Podcast Transcription: Top Tips For First Time Land Buyers - Part 2
Speakers:
Billy McOwen
Sean Maloy
Billy McOwen
Hi everybody and welcome. This is episode three of "find your favorite place." My name is Billy McOwen and I'm your host. I am joined today by Sean Maloy, who is our broker in charge of our soon to be Raleigh office. We are up here in Alamance county today. We are now in studio here in Caswell County. Sean, how're you doing?
Sean Maloy
I'm doing well, Billy, hope you are.
Billy McOwen
Yes, sir, we have had a great day, it's been really nice outside, we spent the day with a land developer here. It's interested in selling some property. So today's episode is going to be about just that. If you're a seller, and you've got some property that you've owned for a while, or maybe you inherited it; maybe you bought it a while ago and been sitting on it for a while. And you've never sold land before, and you don't really know what to do. So Shawn, tell me about why you think a seller should be looking at using a land specialist verse versus a residential agent.
Sean Maloy
I think landowners that are thinking about selling their land should look at land specialists versus a residential agent. Specifically, because of our background and expertise in land. Most of us own land, we manage land, live on land, we know the ins and outs of those things. We also know the market very well, for land in the rural areas. A lot of your residential agents are just that residential agents, and they sell homes, and that's well and good. But that's what they specialize in. So, when they get into a rural setting, to sell property, they're a little bit out of their wheelhouse, and they might not be able to serve your needs as good as someone like myself.
Billy McOwen
Yeah, that's a good point. And, you know, there's a big difference between lots in a subdivision versus a 100 acre tract in the middle of the country somewhere, or even a commercial development tract in the path of progress. You know, there's a lot of things that we understand about land development and working with land that may not be in the wheelhouse of a local agent. So what is it exactly? What are the skills exactly, that a person should be looking for in a land specialist?
Sean Maloy
Well, I think there's a handful of skills that are inherent to what we do. One is knowing that area, and that in itself can be a skill, because different counties are different, even townships within those counties are different. Knowing what's on land, and I call them attributes. These are things that add value to a property. You know, that could be water features, it could be timber, road network, trails, those things that a residential agent might overlook that are adding value to a piece of property. We also look at what are called the tractors, these are things that could inherently or actually take away value from a tract of land, it could be piles roofing shingles, old tires, things like that. So just like a resident residential agents looking for dirty clothes on the floor, so to speak, and a house when they're listing and or selling it, you know, we're looking for those things that a buyer can be turned off by.
Billy McOwen
Like that old washing machine that's off to the side. Okay, I gotcha.
Sean Maloy
So we want to help that seller understand that that's going to affect the value either positively or negatively, and then we're going to guide them on how to rectify that, or at least have an answer for a buyer on how to rectify that, so that we can get through that hurdle, and get an offer on the table and get the negotiation and ultimately, to closing.
Billy McOwen
Sure. So being a land specialist and working with somebody selling land, you know, if this is all we do, and we are in front of buyers, all the time, our skill set is such that we're used to talking to people about land every day. That's right. And so that's a very specific skill that we bring to the table, versus a regular residential agent.
Sean Maloy
And may I add to what you're just saying, because we have that skill set, a lot of times these buyers don't know what they don't know. They know they want to own land, but they don't know how to manage it, and we bring those skills to help that buyer feel comfortable, and assessing that property and giving them the tools and education through the sales process so that they want to own that land and they feel confident that they can handle it once they got it.
Billy McOwen
So a seller is is going to be confident in our ability to not only do a good job for them, which is ultimately that they want us to sell their property. Based on our experience, they're going to be able to have a much higher comfort level in the fact that when it comes time for a buyer to show up, and we're walking the property with them that they're really good to know that, "oh, well, this is the guy that really knows all this stuff, and he can adequately go and work with a buyer directly". We were talking a second ago about, you know, a situation, I think, is appropriate to discuss this if we're the listing agent on uniform for seller, and another agent comes and they want a buyer. What are we going to do, you know, a lot of times, I do exactly like what you just described a second ago, which is I'll get in, I'll come out, I'll bring my Polaris, you'll bring your Gator. I can fit up to four adults, and our equipment, and we're going to ride him around, and we're going to do a really good job, a very professional job of showing everybody a piece of property and assist someone who is a residential agent, in all of the attributes necessary to have their buyer have a higher level of confidence. So that's a really good point and I think it's a really good thing that we can do as, as the selling side of this deal.
