Selling Farmland Using An Auctioneer

Selling Farmland in Iowa

When you are selling farmland there are 3 typical options to sell your asset.

1. You can sell it yourself

2. You can sell it by private treaty negotiations through a land broker

3.  You can hire an auctioneer to market and sell the property

We are both land brokers and auctioneers so we provide both services but today I want to talk about farmland sales by auction.  It is very typical to sell farmland by auction just about everywhere.  In fact in Iowa, if you do not sell by auction some people may question why you are listing the farm instead of selling by auction.  Buyers trust the auction process and it gives them a sense of security in pricing the property.  They know if a person is bidding against them then they are not overpaying for the farm.

Any type of real estate can be sold at auction and it does very well.  In fact there are thousands of examples where auctions have moved properties and turned them into cash while neighboring homes or farms languished on the market for months and years to come.  A properly marketed auction will always, always, always bring market value and it can do it in 60, on a timeline the seller can count on with no contingencies because at auction we take cash bids ONLY!

So why then do some people choose to list a property instead of use an auction to market it?  First let me tell you that an auction is a marketing method no different than a listing is a marketing method.  A listing is a “drip marketing” where the property is placed in advertising with many other properties hoping somebody will notice it.  An auction is an “aggressive saturation marketing” method where your property only is spotlighted in ads and heavily marketed for a 4-5 week period.  During this time we follow a timeline we’ve given you ahead of time, its very methodical and well thought out.  It matches your asset and it would be difficult for anybody to not see or ignore it.  Listings and auctions are marketing methods, they try to do the same thing in two different ways.  So back to the original question why do some list instead of auction?  In my experience the word Auction has a negative connotation to those that are not accustomed to them.  Today auctions are more popular as a marketing method than ever!  Many of the people selling farmland today are located outside of Iowa and they remember the days when auctioneers were often small mom and pop operations often without many resources to touch the world outside the local market.  Some people believe that auctions are a last resort, worst case scenario to sell something.  They believe that an auction is only used when you have no choice.  Some do not want to draw attention to themselves.  Some just don’t have faith an auction can achieve what we claim it will.