How long does it take to sell land in Kalispell?

How long does it take to sell land in Kalispell?

One of the questions most sellers ask is, “How long does it take to sell land in Kalispell?” They may be selling in order to take the funds and purchase in a different location or perhaps start a new chapter in their life. Either way, they want to know when they’ll be able to move on. The answer, as with many real estate related questions is, “it depends.”

Averages

The average time it took to sell Kalispell residential land in 2020 was 7.3 months, while the average for 2021 was 5.1 months. So the time to sell land has been on average decreasing. This is not a surprise with the recent desire of so many buyers for a piece of Montana. So does this mean someone selling a parcel of land can expect to have a check in their hands in five months? No, unfortunately it does not because it all depends…

Minimum and Maximum time

As you can see from the chart below, the average time to sell changes on a monthly basis and it is not at all linear. Looking at the outliers for the time period below might help explain why you can’t assume you’ll sell in the average time.

For example, the speediest land sale in the last two years happened in July of 2021 when the average sales time was five months. That specific sale was for nearly 20 acres of land with easy access, mountain views, electric on site, and horse options. That was scooped up with cash in only 14 days.

In terms of the longest time to sell a residential land parcel, hang on to your hats! We’re talking nearly five and a half years. That was for a small building lot (about 1/5th of an acre) in a local development. For some reason, that one took to a long time to sell, and finally sold for cash in January of 2020.

Can I sell faster than the average?

Sure! As with selling homes, selling land requires certain things to sell quickly.

First, price. The listing price that you select must be in line with the recent sale prices for similar parcels of land in the same area. For example, the price has to be based on location, size, availability of utilities, views, type of topography, ease of access, building potential and more. Your real estate professional should provide you with an analysis that assesses those amenities and comes up with an expected price range. If you want to sell quickly, you should select a reasonable price as suggested by that analysis.

Next, staging. As with homes, you should make sure your property is prepared correctly. If it’s been a dumping ground for refuse of any kind, make arrangements to clean the property before selling. If there are no utilities on the property, it may make sense to add them prior to sale (or it may not, every parcel is different). If you have hunting stands on the grounds and the property is not being sold for hunting purposes, remove them. And on and on. There are ways to make your property much more attractive to buyers, which of course is what is needed to get it sold.

Third, marketing. It’s important to select someone who does thorough and extensive marketing. And that doesn’t mean someone who just throws the listing in the local MLS with a one word sentence and a few cell-phone pictures and leaves it like that. It’s important to hire a professional who assesses your property carefully, writes a detailed description aimed at potential buyers, and takes multiple from-the-land and from-the-sky photos. Further you must select someone who follows-up and resolves any issues that may arise. For example, in my local MLS, land listings do not always get pulled into some of the larger consumer facing search sites. Often, each listing needs to be addressed directly with those sites, and/or our local MLS to resolve. So in order to sell relatively quickly, you’ll want a listing that is not only written well with appropriate photos but one that shows up in all the consumer facing sites.

Bottom line, to sell relatively quickly, you’ll need to price, prepare and market your land correctly.

That’s what I do! If you have any questions or need assistance selling land in the Kalispell or Flathead Valley Montana areas, call me (Kat) at 406-270-3667 or email me at kat@thehousekat.com. I look forward to working with you!