Sean Maloy
And the caveat onto that, you know, some of these other agents don't have some of the resources that we have, you know, surveyors, soil scientists, people that can help manage ponds and understand the things that you need to do and some due diligence on land. And so I want the transaction to go through for my seller, but if I need to help that buyer, and that buyer agent, get through those due diligence things, I'm going to do that, I'm just not going to say okay, you bring me a buyer, and you're on your own, you know, I'm gonna help them as much as I can. Because, you know, at the end of the day, I want my seller to walk away from the table feeling that they got a good price for their property, and the buyer got a good value for the money they spent. And if I can influence that by helping that buyer agent, I will do that.
Billy McOwen
Sure. Well, let's let's get down to brass tacks about what really as a seller agent, what should we be doing? Somebody comes to you, Sean, I give you a call, Shawn. "Hey, this is Billy. Listen, I just inherited 100 acres of land my grandfather gave to me, I live in New York. I don't know anything about this and, you know, we've talked it over with the family and we want to sell can you help me?" What is it exactly that you're going to do next?
Sean Maloy
The next thing is I get as much information as I can about the situation so I understand who the parties to the transaction are on the seller side. That's very important. Especially if you have multiple family members, you might have three or four that want to sell, and one that doesn't and that can cause a little turmoil if everybody's not on the same page, but also, you know, start getting information on the property where it's located. And, you know, a lot of times I get questions: what's the going rate for acreage out there, you know, every property is different and until I put my boots on the ground, and walk that land and see what else is around it, and what's going on, I really can't make an assessment. So I want to get on that property as quickly as possible. And, you know, get eyes on it. So I can see what that stream looks like, look at that pond, look at the timber, look at the road network, etc. and that helps me with my BPO broker price opinion.
Billy McOwen
We'll talk about that for a second. You know, this is really important. And I think that in a lot of cases, there are probably different agents that may just say, well shoot, you know, I know that little Jimmy down the road sold that lot for $12,000 one acre lot. So this is, you know, 100 acres, I guess this ought to be $1.2 million dollars or something crazy. So, let's talk about, you know, what goes into a broker's opinion of value, and how do you do that research and how is that that information presented to a seller?
Sean Maloy
Yeah. I pride myself on my broker price opinion, Billy. It's a very lengthy document. I got one here, it's six pages long. And with that broker price opinion, the first statement is this not an appraisal. We're not appraisers. This is what we feel like the property would look like in the market and the range that might sell for, so you know. I'm pulling deeds. I'm looking at deed work to make sure that you know, I know that we've got a good title and marketable deed. I'm looking for easements, if there is one and I want to get those in my hand.
Billy McOwen
Easement, tell me about an easement. What do you mean by easement?
Sean Maloy
Well, that's your access onto a property. Some properties that have road frontage don't require an easement because they touch a public road, but some properties and a lot of properties that we deal with are not on the main road and they require an access easement. These easements vary, you know, I've got one listed right now that's an agricultural easement and is totally different than a standard easement because it limits the use on that easement to farm use and recreational use. You can't build a house on its property and use it as a driveway, for example. So that will affect the price of the property. So exploring all of those little facets really helps me hone in on how this property is going to be affected by the easement. For example, utility easements - you get a nice property that's got a beautiful view that's off of the road a quarter of a mile, and you got an access easement. But guess what; that access easement I'm reading, it doesn't include utilities. So now, any buyer that wants to build back there is going to be struggling to get another easement of some sort to get utilities, and a seller needs to know that because when that's the detractor that I was telling you about and knowing those detractors, it may be that the seller can go to a neighbor, which did happen last year on a tract up here in Caswell County. Went over to the neighbor and worked out a 12 foot underground utility easement to get it to the property line. We had to go 40 feet but we were able to get that for the buyer before we closed and got the deal done. But not knowing that stuff up front... And then we discovered the due diligence period creates a lot of stress for everybody.
