Do you want to sell your home or acreage in 30 days?  If you are thinking of selling your property I can give you one solid piece of advice to help you sell fast and I could say it in 3 words without the fluff and beating around the bush.  Its the single most important thing you could hear right now, its the single most important thing you can do to sell your acreage quickly, or at least within normal marketing time.  Here is my advice to you if you are in this situation.  Price it correctly.  In fact, I'm going to make this my mantra for the next two years.  Two years because I can not see things turning around until sometime in 2009. 

Pricing your acreage or property correctly is more important than ever, especially now as we are solidly in a buyers market.  Simply put there are more sellers than there are buyers.  Buyers are having a much harder time getting money right now, and with recent changes to underwriting guidelines even fewer people qualify for financing.  Even if we can find someone that is willing to pay the price you want for the home comps at higher prices have become non existent and the home will not appraise for the value, again resulting in no financing for the buyer.  There is no way around it, even if you did pay a certain amount for your property 5 years ago, chances are the market value of the property is lower today.  Its a reality that we all have to get used to.

Now I know that some can not afford to sell their home for less than they paid for it and still be able to have the mortgage released.  In that case most likely now is not the time for you to sell.  Thats the honest truth and I'm not going to tell you any different to get your listing.  It would be a waste of time for both of us. 

I saw an interesting statistic Friday when I got my monthly report in my box.  For the period between November 28, 2007 and December 26, 2007 our MLS had a total of 240 properties that sold for a total sold value of $34,252,340.   During the exact same period 244 properties expired from the MLS for a total value of $40,622,977.  As a real estate agent that tells me the average sold price was $142,718 per property.  It also tells me that the average price of the expired listings was $166,487.  There is one other interesting deduction you can take from those figures.  More listings expired than were sold.  Think about that for a second- during that time period more homes expired than sold. 

Is now the time for you to sell your acreage or farm?  If you can price it right then you'll have a leg up on many many other listings on the market right now.  If you can not price the listing correctly then you are just going to be another listing out there.  Buyers have their choice of so many listings right now what is going to make yours stand out?  Even if you are able to stand out and get an offer that is acceptable plan to have your hopes crushed when it doesn't appraise and the buyers can not get financing. 

The good news is there are buyers out there and if you are thinking of selling price it correctly and you'll be headed toward the closing table and not a vicious cycle of extending your overpriced listing over and over wondering why you agent can't sell it.

Watch for our nationwide marketing on TV airing 15 times per week to over 80,000,000 homes.  Our recreational properties TV program airs on the M.A.N. Channel, The Sportsmans Channel, Fox Sports South, and The Pursuit Channel. 

CONTACT JASON     Cell Phone: 402.250.1006  Email: Jason@gowithjason.com  

Jason's Websites:  Loess Hills Land For Sale 

Whitetail Trophy Properties

Smith Auction Marketing - Iowa Auctioneer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jason Smith is a Land Specialist and Real Estate Auctioneer with Whitetail Trophy Properties.   Jason offers property listings as well as land auctions in Iowa.  As a sportsman himself Jason enjoys archery and muzzleloader hunting for whitetail deer.  In college Jason studied Fish and Wildlife Biology and specializes in rural properties only including Iowa hunting land, recreational land, farms and rural building lots.  Jason also manages over 260 acres of hunting land using QDM.  As a member of the (QDMA)   Quality Deer Management Association  he has joined ranks with whitetail enthusiasts across the United States in controlling and growing a healthy whitetail population for all to enjoy.   Jason is a member of the Iowa Auctioneers Association, National Auctioneers Association.