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There are a few pieces like this on the market right now in southern Iowa, but don't be fooled into thinking the sellers are going to walk away with anything close to that price on closing day. Not even 40's (which are in higher demand because more people can afford them) are going anywhere...

But is it eventually selling at anything close to the sky high list price? My guess is in most cases no. Of course that's easy enough to find out for sure by checking assessor sites. Did the landowner get a higher sale price by listing it "sky high", or did he just watch his listing sit there...

Buck activity and sightings have cratered for me in the last few days, both in person and camera activity. South central Iowa. Seems like it's time to focus on food now.

These sales results so often tend to be impacted by circumstances that are hyper-local. Sometimes they're a reflection of the broader market and sometimes they're not at all. I was at an auction in late Summer in central Iowa and some mid 80's csr2 farm ground was selling. It was certified...

Today wasn't as good as I thought it'd be after these several warm days ended and it got cooler. I saw a few bucks following after a doe about 9 a.m. but that was basically it this morning. This evening I saw 4 does and 1 two-year old buck from the same stand where I saw 10 bucks and 15 does one...

The key isn't comparing today's prices against what they were in 2017 and how much of a percentage increase it is in order to determine whether a property is overpriced or not. The key is comparing it against comps in the current market. And when I say "comps", I'm not talking about a single...

I strongly resemble these remarks. It is frustrating when others are making big, unrealistic promises to get listings, but the truth is that a lot of times landowners don't really want the truth, they want their realtor to confirm what the landowner already thinks the property is worth. I'm...

I would just point out again that in my experience as a realtor, it is the landowners who are the ones that more often have a difficult time with realistic expectations. Do some realtors go along with that in order to get the listing? You better believe it. Do all? Absolutely not. When I do a...

Properties that sell for a lower price because of "special circumstances" are no more indicative of the market at large than properties that sell for a higher price because of special circumstances. You didn't mention what the special circumstances were, but I can think of a bunch of...

I always say that "time on the market unsold" is a great clarifier for landowners, and sometimes that is the only thing that will help some of them see the value of their land is not quite where they thought it was. I have only ever had 1 landowner tell me he thought I valued his land too...

Maybe, maybe not. If there are *3 comps* in your neighborhood that went for higher than you thought, then I would argue that is not a "one off". Perhaps the market has just gone higher in that area than you think. I'm not saying this is you, but sometimes locals don't understand why area...

Do you know it's the realtor and not the landowner who is driving the sales price? How do you know it will go for the "inflated" value? Refusal to give requested yield data is certainly a red flag. If they did not make available FSA records for the farm, that is a red flag also. You can ask...

You're not wrong, but *banking* on your sale being the exceptional one is a good way to be disappointed, especially if you're unaware of the reason some other property went for a higher than expected price, which is the case more often than not. A landowner hears some property in his county (or...

There's no question that sometimes is a factor, though a "one-off" high sales price here or there doesn't mean that's the new market value for that kind of land in that area. I went to a farmland auction in Wayne County back in the Spring for a piece of slightly above average tillable ground for...

Yes, I've seen the ISU numbers. If it was the "average" property for the county, then maybe the price was close to market value, but I still think there's a lot of room for error there. I looked at the average for my own county and it's above what rec/hunting ground around here is selling for...

Using the countywide property sales average seems to me like an inaccurate way to value the land if that's how it was done. An average is a combination of the high, low, and everything in between. If you've got a property at the high end and you list it at the average then you're selling that...

I sat on Wednesday morning at the same stand I sat this morning. Wednesday I saw 15+ deer and multiple mature bucks cruising or chasing does. This morning I saw a 2 1/2 year old pestering a doe and a fawn a little and that was it. Obviously different weather conditions. Interested to see what...

As someone who makes their living in the land business, I'll throw in my 2 cents. 1) The truth is that it frequently is *landowners* who are driving the inflated listing prices, not realtors. The average southern Iowa landowner I talk to does not have a very realistic view of the actual market...

Lot of variables, especially when you start adding buildings into the mix. Buildings can actually make the *land* worth less per acre, but that is a longer discussion. But for *raw land* in southern Iowa with *no* negatives like access easements or other unusual encumbrances, no dirt road only...

There certainly are properties on the market right now that are seeing a negative value drag as a result of "unfavorable" property characteristics, but there are lots that don't have negatives but are just way overpriced. This is my opinion, but I work in this field so it is my professional...