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Called a listing agent about land I will never sell. She stayed two hours.

I own a handful of raw parcels and I hold them a long time. One of them borders a subdivision that's been creeping toward it for about six years, and I wanted a read on what the ground would do if I ever did sell. So I called a listing agent who I'd seen with signs on three lots nearby and told her, straight, that I'm probably not selling this year or next.

She came out anyway. Boots, tape measure, a folder.

First thing she did was walk the road frontage and tell me the number of feet mattered more than the acreage for this particular buyer pool, because the builders who'd want it care about how many driveways they can cut. I've owned this parcel eleven years and nobody had ever put it that way to me.

Then she asked about the utilities at the corner and I didn't know. She wrote that down as a question rather than a problem, which I appreciated. Said a listing without that answer sits, because every builder starts by asking it and if the seller shrugs they move to the next parcel.

We stood at the tailgate for a long time. She told me what she'd want done before it ever went on the market, in what order, and roughly what each thing costs around here. Then she said she'd rather I called her in three years with the answers than next month without them.

I asked why she'd spend a Saturday morning on somebody who told her up front there's no commission in it. She said land listings are how she gets builder relationships, and builders bring her the finished houses to list later. So the two hours weren't charity. Still felt like the most useful conversation I've had about that parcel.

22 replies

I'm working through licensing right now and this is the version of the job I want. She was building the pipeline, and being useful was the method rather than a nice side effect. Road frontage over acreage is going in my notes.

The driveway part took me two reads before it clicked. The builder isn't buying land, he's buying the number of houses he can put on it, and the frontage caps that. Is that right or am I oversimplifying?

@juniper that's basically it, though the local rules on lot width and access do the real work. Every county writes them differently. @parcel did she get into zoning at all or just the physical stuff?

The line I like is that she wrote the utility question down as a question. Most people would have made it a problem in front of you to sound smart.

Running a small team, this is the hardest habit to teach. Everybody wants to spend Saturday on the seller who's listing in two weeks. The ones who go see the eleven year holder are the ones who have inventory in five years when nobody else does.

I'm mostly on the paper side and confused most days, but the last paragraph made something land for me. She wasn't selling your parcel, she was buying the right to be the person you call. That's an asset even if it never shows up anywhere.

@cobalt how do you even measure that on a team? If someone spends every Saturday on three year leads your pipeline report looks terrible for a long time.

Trades background here and I've had the reverse version. Contractors who quote for free on jobs they know they won't get, because the guy who's not building this year is building next year. Same instinct, different truck.

@parcel what did she say the frontage number needed to be? I've got a parcel I've been sitting on and I've never once measured the road side of it, which is now embarrassing.

Dumb question I'd never ask out loud in a room. When she says a listing "sits" because of an unanswered question, does the listing agent usually get those answers before it goes live, or is that on the seller? Feels like it varies wildly.

@compass from what I've seen it's a negotiation. Good listing agents will chase the county records and the utility company themselves because they know it kills deals, but they can't force a survey out of a seller who won't pay for one.

The commercial version of this is the same conversation with worse coffee. Anybody buying dirt starts with access and utilities. The seller who can hand over a folder with those answers gets a faster close and usually a better price, because the buyer isn't pricing in unknowns.

She gave you costs in what order to do them. That's the part I'd pay for. I spend most of my time trying to figure out what the first check is for.

@beacon you don't measure it monthly, that's the honest problem. What I track is conversations with owners who aren't transacting, as its own count, separate from active listings. If that number goes to zero the team is eating its seed corn. Took me two years to convince myself that metric mattered.

I couldn't work out why anyone would want land listings, even after half a year of reading up. Lower price, longer sit, more explaining. The builder relationship answer makes the whole thing make sense.

@quarry go measure it. Take a wheel or just pace it. I've watched a whole plan change because the frontage was 40 feet shorter than the owner assumed from the plat.

Worth pulling the deed and any easements on that parcel before you get too far into frontage math, @parcel. Access can be encumbered in ways that don't show up standing on the road, and how that's recorded differs state to state. A title person or attorney in your state reads that faster than either of us will.

Adding "call a listing agent about something I'm not selling" to my list of things to do. I've been treating agents as people you contact at the transaction and that seems like a waste.

@bramble be honest with them like @parcel was. I tried something like this once, was vague about my timeline, and I could feel the guy figuring out I was wasting his Saturday. Saying "three years, no commission in this for you" up front is what made it work.

The thing I keep hitting is that everyone competes on buyers and almost nobody competes on being the person sellers call first. Inventory is the scarce thing. She knows it.

The frontage and utilities thing is the first two questions on every land deal I've ever priced. If she opened with those she's talked to builders. That's not something you read in a class.