FAQ

Most of the information we need is on file with your local municipality in their records and we will gain access to it during the due diligence after we reach an agreement with you to purchase your property. If we need anything we will ask, but it is unlikely

It all depends on what the property is suited for. From the information elsewhere on this website, you can tell that we have multiple strategies based on the decades of experience we have had with multiple property types. Because we are offering you a fair price for your property, in order to make a profit when we resell, we will have to improve it somehow. We have many ways of doing that but exactly what we will do is dependent on the property type it currently is.

Maybe you should. If you are willing to deal with all the tirekickers, buyers who flake out, wait a long period of time for the deal to close, and deal with Realtors who aren’t knowledgeable about land (most aren’t), you could potentially yield more money than you could by selling to us. But land takes a very long time to sell through the typical MLS and sells at a significant discount to the listing price, far more of a discount (percentagewise) than houses. For a detailed analysis of the differences, please see the comparison of selling direct to us versus listing with a Realtor on this site.

Anytime a person enters into an agreement, there is always a chance that the transaction will not close. However, please review the information on the rest of this website and you will see that our experience goes back close to 50 years in multiple types of real estate without litigation or complaints. Compare that to the other buyers you might encounter with limited experience. Next year they might be running a dry cleaners instead of buying land. You shouldn’t have that concern dealing with us.

All transaction funds are held by an independent third party, a licensed escrow agent who is accountable for their treatment of the funds. In almost all jurisdictions, that is either a title company or a local attorney. We pay their fees as a part of the transaction. We pay the necessary funds to that person/company and they hold the funds until the closing, after which the funds are dispersed.

It might be closely related or it might be radically different. Tax assessors aggregate all the properties of a similar type and rank them. If our use for the property is the same as what the assessor assessed, the numbers should be fairly close. If, however, we intend an alternate use (such as converting Ag land to residential), the values could be very dissimilar. We are licensed general contractors who have improved/renovated/built many older or new houses. If we are going to build on your property after purchasing it, the current assessed value and our quote could be very different. Or we might regrade the property and add utilities,, changing the value substantially. This concept goes back to an earlier question about how we make our money. After paying you a fair price we have to improve the property or change its use in order to make a profit. That’s how we can treat you fairly and still make money.

Usually nothing. We pay all the normal closing costs. Occasionally, there will be some small charge to you, like property taxes for the portion of the year you owned the property. If there are any charges to you, they will always be very minor. But we pay all the costs of sale and closing.

Because of our decades of experience, we can put you in touch with a 1031 Exchange facilitator who can show you how to avoid taxes entirely by exchanging your property for another of higher value. We personally have done many 1031 exchanges so we can show you how they work and you can work with the facilitators to make the exchange.

No problem. We have multiple ways of getting the particulars on your property from public records. It will not be necessary for you to get a survey before selling to us.

It depends on how much is in the Flood Zone. If the entire property is in the flood zone, there are some specialized uses for it, though the value would be considerably less than if it were not in a flood zone. But if the flood zone does not cover all the land, it might not affect the value of the land by much. Example: We bought a parcel with most of the land covered by the 100-year and 500-year flood plain. We built a house on the portion outside the flood plain and sold the house with no problem. How? I got an “as-built” survey showing the house location on the lot was outside the 500-year flood plain. It sold just like a house on a non-floodplain lot with no extra cost because floodplain was not an issue

The answer is the same as the previous question. One potential problem. If the floodplain or wetlands are at the front of the lot and we would have to build a driveway through them to get to the buildable portion of the lot, that would have a strong negative affect on the value.

We would pay it off at closing and it would be subtracted from the proceeds

These are more complicated and take longer to close but can be handled. We and your closing agent would negotiate with the IRS for a successful resolution, paying the agreed amount at closing and subtracting the amount paid from your equity.

Easement access is fine, as long as it is a recorded access at the courthouse. If it is not a recorded access, we would have to negotiate with the person who could give us the access and record that easement as we complete the sale. We have extensive experience creating easements, usually for utility access onto building lots where we were building houses, making sure that the easements do not affect the setbacs on the improvements.

Yes it does. In order for you to pass clean title, you must be the legal owner of the property so that a title company will insure the title. But we have worked with owners in the past, delaying closing until the probate process can be completed. The length of time we would have to delay the closing depends on the complexity of the probate process. But how the title was held affects whether or not the property has to go through probate. If it was held as Joint Tenants With Right of Survivorship, the ownership interest at the decedent’s death passed automatically to the other owner. An attorney’s advice is necessary. We would pay for that attorney’s opinion. We have also worked with title companies to get them the information they need to insure over potential problems.

Only with the approval of the Bankruptcy Trustee. But there are ways that we can work together with the Bankruptcy Trustee to remove the property from the bankruptcy petition. It is complicated.

Yes. We would have to review all the CC&Rs, Bylaws, and any other legal documents that would affect what we could do with the land after we bought it from you. But, provided they would not affect our use for the land, the existence of them would not affect our offer price.

No. Sellers do not have to rezone before selling to us. Sometimes we have to discuss with the municipality’s Planning and Zoning Office what can be done with the land after we purchase it, but that is done during due diligence prior to the purchase.

No. This is something that we sometimes do as general contractors to add value to land we purchase. The existence of a well and/or septic field adds value so that the next purchaser does not have to add them before erecting a dwelling.

Potentially. We need to know the circumstances of that well, its location and condition. For example, has the well been capped or is it still open?. What is/was the flow rate at last use? Has the water quality been recently tested if still open? Is the well pump still in place? If so, is it working? We would need to know the answers to all these questions to determine the effect on value of the existence of the well.

Probably not, but to be sure we would have to know the circumstances. In many cases, the underground mineral rights would only be able to be accessed by drilling and we would need to know whether or not the drilling would occur on the parcel we were acquiring. If this is your circumstance, be sure to let us know up front.

Not by the owner but potentially by us. If we intend to build a home on the parcel and sewer is not available, then we will probably have a perc test performed to insure that a home could be built on the property. The test would be performed at our cost during the due diligence property. The perc test would tell us whether the soil would support a septic system and the number of bedrooms it would support.

No. We will remove it after we close on the property.

It depends where it is. If it does not affect our plans for the property, then no. If it impacts our ability to do what we intend with the property, then it definitely affects value and is potentially a deal-killer.

Definitely. There are very specific rules about cemeteries and we will have to evaluate the situation carefully.

It depends on the specific circumstances. We would have to evaluate the circumstances

Maybe yes, maybe not It depends on the circumstances.