Billy McOwen
I gotcha. So one other question I had about easements is, what if there's a different type of utility easement that goes through a property? For example, I just listed a farm up in Currituck County and there's some big old power lines that are coming right across the belt of that property and, you know, a seller may not understand that you can't put a house underneath a big power line, you can't plant trees under a big power line, you can't put any structure anything, not a barn, not nothing underneath there. And that land, because it is encumbered by this utility easement, power lines, gas lines, all different types of things, you know, we typically see powerlines and gas lines up here, you can't you can't do those types of things, and a seller needs to understand that that little section of the property is going to have a value that's different than some of the other more usable areas. So Sean, let's say for example, there's a utility easement across a piece of property. Say it's an underground pipeline. Can I build a driveway across that? Yes, you can. Okay, same thing with a power line. So you know, I just can't put structures and things like that underneath.
Sean Maloy
That's right. You can't put permanent structures but if I'm dealing with a buyer that sees this, this is an opportunity as well for them, you know, so we take a detractor, we also make it a positive, and that you can put food plots on that easement. You can put a box blind on the edge of it and hunt over it. Like you were talking about.
Billy McOwen
I mean, that's a temporary structure.
Sean Maloy
It's an access trail through the property, you can ride your tractor or ATV to manage your property. So, you know, that's taking an encumbrance and identifying it through the broker price opinion process and showing the seller that, hey, I've identified this, but here's how I'm going to present it to a buyer to make it a positive.
Billy McOwen
So when you're finding examples of properties that are sold, to provide your broker price opinion, were one of the resources that you utilize to go and find comparable properties that are similar in size and what they've sold for?
Sean Maloy
That's a good question. Because a lot of agents have different methodology for that. One thing that I like about our brokerage, we have a long history of sales, and I have access to that data and information. So I use that. I also use my personal sales in this area because I've already done broker price opinions for the last four years around here, so I have a feel for like properties that I've been on. I know which properties have sold that might not have been my property, but then I go back and actually got a map with all these data points in there. When a property sells, I go and pull the tax document and find out how much it sold for and look at, try to find out as much about that deal, especially if it's a good property. So I look at what's on the market, and how that's our competition, how long something's been on the market, if it's not moving in, if we're in a comparable situation, you know, sometimes I've even called the other broker and tried to glean a little information, what's going on with this property? Is there something why is it been on the market for 672 days? That's right. And you'd be surprised, you know, especially another land broker, you know, we deal with those, folks weekly, and they're more than happy to try to help us understand because they're wanting to sell their clients property as well but I use that information to help with my broker price opinion.
Billy McOwen
Do you go to the Tax Office? If you're not finding what you need do you walk into the tax office and talk to the ladies in there about what's sold and try to get some tax records there? Do you use the local MLS? Is that a resource for your or what?
Sean Maloy
Well, you know, it might be old school to go into the tax office these days. A lot of the tax information is online. There are a couple of software programs that I use, which I might not say here, due to competitive situations that do provide me sales data and a lot of that comes from the tax office, but some of it doesn't. But yes, you can use the MLS, we use the tax records and sales. You know, we keep an eye on what's selling right now in the marketplace.
Billy McOwen
So other than the the tax office, and MLS sales that we have already completed, looking at what some of the other past sales from some other agents and things like that, that's all really rock solid information. So when you come to a seller, with a broker price opinion, BPO, it's going to be pretty much on point with exactly where that pricing model should be for that. I mean, okay, so let's say for example, Sean, you come and you did this 100 acre property for me. And I live in Naples, Florida, or I live in Hudson Valley in New York and I'm thinking, holy cow, this is fantastic. I got 100 acres of land, this thing must be worth millions of dollars and I talked to Sean, and Sean tells me
Sean Maloy
that it's not worth millions of dollars.
Billy McOwen
Yes, well, okay, so how do you manage a seller's expectations? I think that's what you know, I think this is an important topic. And honestly, it's probably an uncomfortable topic for most people. Because, you know, some folks might be thinking, you know, here where I live in the Hudson Valley. properties like this would be selling for millions of dollars, and you're telling me it's worth $200,000, you know, I'm going to go get another agent and blah, blah, blah, and stuff like that. So this is why this BPO is so critical. You've got to look here, we're a fly by the numbers team here. You know, we look at the numbers, we present the numbers, we're organized, and we give this to you. You know, it may not be what you want to hear, but we're going to tell you the truth about what this stuff is worth. How do you manage sellers expectations about these things?
