch marketing effort. Watch out for an extra 1% commission on the transaction though. Same deal with Whitetail Properties. They both have a 1% "brand marketing" fee markup (last I heard). Somewhere in the deal that extra 1% is going to bite someone and thats a good chunk a change on a land deal.

As a buyer, do your research, get comps, and don't pay 1 cent more than you'd pay for any other property in the area. Making flashy flyers or having a website with pictures of big deer in the background doesn't increase the property value to you.

It's the same land it was when it was listed by Remax. Keep that in mind.

don't look at the brokerage firm, unless its a individual broker, look at the agents.

remax, century 21, Coldwell banker, mossy oak, united country, etc are just franchises. it means nothing to a buyer. its the integrity and experience of the individual broker/agent that matters, not the umbrella he is under

This is absolutely false, at least with our company. There is no such thing as a "brand marketing" fee markup.

Commissions are not regulated in real estate....and whatever commission rate is agreed upon between the seller and listing agent has no impact on the buyer whatsoever.

Also, just as Brandon pointed out, most of the major RE "brands" are simply franchises. That is not the case with Whitetail Properties. We are a unified company, and are managed directly by our corporate headquarters in Pike County, Illinois. All Whitetail Properties agents go through an extensive and strict hiring process. That's why we are one of the largest and most successful farm & ranch brokerages in the country.

It is the agent, not the firm that will close the deal. Find an agent you like.

Unless you are hard to get along with, I bet MOP would have an agent you can develop a good relationship with as would any other firm.

We had a place listed with MOP and it was an OK experience. I think the listing price was aggressive and the MOP agent missed the market somewhat. We had one lowball (borderline offensive) offer in 18 months. We sold <60 days later after dropping MOP and running with a local broker at what I thought was a more realistic price.

I know they have good people working for them. However, the MOP flag seems gimmicky TO ME. IMO, it seems that they have a very focused customer base and that may limit their exposure to a potential non-hunting buyer that may just be looking to have a tangible asset, a retiree cashing out their retirement, or a buyer needing to sink funds into something on a 1031 Exchange. That being said, they will more than likely use the same real estate serach engines that any other brokerage firm would.

Bottom line - find an agent you can work with and that you have confidence that can close a deal.

there isnt a seller out there that doesnt figure his agents commission into his asking price, meaning it gets passed on to the buyer.

Technically you are correct, but you are looking at it the wrong way.

Nobody can market a property on their own as well as we (or other comparable firms) can. Therefore, by utilizing the services of a broker....the property is being exposed to a much larger audience, attracting potential buyers that otherwise would not even know the property existed.

The #1 most important trait in a broker is their knowledge of the area.

That holds true if you're the buyer or seller.

Bingo. Knowledge of area, what has been trading hands and for how much, etc.

As a potential buyer, that has been my overall impression too. They list properties at a premium price hoping to connect the exact right buyer with the exact right seller. If you're a seller and willing to wait, they may eventually find you a buyer (or not). If you want to sell reasonably fast, go a different route.

so to the agents, who ultimiately decides on the asking price of a property? does the agent have to go back and get an "approval" from his broker before they can list the place? in the example above is it the specific agent that may be too high on the price or can the broker/MOP be to blame?

i have been watching a small property close to me that has been listed for a few years now, most recently with keller williams. it was listed with another large broker, i believe EBBY, the previous years and after starting at over $90k, last summer it was down to under $80k, still too high IMO. well it went unlisted for the last few months until 2 weeks when it popped back up with keller williams for $85k. i was kind of surprised to see that they actually went up on the asking price after it has sat for so long and wondered who would be behind that...the agent?

the agents don't decide on an asking price. They make suggestions but its ultimately up to the seller. and yes, the agent has to have permission from the broker. if he doesn't want to list it the agent can 't list it. the listings are actually property of the broker, not the agent. if the agent leaves the listing stays with the broker.

the average ranch property(I can't speak for small tracts, I'm talking about a real ranch property), will sit for 6-12 months before being sold if its priced right. its not going to sell immediately in many cases.


A good agent comes into play by having a good knowledge of what properties in the area are selling for. a poor agent will just let the seller list it at whatever and not advise him on price(most sellers think their property is worth more than it is) if he ignores the advice of the agent its on the seller

The problem with your statement is that the overwhelming majority of agents will take an opinion of the land value that gets it sold quickly, not what's good for their client.

