Expert: Lisa Webber - 1/7/2010

Question
i have 100 acres of timber land to sell in lundenburg county,va. however, live in another state. how to i proceed with selling the land

Answer
You could choose to list it for sale yourself, advertising on websites such as http://www.landwatch.com or http://www.landandfarm.com  Another good website for you could be http://www.timberlandforsale.net  The only drawback to that is you'll be paying out of your pocket and hoping that buyers are going to the various websites to shop.  If I were going to sell land in another state, I would probably first find an appraiser who would give me a general idea of about what the land is worth.  It doesn't mean that you'll actually get that much but it will give you a ballpark amount to start with.  You could also hire a local Realtor in Lunenburg County who can put the land in the multiple list system and have it available to other Realtors.  That will increase your pool of potential buyers exponentially and you don't pay a commission until the property sells.  This is a tough market to sell land, but you really don't have anything to lose if you aren't paying up front.  The agent may not want to pay for some of those specialty websites if they only have your land to offer, since they are not going to be compensated unless or until the land sells, but you may want to advertise on some of them in addition to what your Realtor is doing.  We haven't done print advertising since 2006 except in a very few cases.  Many of the land and homes magazines have gone out of business since most buyers are looking on the internet but you may also choose to advertise in a specialty land magazine.  I hope this helps - good luck to you!