Sean Maloy
Well, I have dealt with absentee landowners just like that. Except in New York, they were in Florida, and they thought their property was worth much more. It probably did have a lot more value before they took the timber off of it and you know, that's a prime example. You know, land is one of those assets that you can get a return on your investment in timber, is one of them. But this landowner had taken the timber several years previously; did not plant it back and wanted to sell his property as if it still had the timber on it. So it's one of those educational opportunities to really, like you said, be candid with them, and let them know that hey, this is what it would have been worth if it had the timber on it, but now you've taken that value off. Now this is what we are left to manage and work with. And then I'm very specific in showing them what's on the market and what has sold as far as comps, because I want them to trust me that what I'm saying is factual, it's just not my personal opinion. I want them to see facts and figures and listings and solds. So I'm very, very detailed with those clients on that.
Billy McOwen
Yeah, and timber is one of those things that's exactly right. I mean, if you're going to strip the asset off of a piece of property, you've got to expect the fact that it's going to be a little less, and guess what, you probably wouldn't have known that had you not put your boots on the property, and realize that what you were going to go and see was a five acre cutover and that's, you know, that's a different animal entirely.
Sean Maloy
I just had that happen on a property were gonna list. A lady called me, she lives out of state. I'm looking at our mapright, and it's all beautiful oak trees it looks like it's all mature oaks. I go back on Google Earth, and you can go back in time on Google Earth all the way back to 1993, and I'm zooming forward on the the time span there, and nothing has been cut and I get out there and my neighbor who is actually a logger, his crew is set up and they cut 34 acres, clear cut it, right there and I wasn't expecting that when I rolled out there. But that's just another example why we have to put our boots on the ground and verify what's there and what's going on for a seller.
Billy McOwen
So a seller should be working with a good land specialist. You know, what we should be doing is our research, we should be providing a good broker price opinion; we should be researching the deeds, researching the marketable title, researching the access. So, let's say, for example, we've done it all, that we've presented everything to the best of our ability based on our experience and our due diligence and they say "that sounds terrific, Sean, you're the man, let's go ahead and get this get this party started." You signed a listing agreement, and we get going on it. What's next? What do you do next?
Sean Maloy
Well, what's next is preparing for the marketing. As you know, we do a lot of good things for our sellers in regards to media, you know, so we're going to do still photography, and not just go out in the heat of the day with the sun at 12 noon, snapping pictures.
Billy McOwen
Do you use your iPhone for that, Sean?
Sean Maloy
Only for stuff that just happens sporadically, but I do have two or three SLR cameras, and they also do some video too.
Billy McOwen
I bring that up because it's so comical to me that you know, I'll be looking on Zillow or I'll be looking on something and it looks like somebody drove by with their iPhone sticking out of the the window of the car, snapping a few pictures as they drove by the road frontage and that's it. It's six pictures, and a copy of the GIS map from the local county tax office and that's all you get. That's a shame.
Sean Maloy
It is a shame, and I'll tell you the flip side of that when I'm representing buyers, and I see a 34 acre tract but I've only got those six pictures that you were telling me about. It makes it difficult for me to bring somebody to buy your land as a seller, because I don't have any information, and colony agents, they don't have any more information than what's on the listing. So if you're using that level of service, you're really getting a disservice and not the best representation of your property. That's for sure.
Billy McOwen
So you're a licensed drone pilot.
Sean Maloy
I am. Yes.
Billy McOwen
Okay. You're also a very, very good photographer. You know your way around, some pretty significant products like lightroom and some other things like that. So tell us about utilizing this technology and how that really improves the marketing.
Sean Maloy
Well, you know, I felt it was important to have that drone license because on large tracts and even small tracts being able to get that aerial image of the area around a property, onto the property, there's so many things that a buyer can see. They can see everything from, you know, real time current pictures of a pond, for example, the shape of the trees around it, if you're over a timber tract, you can really look and see if there's any dead trees in there, right. There's all kinds of their water in the creek. Yeah, is there water in the pond?
Billy McOwen
Right, are there treestands? are there tower blinds.? Is that road in decent shape?
Sean Maloy
There's so many things that bird's eye view really helps out, so being a drone pilot and being able to offer that service to my clients is invaluable. It was a hard license to get and you know, we have a lot of strict rules and we have to renew that license every two years, but I really think it's mandatory to have it in our profession.