I think it's probably wise to ignore the advice of agents about 80% of the time.

A few select agents will actually know their stuff and will give a good and meaningful opinion to their clients. Most just say what they think the client needs to hear to make the sale happen.

I will say that most landowners have unrealistic views of how much their property is worth as well.

People tend to believe their land is worth whatever the highest parcel in their area sold for on a per acre basis. Never mind that theirs doesn't have water or woods or a nice view, etc.

Last place I sold my agent was encouraging me to take an offer I felt was low. I finally just said, "Okay, find me comparable land out here I can get for what you're telling me to accept."

She couldn't find 1 place in the county. I sold it 2 weeks later for 30k more on a 40 acre plot.

I don't know if that's the case or not, because I don't sit in with other agents during their listing presentations.

I will say that I have never once had a client go off a price I suggested strictly on my word alone. I ALWAYS have proof of what like properties have been selling for. I also do a cost approach analysis taking a raw land value and working up from their based on improvement replacement cost, so by saying "its wise to ignore the advice of agents 80% of the time" is a very off the cuff remark. a better way to put it is "its better to ignore 80% of the agents", that would be more accurate.

From what you have been saying on this thread, it sounds like you had a very inexperienced agent representing you

If a listing agent isn't providing the seller with recent sales data on other comparable properties sold within the market in which you are selling, they simply aren't doing their job. Never just take their word for what a piece of land will sell for. If they refuse to provide documentation supporting their suggested listing/sales price, find another agent to list with.

Yep, all you can really go by are recent comps. You absolutely should NOT go by asking prices you see online.

My very first experience buying land I drove around with a very established and well known broker in the area I was looking in. He kept showing me parcels listed at 6k per acre, but I has substantial support reflecting land in the area on similarly sized tracts sold between 3 and 6k per. He kept insisting that property would never sell for 3-4k per in my lifetime and those prices were behind us.

1 month later I had gotten a seller down to 3100 and took it. I lost the property when a cash buyer came in and paid cash at 50 per less. Seller didn't want to wait another month.

Less than a month after that I went under contract on a superior parcel at 3300 per.

Twice in a month I had an agreed upon price my expert realtor said would never happen again in my lifetime.

Was eye opening.

Cameron what size places are these you are referencing too?

Small. I get it. They don't make that much so it's not worth it to them to really spend much time on it.

But 200k might be someone's life savings. It's important to them. Plus, while I was only buying 40 acres in my 20s, I'll be buying a hell of a lot more later. If you don't have time to properly represent for a 6k commission, put one of your Jr. Guys on it.

And txtrophy, these were highly seasoned brokers. The people that when you look online in their county, every third listing is theirs and no one else has close to as many.

Commission in Texas is not regulated but 6% is a benchmark. And I know what Whitetail Properties and MOP (typically) charge a seller 7% to list their property. That 1% premium is justified by your "national marketing reach" and your "media presence". aka, brand marketing. You can call it whatever, but it is what it is.

And to say that a listing agent's commission has no impact on a buyer is absolutely false.

This precisely JSHouse...Real Estate 101

No truer words ever spoken.

And I'll add, I agree with the poster who said find an "agent you trust", when that agent is yourself. I have NEVER disappointed myself in a RE deal acting as both my buyer and seller's agent.

And that is my advise to the OP. You can save yourself a small or large fortune by acting as your own agent.

I've said this in a previous thread....but I'll say it again. Are you guys suggesting that a buyer should not purchase his dream property because it is listed with a real estate broker? Because that's what it sounds like. It sounds like you have it in your heads that a buyer always overpays if there are agents involved. That is just not the case. There are smoking deals bought and sold every day via brokered property.

The bottom line is this, if you insist on not dealing with agents on either end of the deal, then you are strictly limited to only looking at FSBO property. If you come across a property on the internet that you like, and it is listed with someone.....then at the very least, you have no choice but to deal with the listing agent. You cannot purchase that property without him getting his commission, which is only fair. So do you pass up the perfect property because of this illusion of "overpaying"?

You guys make it sound as if you can somehow go behind the agent and get the commission cut out of the price. I hope that isn't what you're suggesting, because if the seller has signed an exclusive listing agreement, then that is not legal.