Benefits, Value & Beliefs

When I first became a real estate agent, a customer asked “Why should I hire you?” At that moment, I didn’t know what to say. Why should he hire me? I didn’t know.

That was a long time ago. What I’ve learned since then is that what matters to my clients are the benefits and value I bring to them as their real estate agent.

Communication

I recently had a client who wanted to list for sale a home on 15 acres. She told me that after her previous real estate agent listed the property, she never again heard from that agent. Not a phone call or email. Nothing.

Communication is a very important tool for me. I want to let my clients know when someone has expressed interest in their property. And I especially want to be prompt with communication when someone makes an offer.

Equally important is what takes place after the offer is accepted. My rule of thumb is that I communicate to both the seller and the buyer everything that is happening with regards to their real estate sale and purchase.

If you’re waiting to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of your real estate, wouldn’t you like to stay up-to-date on what’s happening at the title company, or what the surveyor is doing, what evaluations the forester has made, what feedback the zoning department gave, or what delays and obstacles need to be overcome? Yes! I believe most people think this is very important. That’s why it’s my goal to keep you apprised of what’s happening.

Gary Howell – Land & Rural Real Estate Agent
Farms & agricultural properties
Forested land & timber tracts
Hunting & recreational land
Residential vacant land
and Homes in rural areas

Specialization

There’s a big difference between a residential realtor, whose primary business is selling suburban houses in residential neighborhoods, and a land specialist realtor who is an expert on all things related to large acreage land sales (including houses that sit on spacious acreage).

The average suburban neighborhood real estate agent may not have the knowledge, skill or experience to lead and manage the sale of a large acreage property.

As a land specialist realtor, I’m already familiar with, and have experience in, the following:
• How to calculate the market value of a piece of land
• How to determine the highest and best use for a parcel of land
• How to present, market and sell land
• How to find buyers for a piece of land
• How a survey is conducted
• How to identify setbacks and easements
• How to perform a parcel split
• How to identify tree species and how to hire a forester to give an estimate of timber value
• How to navigate governmental departments, such as regional planning, zoning, and engineering, etc…
• And the list goes on…….

All of these things may be something that the residential, suburban neighborhood real estate agent, may have never dealt with before.

In their Code of Ethics, the National Association of Realtors states in Article 11 that Realtors shall not undertake to provide professional services concerning a type of property that is outside their field of competence.

When I take a cursory survey of large land listings in the MLS, it’s not uncommon for me to see that a real estate agent hired to sell a piece of farmland has sold only houses in the past three or four years since becoming an agent. These agents may not be aware of complex issues related exclusively to large land listings such as the depth to width ratio requirements for parcel division in Stark County.

It’s not my intent to suggest that residential realtors are not good at what they do; on the contrary, residential realtors are experts at selling homes in cities and towns, but they don’t specialize in land sales. Therefore, if you’re going to sell a large acreage property, you should hire someone who knows about large acreage properties.

Sticktoitiveness

Large land sales can sometimes be complicated, convoluted and frustrating. I’ve had sales that had to go through probate or parcel divisions and even multi-owner properties in which the sellers had conflicting goals. In each of these situations, I helped sellers and buyers work through the necessary steps to finalize the transactions.

You need a real estate agent that is not going to quit when things become difficult.

I look forward to helping you sell your land or rural home.

I work in Stark, Wayne, Tuscarawas, Portage, Summit, Medina, Holmes, Mahoning, Carroll Counties and beyond.

Call Gary Howell at (330) 880-6725 to discuss your real estate needs.