Billy McOwen
Absolutely. So you're on a beta team, or a really special project with 360 views of property, and I've seen this, you've shown me your work. And this is really some pretty fascinating new stuff. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this.
Sean Maloy
It's pretty exciting. Well, our mapping partners, Mapright, is a great company, and their maps are just super detailed, and they allow us to put still photography on our maps of locations that we take it, and a lot of my cameras, actually, all my cameras have GPS coordinates. So when I take that photo, I can actually match it up exactly. On to the point of that matter.
Billy McOwen
So you put like little photo points on your map, that somebody could actually click on that, in a map, and actually see what that section of the property looks like.
Sean Maloy
And you and I have been on properties of other agents where a beautiful picture of this creek, but we could not find that spot on that property.
Billy McOwen
Well, yeah, because it might not actually be on that property!
Sean Maloy
That's right. But that technology has been out there for a while, and MapRight is on the cutting edge now of doing 360. And 360 imagery is a very immersive opportunity for buyers, and what it allows people to do is explore property, like you can't do on a still image. So you can click on it, and then all of a sudden, you can zoom in and out, look at the sky, you can zoom in on the fields, you can zoom in on the tree line, you can zoom out and pan around and look at the neighbor's property.
Billy McOwen
So, is this one of those things where, when you're on a device, you get little arrows that you can spin the camera in a 360, can you you can move it up?
Sean Maloy
You can move it up and down. And full 360 degrees, and if you had 360 degree goggles, you could put those on and and have a fully immersed everywhere you look with those goggles on, it would be actually where you were looking almost. And so I contacted MapRight about this, and they said, Well, we're working with a couple of agents, and you send us some of your imagery, because the drone has capability, but also have still cameras that can do 360, I can put it in a creek and snap a picture and get a 360 view of the creek and trees and everything. So it's a ground based 360 image. So I sent those into them, and they were really pleased with the work and the quality of my images. And so they asked me to be a part of this beta program, and right now I have to submit the stuff to them, and then they load it for me. But soon, I will be able to load it directly to the site and control it all, and that's going to be really powerful for our sellers. And like you saw last night when we were at dinner, I showed you that and I showed it to our prospective new client, you know, the wow factor is really there.
Billy McOwen
It's absolutely unbelievable. I mean, I couldn't believe it. So you know, that's not going to be something that you're going to get.
Sean Maloy
Yeah, not everybody's gonna do that, because you got to have the equipment, you've got to know. I mean, there's a lot that goes into that photograph, it's just not taking a snapshot. Time and day, location, altitude, and then you've got to edit that photo for sharpness and color and share it for the web. And all, so there's a lot of skill that's involved with just getting that one image. That one image will take the place of a dozen still images.
Billy McOwen
Exactly. Well, so developing a marketing plan for a seller, you've done your work, you've got your listing, you've got really good photographs, you've gone and utilized the drone, you've utilized this new technology and you put together a really fantastic presentation. Where does it go?
Sean Maloy
Well, let's let's back up one step because it has into that we're talking about. During the broker price opinion, I identify, of course the obvious, what the current use of that property is. And then the next thing is to identify the best future use as I see it, and then also who are those buyers for those uses, and usually there are multiple, and then I do a marketing plan, I'm tailoring that marketing to make sure that I'm reaching all of those different types of buyers with keywords, with the images, so that when that buyer that's looking for a horse farm goes to your listing, and they look at that image and they look at my write up, I'm giving them information about the field for their horses, you know. If I've got a hunter, I'm taking pictures of deer and turkey signs and rubs and scrapes and scratching, and appealing to them if I'm looking at an investor for timber. That is really key. And, you know, I invite sellers that once I presented, I invite them to look at our listings, not just mine, but you know, all of our Mossy Oak property listings are very well written. And I ask them to compare ours to others, and they can see a stark difference.
Billy McOwen
Yeah. So once you get you know this thing, you've got all your photos done, you've got all your imagery done, you've got a really, really good property description done and everything is ready to go. Let's talk a little bit about the process at Mossy Oak Properties Land and Farms Realty about what we do next, you know, part of what my role is. I'm in charge of all the marketing and everything. I mean, we advertise.
