We get that sometimes it can feel insulting when you receive a purchase offer lower than the perceived value of your vacant land. And because of this concern, we feel that it’s important to provide a better understanding and share with you our initial process when we mail out offer letters and postcards.
Our family takes pride running a business that provides clear communication, respect for others, and transparency. Never do we perform with intentions to exploit or insult any of our fellow neighbors, near or far.
We begin our process by pulling together a list of vacant properties from various data sources. We then add them to an Excel spreadsheet where we typically formulate the offer based on the county’s assessed value of the property. The offer amount is a percentage of the assessed value. We never look at any of the properties individually during this part of the process; the action is done in bulk. We send out up to 10,000 letters per month. That’s roughly 335 letters per day, every day! We have contracted with a domestic company to print and mail our letters and postcards.
Considering the amount of offers that we send out, we cannot reasonably perform due diligence on each individual offer before it goes out. We will only deep dive and start our due diligence on an individual property once a property owner contacts us and expresses an interest to sell. That is when we will look at the actual numbers and make a reasonable offer. Sometimes we will be met with a counteroffer, and if we can make the numbers work within our business model, we will gladly reward the seller with their desired amount he or she is asking for.
The initial offer (sent out by mail) simply starts a conversation between us and the property owner. We are consistently working to improve ways on providing a more accurate initial offer. The challenge is that there are so many different variables with property characteristics that do not apply to all of the properties.
Additionally, county’s assessed values on unimproved (vacant) lots are inconsistent with wide ranging gaps even on neighboring comparable properties. We will often see two lots sharing exactly the same size, shape, and features. Only to see that one lot is assessed ten times higher than the lot next to it only because it sold more recently and was reassessed at the time of sale. Whereas the other lot that has not been sold recently and has not been assessed in decades. So, as you can imagine, it’s quite difficult to find a “one price fits all” equation.
We always strive to provide win-win outcomes for both our sellers and our business. The reality is that our family does need to also make a small profit to stay in business and continue to put food on our family’s table. Unfortunately, we won’t always be able to offer the best price. But we guarantee that we will offer you the best price that our business can afford to within the current real estate market.
We hope that this provides you with a better understanding of our process. We’re happy to answer any other questions that you have; feel free to contact us. We’d love an opportunity to provide honest answers, rather than have assumptions and allegations run ramped.
Our family looks forward to hearing from you soon, and we hope to have an opportunity to serve you and your family!