Your land does not have to be
cleared before you sell it

Land does not usually have to be cleared, have utilities run to it, or have homes approved before a buyer will look at it. Here is how a land buyer looks at the kinds of land that come up most.

Start with the simplest case. A buyer will look at a single empty lot whether or not there are utilities in the street, and at a lot split off a larger piece the same way. Neither one has to have the utilities in or the homes approved already. A buyer looks into what is on the land now and what the town would allow. That work is the buyer's, not the owner's.

Open acres are the next case. A buyer prices them on what the land could become, not on how it is used today, so a field that has been farmed or a piece that has sat unused is not a mark against it. On a larger piece, a buyer works out how many house lots it would make, and the offer is built on that number. That is why two owners with the same acreage can hear very different prices.

Land with a building on it still counts as land to a buyer. An old house, a barn or an outbuilding does not stop a buyer from making an offer. Taking the building down typically happens after the sale, and it is handled by the buyer.

Then there is land the town has not approved homes on yet, which can mean asking for a variance, an exception to what the zoning allows. A buyer still looks at it. What changes is that the buyer is weighing the odds of getting that approval along with the land itself, so you and the buyer talk about what the town has said so far. Nothing is settled until the town's board rules, and nothing has to be finished on your side before you start the conversation.

What a town will allow is not settled until its board rules, and what a buyer offers depends on the land itself. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson. More at South Jersey New Construction.