How do you market land to builders?
Bowman Real Estate lists land for builders around the facts they price on: road frontage, topography, utilities, acreage, access and restrictions on every card, and a fact the record does not carry is marked rather than guessed. The listing goes to the MLS and the land marketplaces and is taken directly to builders and investors, in the firm's name and on the listing agreement's terms.
How many sites, and what it takes to serve them: the two figures a builder hunts for
Before a builder cares about the view, two numbers have to work: the count of house sites the tract can carry, and the cost of running a road and utilities out to each one. A listing written for that reader puts the lines that feed both figures where they cannot be missed.
| The builder's question | Card lines that speak to it | What the card leaves open |
|---|---|---|
| How many sites will the ground hold? | Acreage, road frontage, restrictions | The soil, the recorded plat, and what the subdivision ordinance allows |
| What will it cost to reach them? | Access, topography, utilities | Where a drive can be permitted, the grading for each pad, and how far a line has to run |
Where each of those card lines comes from, and what the card prints when the record is silent, is set out on the current listings page. The arithmetic of turning gross acres into sites is its own subject, in what lot yield is.
The listing answers what the record can, before a builder picks up the phone
Every question a builder has to call about is a question that can stall interest in the tract. The listing is built to close as many of them as the record and the ground allow.
So the listing is written for the builder's questions: the legal access, what utilities reach the road, the slope and grade where pads and a road would sit, and what is recorded against the tract. The factors behind that read are argued one at a time in how we read land, and a listing that leaves one of them open says so rather than guessing.
Lowell holds a Virginia professional engineer license and reads a tract the way an engineer reads one; what that credential adds to a brokerage, and where a brokerage stops, is set out under land development and feasibility. How a developer turns the facts on a listing into an offer price is its own subject, in how developers decide what to pay for land.
The MLS, the land marketplaces, and builders and investors reached directly
A tract suited to building reaches builders by more than one route, and none of them depends on a sign at the road.
- The MLS. Lowell's current listings are MLS listings, and each one also gets a page of its own on this site.
- The land marketplaces. The listing is syndicated to them as well as to the MLS.
- Directly. It is also taken straight to the office's network of builders and investors.
A builder who looks at your tract may be shown other ground as well. Under Va. Code 54.1-2131, a licensee engaged by a seller does not breach any duty to that seller by showing alternative properties to prospective buyers or by representing other sellers. Builders compare tracts, and the listing is written so the facts on yours hold up in that comparison.
Marketing a tract to builders is a different job from introducing a buyer to a builder. When someone buying a lot wants a builder for their own house, that introduction is described on finding a builder for your lot.
Each ad runs in the firm's name, matches the tract and follows the signed terms
Marketing to builders sits inside the same Real Estate Board advertising rule as any other listing, and inside the paper the owner signed.
- In the firm's name. 18VAC135-20-190 requires all advertising to be under the direct supervision of the principal broker or supervising broker, in the name of the firm.
- True to the ground and the status. Property information the licensee controls in any advertising must be consistent with the property's condition and its current contract status, and advertising must be updated in a timely manner on a material change to the listing status or property descriptions.
- On the agreed terms. Under Va. Code 54.1-2131, a licensee engaged by a seller promotes the seller's interests by conducting marketing activities in accordance with the brokerage agreement, the listing agreement in everyday speech.
Own a tract that could hold a house site or a set of lots?
Send the county, the acreage and the road it fronts. Lowell reads it for the facts a builder will price on and tells you which ones the record leaves open. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does my listing agreement control how the land is marketed?
It sets the frame. A licensee engaged by a seller conducts marketing activities in accordance with the brokerage agreement, and Virginia requires that agreement to state the services the licensee will render along with any other terms the two sides agreed to. Reading a signed agreement for what it does or does not promise is a question for your attorney.
Does the ad for my land change once a builder signs a contract?
It has to keep up with the contract. Under 18VAC135-20-190, what a licensee controls in an ad has to match the property's current contract status, and the ad has to be brought up to date, in a timely manner, when the listing status changes in a material way. Whether the listing agent keeps seeking other offers while the tract is under contract is a separate question, answered by the listing agreement and the contract of sale.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-2131, licensees engaged by sellers Virginia General Assembly
- 18VAC135-20-190, advertising by licensees Virginia Real Estate Board