Sean Maloy
You do a good job,
Billy McOwen
Well, thank you! We wallpaper the internet with everything, every single land based aggregator website, we have purchased top of the line advertising locations, top of the line advertising spots for us to use, and I just don't think that anybody can do a better job of that exposure, that level of exposure is immense. And it's not just a sign, and yeah, we're gonna put a sign out there on the street, and it's gonna have a phone number on it and we'll actually have somebody answer that phone around the clock. And, you know, it's a whole different level.
Sean Maloy
And I will tell you, that's one thing that attracted me to Mossy Oak Properties, was the level of marketing that you were doing. And I can tell you now, just in the time that I've been with our organization, I see a difference in traffic. Not just on the internet, but the amount of email and phone calls and where I'm getting buyer leads for my sellers. I have sold properties that I've had on the market for over a year previously, you know, within months of being with Mossy Oak. So there is a difference in the level of marketing, and you told me about it, but now I'm firmly believer, because I've witnessed it from a seller's perspective.
Billy McOwen
Well, one of the things that's kind of a tough topic to go over next, and there's no good time to ever talk about money, right? And I mean we do this for a living, okay? And it costs money to do those things that we were just talking about, you know, to go and try and put this stuff out there on the internet. So let's talk about the C word, commission. Alright, so, you know, I get this question a lot, Sean, and you tell me how you kind of respond to it. You know, somebody asked me, do you guys charge? And, you know, of course, we have to tell him that our commissions are negotiable, which they are, but I also tell him I said, Look, pretty much we have the same kind of pricing that every other agency does in this area here. For example, it's 6% on houses 8% on raw land, in some parts of the state, it's 6% on houses, 10% on raw land. It's just different, but we try to be competitive. I think what's really important is that I'm going to tell somebody, yes, this is what I charge for commission. But last year, you know, Sean, we did 350 Plus transactions, and we averaged 93% of our list price, 93%! You know, and at 93% we're earning our commissions, we are getting them the highest possible price that we can. Most traditional brokers are operating at 88%, some of them at 85%, and that's a big difference. You know, what's the difference between eight that's, you know, 85% to 93% That's, I mean, that's 8% We've just earned our money right there.
Sean Maloy
Well, you just hit the nail on the head. Going back to the broker price opinion, that is such a very important tool for me and my sellers, because I know what a buyer's agent is going to use against us in negotiation when I do that BPO, because I know what is valuable. So I know what I'm going to use in negotiation, but also know the little hiccups or little things that are going to be used against us. And we've either addressed them, me and the seller, or I am prepared to negotiate against it and turn a negative into a positive, and I think that is the power of using our agents, is that we are very good negotiators, because we know the value of the land that we are representing, right? And that means the world to the seller during negotiation, and it allows us to get a higher price because even, you know, when I'm representing a buyer, and I'm not coming in at full price, I just don't give the offer in, I actually send a cover letter, and I explain why we're not giving them list price and when a buyer agent brings me an offer that is not where I think it needs to be. I remind them of why this property is valuable, and, you know, while we're counter offering at this certain level, and it's worth every penny of that, and that helps that in negotiation between agents. Helping their clients and the seller, and the buyer coming to terms. But I really think it's us knowing the land and being able to explain the value to the buyer and to the buyer's agent, so that they understand that they're getting a good value for what we're offering.
Billy McOwen
So it's it's a great question that I don't think sellers understand - who pays that buyer's commission, by the way?
Sean Maloy
We do. Exactly, or the seller does.
Billy McOwen
Exactly. Well, I mean, that's part of our commission, whatever commission that we've agreed to with that seller, whatever the buyer's agent is going to get paid comes out of that commission. It's not an extra fee, you know, that comes out, it's just part of it. So the negotiations, the level of service, the homework, all of the things that go into that and being able to represent the seller with the highest integrity, the highest broker opinion value, the best marketing that we possibly can, the highest level of exposure, we can give somebody.
Sean Maloy
Local presence, Billy. I mean, we're talking about opening up a Raleigh office. You know, I live and work in my area here, and we're going to have more agents like me here. So, you know, it's nothing if a buyer wants to get to see one of my sellers property at two o'clock, and it's 11 o'clock on a Saturday, you know. It's 15 minutes away, and I can show it, but I would say our competitors in the land business, some of those may be two hours away.
