Sell Land, Development Projects & Portfolios of Residential Lots with “Project Listings”

A frequent question we hear at LotNetwork.com is from sellers and their brokers asking how they should create their listings when selling residential development projects, land for development or multiple residential lots in bulk. Because LotNetwork.com was created to meet the needs of professionals in the homebuilding and residential real estate development industries, we have just the tools that are needed to help sellers market – and help buyers find! – these types of multi-lot and development property listings.

A Common Need — Selling Multiple Lots or Development Projects

It’s common for residential developers and homebuilders to need to sell a large quantity of lots or entire development projects, whether it is an intentional part of their business plan or because circumstances cause them to need more liquidity. Some reasons they may have for selling these properties include:

Closing out the remaining lots in an existing, fully-developed project,
A pre-sale of lots to builders in a not-yet-developed community or phase,
Selling an entire development project that was started but not completed (possibly distressed, or for strategic reasons), and
Extra project or lot inventory that needs to be sold so the builder or developer can focus on other opportunities.

In addition, banks and other lenders often need to sell residential development projects and portfolios of lots that they have acquired after builders, developers or other property owners encountered financial difficulties. Likewise, property owners and investors may own land that is ideal for development and new housing, and need to market their real estate to a targeted audience of land and project buyers. These landowners know that only a select group of buyers are able to purchase and develop their property, so they are looking for a way to sell land to developers and builders that have this expertise.

Holding vacant lots, land and development projects on your books for longer than you wish can be very expensive. With overhead and carrying costs like debt service, taxes and insurance – time literally is money. Whatever the reason for selling, if a seller can connect with the right kind of buyer for its lots or development projects (and as soon as possible) they can transform a financial burden into liquidity, and hopefully profits.

“Project Listings” Help You Sell to Homebuilders & Developers

It makes sense that portfolios of lots, land for development and development projects are most commonly purchased by homebuilders and developers looking for new opportunities. So it also makes sense that you should market directly to these specific buyers when selling these types of properties.

LotNetwork.com is focused on residential lots and the homebuilding industry, and is designed to draw traffic from industry players like homebuilders, residential real estate developers and the parties that work with them. In addition, LotNetwork.com has a number of tools and custom features to help homebuilders and developers buy and sell homesites and development properties. Other web sites that are focused on selling existing residential homes, commercial properties or farmland just don’t have this type of targeted audience or industry focus.

At LotNetwork.com we call a portfolio of lots, a tract of land for development or a residential development project that is for sale in a single transaction a “Project Listing.” The ability to identify your listing as a “Project Listing” is an exclusive benefit that is included with all Featured and Premium listings on LotNetwork.com. With just a simple check of a checkbox when adding your listing information, you automatically flag your listing as a “Project Listing” in search results and on the listing’s marketing page. There is no additional charge for designating your listing as a Project Listing.

Just Check a Box When Creating a Listing to make it a “Project Listing”

Project Listings are made possible because of LotNetwork.com’s unique, custom-designed listing template that was created by industry experts to help market and describe residential lot and land properties.

When using the customized listing template and highlighting a property as a Project Listing the seller has the option to provide critical information that meets the needs of homebuilding and development industry professionals, such as:

Approximate number of lots available in the project or bulk sale
Is there a takedown schedule?
Width of lots and buildable area
Your description of the opportunity and sale terms
Status of site improvements
And other relevant details

Some of these items may not apply to you, and you are not required to include all of this information in your Project Listing (see more below).

Tips for Creating Your Project Listings on LotNetwork.com

When adding the Project Listing’s information, you should include both the overall, combined acreage for the whole project or portfolio as well as the total price for the sale of the entire project or portfolio. As a Project Listing, you are not marketing the proposed individual-lot pricing or per-lot acreage (those can be described in the Project Listing’s details, if you wish). It is not uncommon for the size or price of “projects” to vary greatly, so you may identify your development project or multi-lot listing as a Project Listing even if it only includes a few lots.

Project Listings are Highlighted in Search Results

Also note that when selling multiple, individual lots in bulk as a Project Listing, the lots generally should be in the same community or geographic area so that a buyer gets the efficiency of a “project” by building on multiple lots in close proximity.

And if you will consider selling individual lots from a project (instead of only selling them in bulk), then in addition to the Project Listing we also suggest that you add one or more separate listings for “representative” lots and that you do not highlight those as Project Listings. A representative lot listing can cross-reference the related Project Listing, but helps you market individual lots by displaying the appropriate lower price and acreage for a single lot. These representative lot listings allow potential lot buyers – like prospective homeowners or builders – to find your individual lots in searches when they have limited their search criteria to a lower price range and smaller property acreage.

Some of the details that are included in the Project Listing section of LotNetwork.com’s listing form are not required, and may not even apply to your situation. For example, takedown schedules, the width of lots and buildable area may not be known or even apply when you sell undeveloped land as a potential development site. But if you know the information for your property or situation, you might as well include it to help make the buying process easier for potential buyers.

So if you need to sell a portfolio of lots or development projects, enter your Featured or Premium listings as Project Listings to help you target homebuilders and developers looking for projects like yours. You also can cross-reference your multiple property listings and related Project Listings via our “LotLink” feature, which is a a dedicated page that provides buyers an all-in-one view of your proposed sale terms and a list of your “LotLinked” listings on LotNetwork.com. LotLink is an additional feature that helps developers and builders sell Project Listings or portfolios of lots on LotNetwork.com. Follow this link to read more about the LotLink feature and other builder/developer-focused features on LotNetwork.com.

And remember that homebuilders and developers can get other industry-focused benefits when marketing with a Featured or Premium listing on LotNetwork.com, like “Turnkey Listings” that allow you to highlight vacant lots where you are offering to build a Turnkey home for a buyer. Use your lots to help you sell and build homes. Turnkey Listings can connect builders directly with buyers who are looking to build from the ground up, and help you make a pre-sale before you even break ground on a new home.

Project Listing is Highlighted in a Listing's Detail Page

As seen by Buyers — “Project Listing” also is highlighted in “Builder Box” area on a Listing’s page

Related Resources:

Homebuilding and development pros can go to the Homebuilder and Developer Resources Page to find out about our features and powerful online tools that were created to meet your needs, and will help you buy and sell lots and land so you can sell new homes. And real estate pros, be sure to view our Real Estate Agent and Broker Resources to see how LotNetwork.com can help you sell your lot and land listings.

Check out our other resource pages for tips and information on the following topics:

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