Hi, I’m Beth with TB Properties Buys Land, and this is the second video in this series on the discussion on what can influence the offer price when someone’s trying to purchase your vacant land.
In the first video we talked about access to your property, whether it’s physical or legal access. We also talked about utilities and what exactly that means and what people are looking for when it comes to access.
Another thing that can influence the offer price of your vacant land property is the topography of your property. This can have more influence in some places than in others. Maybe you’re here in north Texas and the land is pretty flat. But in different parts of the country, land can take on greatly different topographies.
For example, I was looking at a piece of property, and I thought, “Wow, this is great.” And then I started looking at the topography and I realized it was a huge gorge, and so there was really no place to even build on that property. Perhaps you’ve got 20 acres, maybe it’s 40 acres, but if it’s so steep that nobody can really even hike the property and they certainly have no chance of ever building on it, that can affect the usability of the land and therefore the offer price.
When I say build, it doesn’t mean your land must be able to support someone’s future retirement home. In the case of someone wanting 40 acres for hunting, they may want just enough space so they can put in a small pole barn or shed so they can simply spend the night or even just store some belongings. When it comes to building on your property, you may know this already, but there are certain county specifications where you have what’s called a setback. You can’t build directly on the edge of your property and you probably don’t want your neighbor building on the border of your property, either. However, if your topography is such that it’s so steep that the only place to build is on the border, that means that you can’t build really at all.
As you can see, topography can be really important. It can affect being able to get to the property in a vehicle, safely. It may even determine if this is an all-year-round property or is this only a fair-weather property, all of which can affect the offer price to purchase your vacant land.
Another factor that will affect the offer value on your property is whether it is in a FEMA flood zone or not. If your property is located in a FEMA Flood Zone A, that can affect whether someone is able to build, get insurance on their property or even subdivide it, if they wished to.
Location in a designated wetlands area is another factor that can reduce your offer price. This designation too can influence whether you can build or how you can build on the land, and the cumbersome approvals that you may have to work through in order to build or get adequate insurance. As you might see, flood zone and wetlands designations can limit what people can do with their own property and therefore it can diminish the value of the property and thus, the offer price you might expect when selling it. Depending on the topography of your property, it can either add or diminish the value.
As you may see, may factors can influence the offer price you receive for your vacant land property, including (from the earlier videos), access, utilities, as well as your property’s topography, location in a designated flood plain or wetlands. There are other factors and we will address those in future videos.
Here at TB Properties Buys Land, we buy property all over the United States. We pay cash for your property through a local title company. We try to close quickly, as fast as about four to five weeks or as fast as the Title Company can close. While some other investors may try to put your property under contract and then market your property for sale while never intending to buy your property at all, that is not how we work. We buy your property outright; it is what we do.
If you have questions, please reach out to us across our website, give us a call, shoot us an email. We look forward to working with you. Thanks again.