Billy McOwen
Yeah, and being two hours away is difficult. So let's talk a little bit about what I think is probably the biggest plus to why somebody would want to choose Mossy Oak Properties Land and Farms Realty to list and sell their property. You know, we operate as you will know, in a team dynamic. I mean, all of our guys, each one of us are like little special forces teams, little SEAL teams, little small group of 5, 6, 7 guys that work in a specific office, you know. If you've got a guy that's over here on your team, Sean, and you've got a showing that you've already got scheduled for a Saturday at two o'clock, and a buyer calls you and says, "Oh, my gosh, man, um, you know, I want to come see this property, I'm going to be in town, Can you meet me at two o'clock or three o'clock on a Saturday?" If it's another person from another agency, the answer is going to be no, I'm sorry, Can we reschedule for a different time? Now, that's not a very good service to a seller if he asked me. With our team, you can say, "Billy, listen, man, I need your help. I've got a buyer that wants to see this property of mine at two o'clock on Saturday Are you doing anything?" "No Sean, I'm free, can I give you a hand?" And we're going to go and we're going to take care of that that buyer because it's a service to our seller, for us to go and show that property at every opportunity. If you're a single shooter agent that's in charge of a territory of 6 or 8 or 10 counties, and you're the only person working those counties then how can you get stretched so thin? And let's say for example, your a seller, Sean, and your property's worth $50,000 and another person wants to come see something for $200,000 guess what that agent is going to go show? Right? They're going to go and start thinking about that money, money, money, and they're going to be good doing that. Here with us, you got four or five guys that work a specific territory, all of them are going to know that property really, really well, they're all going to be able to show up and do something that I think is a big advantage for us.
Sean Maloy
I agree. And it's another thing that attracted me to the Mossy Oak Properties organization was that team dynamic. I've been that other agent where I was stretched so thin, and I really was stressing out that I wasn't giving my sellers the amount of work and exposure they expected from me. But now, like you said, I can call any of our agents and ask them to help out, and if it's a buyer that's not represented, you know, they become the buyer agent at that point. And if they sell it, and they get paid, and that works out for everybody.
Billy McOwen
And you know what that means is volume. It's better volume, we can do more sales, and help our sellers more, because we got more boots on the ground and we operate in a team dynamic. We work really, really well together. So I think we've covered some really great stuff here today. Sean, just to kind of recap everything here, when we're working with a seller, we think it's really good idea to be working with a land specialist. That land specialist should provide you with a broker price opinion, is going to do his research, he's going to go through and make sure your access is good. You've got a clear and marketable deed, if there's no survey available, he's going to do that, he's going to present all this to you in a very organized, professional manner. Hopefully, then you guys can come to an agreement on price and commission. At that point, then we lay out a marketing plan, what we're going to do, where that property is going to get all of the exposure, we're going to go take really, really good photos, utilize licensed drone pilots to take aerial photos. Use really, really sophisticated technology to get the maximum marketing exposure for your property, but more importantly, we're going to write really, really good, very concise property descriptions that really describe this property, so when somebody's seen it online, they're going to really understand more about it and get fired up about it. We're also going to provide a level of service with other agencies, we're not just going to take a phone call and say, "well, good luck, here's the address", if need be, we're going to represent those sellers to the best of our ability, and if that means that we got to show up with our equipment, and drive buyer's agents around on a piece of property, so that experience can be the best, I mean, we were serving our sellers certainly by doing that. All of these reasons are the reasons why you want to consider if you're selling your property and you don't have any experience, you know, find a really good land specialist, but if you'd like to give us a call, we've got agents all over North Carolina, all over Virginia, South Carolina. And if you give Mossy Oak Properties Land and Farms Realty group a call, let us know where your property is located. We can put a land specialist on you. So if you're interested in that that number is 844-480-5263. That's 844-480-5263. Somebody there mans the phone all the time, give us a shout. So that's gonna wrap up this week's episode, number three, which is the top 10 Tips If you're out selling property for your very first time. My name is Billy McOwen, and I'm your host. I was joined today by Mr. Sean Maloy, our broker in charge of the new Raleigh office. Sean, thanks so much for coming. All right, you guys. Peace out everybody. We'll see you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
