Do you have a piece of land that you want someone to take off your hands? Have you considered selling land by yourself? Don’t be overwhelmed by the idea, selling land on your own is a perfectly reasonable way to part with your purchase and also keep commission fees low. Just like you can sell a house FSBO (For Sale By Owner), you can sell land by owner. At Florida Cash Home Buyers, we also buy land as much as we buy houses in Florida. If you want to sell your property to local Florida home buyers, look no further. There are some key differences when selling a house and selling land, however.
When it comes to selling land by owner, you have to make some very specific decisions right up top that will affect the way the process moves and how fast you can sell. Do you want to sell to market buyers or do you want to sell your land for cash? Selling your land on the market comes with some potential positives but also some potential pitfalls. If time is of the essence, selling your land to cash buyers makes a lot of sense because they can help you avoid closing costs and also move extremely quickly to buy your land.
So let’s take a closer look at how you can sell land by yourself in this guide to selling land privately.
Guide On Selling Land By Owner In Florida
Tips for Selling Land Privately in Florida
If you’re going to be selling land privately in Florida, here are some tips for selling land that you’re going to want to keep in mind. Let’s take a closer look at the best things to remember when selling land in Florida.
Know The Florida Land Market
Just like you would want to understand the Florida housing market if you were selling your house, you want to make sure you have a good understanding of what the Florida land market looks like as you attempt to sell your land fast. It helps to do a comparative analysis of any land sales nearby involving similar parcels. You’ll want to account for differences and unique features, such as nearby amenities, overall square footage, and buildings on the property, but if you can find some similar land sales that have happened recently it will give you a good sense of what the market value of your land currently is. And then you’ll be able to decide if it still makes sense to sell on the market or if it’s better to sell your land for cash in order to sell it fast.
Find Cash Buyers for Land in Florida
Even if you think you want to try to sell your land privately on the market, you should make sure you find cash buyers for land in Florida and get a no-obligation quote from them. It’s a no-brainer because these companies will pay you in cash for your land. They also don’t involve middlemen like real estate agents or lenders, so you never have to worry about commission fees or waiting for loan approval. Cash buyers will get you a cash offer very quickly, often within 24 hours, and you are not obligated to accept it. But if you do, then they can begin the closing process as soon as you want and often close the sale within a matter of days. You get to walk away with cash in your hands after selling your Florida land fast.
Take Amazing Photos of Your Florida Land
If you are going to sell your Florida land on the market, then you need to make sure you’re marketing it as well as possible. The more you can do to make your land look attractive to potential buyers, the more likely you are to sell your land fast. Ideally, you’d hire a professional photographer to take photos of the land, someone who has a good understanding of what to focus on. The photos should be high-quality, bright, and appealing. They should accentuate the best features of the land and minimize any potential problem areas. You don’t want to lie but great listing photos are about selling the experience and potential of the land. There’s plenty of time ahead to have discussions about things market buyers might scoff at.
Use Social Media to Sell Your Land
Whether you’re a novice or a whiz, you’re going to want to consider how you can use social media like Facebook and Twitter to sell your land if you’re selling it on the Florida land market. Social media is a great way to put your land directly in front of potential buyers quickly and make it easily shareable as well. You’ll want to make sure you have profiles on all the social networks that make sense and post the link to the listing as well as some of those great photos you’ve had done. It can’t hurt to try sharing across as many platforms as you like, but make sure you’re using appropriate hashtags so that potential buyers who don’t follow you directly might be able to find the post. Check similar posts and local real estate agents to see what they’ve done in order to boost awareness around Florida land sale posts on social media. And make sure you’re monitoring posts to answer any questions people have or share the link with someone who is having trouble getting the information they need.
Advertising in Local Newspapers
Social media and the internet might be where the world is going but that doesn’t mean you should ignore local newspapers. Local papers are still one of the best ways to find potential buyers, whether they’re market buyers or cash buyers when selling land in Florida. You can advertise in the local classified sections or, if you’re willing to spend a bit more, you can even take out an ad in the local real estate section. A bonus is that anything you pay for in the print paper will also show up on the newspaper website, so it’s a nice bonus in terms of reaching interested buyers.
Pros and Cons of Selling Land By Yourself in Florida
When it comes to selling land by yourself in Florida, you’re going to want to consider the potential outcomes and pitfalls that are ahead of you. There are certainly plenty of pros and cons worth considering.
One of the biggest things is that your knowledge about the real estate process, specifically when it comes to selling land, could work for you or against you. If you’re not educated on the terms and potential questions that a buyer might ask, you could be setting yourself up for disaster. So make sure you have answers ready for questions about zoning laws, septic systems, well flow rates, liens or deeds associated with the land, any HOA fees, etc. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you don’t know the answer to a simple question.
Selling the land by yourself means that you are cutting out the real estate agent or other middlemen, which can be great because it means you won’t be paying any commission fees. However, it also means you won’t have the expertise of the real estate agent to guide you. So if you feel confident in your ability to still get top dollar on the open market without an agent, then selling land by yourself could be great. But if you aren’t confident, it could still end up costing you money on the bottom line when your sale price isn’t as high as you’d want.
Taxes and Costs of Selling a Land By Owner in Florida
There is a lot of tax and cost-related considerations you’ll want to make when selling land by an owner in Florida. While the IRS is going to look at a land sale the same way it might look at a home sale, there is a key difference and it comes in the form of how land is depreciated.
What you need to do when selling land yourself is to figure out the land basis. The way you do this is the same as if you were figuring out the cost basis of a house or any other property. You take the amount you paid for the land, add the costs of any capital improvements you’ve made, and then you’ve got your land basis number. For example, if you put down $100,000 and took out a loan for $300,000 to buy a $400,000 piece of land, and then spent $100,000 to get it up to snuff, then your basis would be $500,000.
Something else you need to be clear on when selling land on your own is what your expenses are. When you sell land in Florida, most of your expenses will be deducted from the selling price when you are figuring out the taxable value of your land. This might include any commission fees you pay to brokers or buyer agents, title search fees, title insurance, transfer taxes, recording fees, and more.
Now that you have your basis, don’t forget about depreciation. You’ll want to subtract whatever depreciation you are claiming from the overall value. While the land itself is not depreciable, any improvements you make to it so that it can be used in business or a trade can be depreciated.
Finally, we arrive at the sale basis, the amount you receive on the sale from the buyer, minus any costs. So if you end up selling your land for $500,000 but you paid $25,000 in commissions and $10,000 in various costs, your sale basis number would be 465,000. In order to then figure out your capital gain, you just subtract your original purchase price from that number. But remember that gain is subject to capital gains tax.
Sell My House in Florida
Of course, you can avoid a lot of those fees, as well as a lot of time involved in this process, by selling your Florida land for cash to a real estate investor like Florida Cash Home Buyers. We cut out the middlemen, we cut out the commission fees, we make you an offer ASAP, and we pay you in cash for your land. If you sell your land in Florida directly to us, you are sure to have the best and easiest process.