Buying land, realtors…..

[Sligh1]

Get this ? a lot…. “How do you choose realtors?” “What are good & bad things to look for?” (Buying or selling). I don’t do a lot of transactions a year - a couple maybe. But help lots of folks. What’s your thoughts on good, bad, things you want, etc??
I’ll list a few to start ….

Want:
-GRINDERS!!!!! Dudes that work. Guys that can dig, network & fight for business.
-Easy to deal with. Personal level of comfort when talking & feel like person has integrity. -Common sense. Understands all facets of land market.
-bring value. Find farms & also take care of a lot of the process from buying to closing. Make it SMOOTH!!

DON’T WANT:
-Realtors that are buying & selling farms on their own. Long list of reasons for this. Don’t mind a guy who owns some farms & does transactions but I won’t deal with realtors who are turning their own deals like crazy.
-Lazy!!!! Waiting for biz to come to them.
Could even call it “too comfy”. Complacent.
-Entitled!!! Maybe you discussed a farm with one so that person feels like u have to run every deal through them- even when they don’t find it. They better be ok with “I work with a few guys”. If they can’t handle that- no go for me. They need to earn it!!!!!
-shade balls….. if they leverage other offers against multiple buyers…. I’m out on that deal & ill never deal with that realtor again. Happens all the time & drives me INSANE!!!


IMO- 20% are top tier. 40% are “mediocre/ok” & 40% are worthless. .

Some folks might do 1-2 transactions a lifetime, others 1-2 a year. What’s your feelings or what u want or don’t want in realtor?

 

[tall@wide]

I have dealt with a couple of bad land agents and a couple of good ones. I prefer the smaller companies overall. Also, in my area the best farms never go thru an agent, they sell by word of mouth. The agents get mostly the less desirable farms in a lot of cases.

 

[Big8s1992]

Probably more important if you're buying but what I've noticed is most good farms or deals don't make it to market/online listing. So I'd say if you're buying with an agent, you need to feel confident that your agent or agent's company has a strong network or ability to network to find farms that haven't been picked over.

 

[Hardwood11]

As an agent in Minnesota, I see a few good land agents and some that do not know what they are doing! Not that many have what it takes to be knowledgeable in all phases of land sales.

The best agents are die hard hunters and are very knowledgeable about the government programs…they also know the insides and outs of negotiations.

Hard work is important, but a network of who’s buying and selling is a big key!

In my area I’d starve if I relied 100% on land sales. The bulk of our business is homes, hobby farms and lake homes (which are hot hot!!!) plus our insurance agency.

Certain counties have farms turn over quite often, and then others rarely have a sale. My county in Minnesota has one decent farm for sale right now. Rare to have more than a couple. Nobody wants to sell.

In other areas like (Decatur County, Iowa) as an example. There are always nice farms for sale . Western Iowa has very few listings as well.