Choosing a buyer
Companies that buy land.
What they are, how they get paid, and how to tell the ones that close from the ones that tie your parcel up and come back with a lower number. Written to be useful whether or not you sell to us.
A land buying company purchases property for its own account rather than listing it for you. No licence is required in most states, which makes the category easy to enter and worth checking carefully. A real one closes through a licensed title company, keeps its price unless something material changes, and can show you the arithmetic behind the number. Those three are checkable before you commit to anything.
How these companies make money
The model is simple enough to state in a sentence: buy a parcel, then either hold it, improve and resell it, or assign the purchase contract to another buyer before closing. There is no commission and no fee to the seller, so the return has to come from what happens to the parcel afterwards.
That is why speed and certainty are the product. A cash buyer takes on the things a financed buyer will not — a title that needs clearing, an access problem, taxes far enough behind that the county has a date on the calendar — and prices the work and the risk of doing it. Our own offers typically land between 70 and 85 percent of market value, which is a range rather than a promise and moves with what the parcel carries.
None of that makes the category good or bad. It makes it a trade, and a trade you can evaluate.
The six questions worth asking
Ask these of anyone, including us. A buyer who answers all six plainly is very unlikely to be the kind you need protecting from.
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01 Will you close through a licensed title company?
- A good answer
- Yes, and they name it or let you choose one.
- A warning
- They propose closing "in house", by mail, or through a notary they arrange.
A title company runs the search that finds liens, easements and heirs nobody mentioned, and holds the money until the deed is right. Skipping it is how a sale becomes a dispute.
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02 Is the price final, or can it change after inspection?
- A good answer
- The number holds unless something material and previously unknown turns up.
- A warning
- A high number now, with a re-trade once you are committed and past your other options.
The bait-and-switch in this category is not a low offer. It is a high one that drops in week six when you have stopped talking to anyone else.
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03 Are you buying it, or assigning the contract?
- A good answer
- A straight answer either way, and it is in the contract.
- A warning
- Evasion, or a contract that is silent on assignment.
Assignment is legal and normal. Concealing it is the problem — and in a few states, notably Ohio and Illinois, doing it as a pattern of business carries its own disclosure and licensing rules.
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04 Who pays the closing costs and the back taxes?
- A good answer
- Costs are stated plainly, and delinquent taxes settle from the proceeds.
- A warning
- A number quoted before fees, with the deductions appearing on the settlement statement.
Two offers are not comparable until you know what each one nets you. A higher gross with costs deducted can pay you less than a lower one without.
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05 How did you arrive at that number?
- A good answer
- Comparable sales, then what it costs to make the parcel sellable.
- A warning
- "That is what we can do" — a figure with no arithmetic behind it.
A buyer who cannot show the reasoning is asking you to trust a guess, and you have no way to tell whether it is a good one.
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06 Are you asking me for money at any stage?
- A good answer
- Never. Not for an appraisal, a report, or to release funds.
- A warning
- Any upfront fee, under any name.
A legitimate land purchase costs the seller nothing out of pocket. Anyone asking a landowner to pay to be bought out is running something else.
When a buying company is the wrong answer
If your land is accessible, has a clean title, sits in a county where parcels move, and you are not working against a deadline, list it. A land specialist agent reaches a far wider pool of buyers and will usually net you more even after the commission. We say the same thing on the phone when it is true, because the alternative is spending your time and ours on a deal you should not take.
Where a direct sale earns its place is on the parcels that pool will not absorb — back taxes, no recorded access, an estate with several heirs, or a tax sale already on the calendar. Those are the ones where the wider pool is not the constraint.
The ten routes to a sale, ranked with when each is the wrong choice, covers the rest of the comparison.
Questions
Land buying companies, answered
Are land buying companies legitimate?
The category is legitimate — buying property for your own account requires no licence in most states, and cash buyers fill a real gap because lenders rarely finance raw land. But the barrier to entry is a website and a mailing list, so the category also attracts people who tie a parcel up under contract and then renegotiate. The difference is verifiable: a real buyer closes through a licensed title company, puts earnest money at risk, and can explain their number.
How much do land buying companies pay?
Our offers typically fall between 70 and 85 percent of market value, and that is a range rather than a promise. Others in the category commonly publish 50 to 70 percent. The figure alone tells you little — what matters is what it covers. Ask whether closing costs are paid, whether back taxes come out of the proceeds, and whether the price can change after an inspection.
What is the difference between a land buying company and a broker?
A broker represents you and earns a commission when your land sells to someone else. A buying company purchases for its own account and makes no money from you at all. That changes who carries the risk: a broker is paid whether or not the outcome suits you, while a buyer only earns if the parcel works out after closing.
Should I sell to a land buying company or list with an agent?
List it if the parcel is clean, accessible, in a county where land moves, and you can wait out a marketing cycle — a listing reaches a wider pool and usually reaches a higher number. Sell direct if the parcel carries something a buyer pool will not absorb: back taxes, no recorded access, an unopened probate, or a deadline. The honest comparison is not offer against listing price, but offer against what a listing nets after commission and months of carrying costs.
Land law, tax procedure and county practice vary and they change. Nothing here is legal or tax advice about your parcel. Before you act on a deadline, confirm it with the county or with an attorney in that state. See our editorial standards for how this is researched and how to tell us if something is wrong.
Ask us the six questions.
Call (815) 384-6153 or send the parcel details. No listing agreement, no fee, and nothing obliging you to accept anything.