Do buyers browse the MLS for rural land listings? Not often because most rural property won’t be listed there. Because of differences in financing options and types of buyers, it’s often as though rural real estate is from a different planet than conventional residential real estate. It’s often a waste of time to start a rural property search on the MLS because there just isn’t much there.
As noted in a news article on the rural real estate website LandsofAmerica.com United Van Lines reported that many people are moving out of the New England area and into areas that have a larger percentage of rural land. Also, as we said in our recent entry about the coming rural real estate pricing boom, it’s a fact that more and more people are moving to rural areas for a variety of very good reasons.
While the MLS isn’t a great place to find rural property, that doesn’t mean that buyers aren’t scouring the Internet for information on listings. Often, buyers also need to enlist the help of several different local agents in different geographical areas who specialize in their respective rural listings. This can add a great deal of stress for the buyer to manage these different agents without causing a conflict of interest. Obviously, this isn’t a very effective way to locate a rural piece of property, but for a long time, this was the only way.
Fortunately, over the last several years, there has been a movement to aggregate rural listings from around the country into one central source that was in tune with the quirks and listing requirements of large tracts of rural land that often don’t even have a mappable address. Rural buyers are different from conventional buyers - their buying needs are different, their financing needs are different, and the length of their shopping time is different. What has made the difference in serving the needs of rural buyers and sellers is the development of Internet companies that do the legwork of networking with rural agents around the country and bring all of their listings to one place where they are as searchable and share-worthy as their counterpart, the conventional MLS.
Sites such as www.landsofamerica.com are in place to be a low cost, but highly effective means of getting rural listings to the potential clients and buyers for whom they are perfect. For agents, the often repeated act of hoping that the right rural buyer comes along for their one or two aged rural listings is not the most effective way to make clients happy. Seeking out a niche real estate site that understands rural real estate buyers and sellers is the way to create lasting partnerships with the sellers of these traditionally difficult to sell rural properties.
Okay, good, so now that you understand the power that comes with knowing exactly how to reach the rural buying community, you need to be careful when choosing which website to list with. Hint: They aren’t all created equal. This is something very important, and I’ll cover this in my next post - stay tuned!
3 responses so far ↓
Marilyn Mayfield // Feb 13, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Thank goodness for LandsofAmerica! I have several websites, and this one has been the best for me.
It is frustrating when looking for land or farm property on a “typical” real estate site.
I had rather list 1000 acres of bottom land, than a 1000 homes.
Give me the land, I’ll be glad to list and sell it!!!
Tricia Jumonville // Feb 26, 2007 at 5:08 pm
In Texas, or at least in my part of Texas, there IS a lot of rural land on the MLS. I use it and Lands of Texas and some other equine property sites pretty much equally - I don’t throw out ANY tools in marketing rural property!
I also use Lands of Texas for properties down to one acre, as long as horses are allowed. Works equally well for them, it seems.
Bernie McKinney // Aug 16, 2007 at 4:50 am
RARE EARTH, Inc has been brokering land in Washington state for over 25 years. Times change and we need to get the word to a larger audience. How can we work with you?
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