How to Get Your Colorado Farm Ready to Sell
Selling a farm takes time. Put time on your side. Start now to get your Colorado farm ready to sell next year. Fortunately for you, more buyers and investors search the real estate market during warmer months. Look to catch them during the Spring and Summer.
Interview Brokers
Find yourself a real estate broker who specializes in farm and ranch sales. Interview agents and assess who will be the broker you need. Who will give you honest information and put in the energy required for success? Ask questions. What about farms interests you? Are you from the area and familiar with my county? When did you start selling farms and ranches? Do you have references? May I talk to any of your clients? Do you have a team with specific expertise? Do you have other interests that dovetail with large land sales?
Gather Documents
When you decide on a broker, assist by gathering documents to establish an estimated value for your property. If you have not already organized the legal documents associated with your property and the agricultural records, do it now. Pull an updated title, the land survey, any plats, along with deeded and insurable access documents, and copies of easements. Dig out the water rights, grazing leases and third-party leases. Now pull out the financial statements including annual costs, expenses, and income.
Advice from your CPA
Talk with your CPA. You want to know the financial implications of selling your farm. How will it affect your national and state taxes? Essentially, estimating your income for next year, decide if this is the time to sell—or not. And understand why.
Work with your Broker
Now that you have professional assistance, get down to business. Create goals that will drive you towards a positive outcome. List the positive aspects of your farm property and know the vulnerabilities, such as water shortages. Delineate the rights, including water and mineral rights, grazing and other leases, and conservation easements. Record the recreational advantages of the property, such as hunting and fishing possibilities. Assign value to the assets. These may include animals, equipment, a farming business, buildings, and improvements.
Develop a marketing plan based on a realistic assessment of the real estate market in your town and county.
Execute the Marketing Plan
Now decide if you want to fix up the farm and to what degree. While estates often sell as-is, resident farmers still have a few months to paint, remove trash and rubble, check irrigation systems, and more.
When the right time rolls around, you and your broker will be ready to move full steam ahead.
Farm Brokers in Southern Colorado
Contact Cruickshank Realty, Inc. in Lamar, Colorado at (719) 336-7802. Broker/Owner Gene Cruikshank, also an Accredited Land Consultant, brings decades of experience in farm and ranch real estate transactions. Gene graduated with a B.S. degree in Agriculture from Colorado State University and continued studying agriculture and marketing. He mastered farming himself and served as a professional appraiser in land, minerals, and water. Gene will be happy to visit. Discuss the best options for your farm, including auctions. Gene holds licenses in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.