To sell a horse property, you need a different approach than your typical residential home. Selling a horse property, or horse farm, is nothing like selling a common run-of-the-mill residential home because you have to find a specific type of buyer who is willing and able to afford your property.
Horse properties create two unique challenges: first, they tend to be more expensive than your typical residential home, mostly due to the fact that they have more land and more structures, like a barn, on the property; second, they horse properties require a buyer with a specific interest and need. Let’s examine both.
Simple economic principles tell us that the higher something is priced, the less the supply. One factor is people are unwilling to spend, for example $400,000 or more, on a home and farm. The other factor is that few people can afford to spend that amount of money on property.
As a result, there is a small pool of buyers who are even able to purchase a horse property or farm.
Combine that with the fact that you need a buyer who has an interest in horse properties or horse farms and you find yourself with a limited pool of potential buyers.
All of that means, you need a different strategy than the one that is followed by the average real estate agent listing an average home.
Here are few things and recommendations to help you sell your horse property.
Professional Photos
Property and listing photos grab a buyer’s attention — regardless of the fact that you are trying to sell a horse property. In 2019, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) published a report on digital technology in real estate and found that 44 percent of homer buyers, as their first step, looked online at properties for sale.
A horse property or farm is more likely to attract an out-of-state or international buyer. These buyers have to start their search online or contact an equine real estate agent for listings.
Professional photos will help your listing stand out and give you the opportunity to showcase your property from the inside out.
When getting photos, include images of the home, the barn, outbuildings, areana, and the land.
When taking photos of the land and structures of the building, you have to do aerial photography. It’s not optional if you want your horse property to get attention.
Aerial photography will give potential buyers an opportunity to understand the land layout and see how much land is with the home.
Bonus Points: Use Video
If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how much video is worth.
The powerful visual effects of video combined with audio effects, gives you the opportunity to create an experience for people looking at horse properties for sale.
Video tours can separate your listing from those of other horse properties. Virtual and video tours provide an overview of the property that draws buyers into its appeal.
Just like the photos, you want to showcase the home, land, structures, and arena. Focus on selling the equestrian lifestyle.
Here is an example of one we did for one of our clients where we focused the entire video on the exterior. We wanted to sell the horse lifestyle.
Target Horse Lovers And Owners
Selling a horse property requires a unique buyer. Someone who has an interest in equine. Luckily for us, horse lovers tend to congregate in certain areas — both online and offline.
For example, you or your real estate agent can put flyers up at tack shops and feed stores. They can sell direct-mail letters to boarding stables or riding stables. These options will put you in front of horse owners or people who have an interest in horse properties.
With technology, it’s even easier to target horse owners and horse lovers. For example, there are opportunities to target people with interest in horses.
That’s exactly what we did for one of our clients. We used a video tour as the ad and targeted horse owners. Through Facebook ads, 3,348 people viewed the video for 10-seconds or more. The cost to me was $0.04 for every 10-second video view and a 16+% result rate.
Granted, only a small subsection of these people — both online and offline — will be looking to buy a horse property. But, it does give us a better opportunity at finding a qualified potential buyer than listing the horse property on Zillow.
Should we avoid Zillow? Nah, you should still list the home on Zillow. It’s a great idea to exhaust every option and marketing channel.
The more places we can list the home for sale, the more eyeballs that see it, and the higher the chance of getting the property sold.
Market Where Horse Property Buyers Are
The most effective marketing channels are those where horse property buyers congregate.
We’ve found two good ways to do this. First, there are some dedicated websites, like HorseProperties.net, that list horse properties for sale. HorseProperties.net ranks pretty well in search engines like Google so they attract a lot of potential buyers looking for a horse property.
These are high quality leads. There is usually a cost to get on these websites, but it’s well worth it and gives you the best chance of selling your property.
Our second method is what we refer to as hyper targeting. We get as specific as possible and drive only qualified and potential buyers with the most interest in our horse property listings.
We do this using Google AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) channels. We target keywords like “horse properties for sale in Michigan” or “Michigan horse property for sale”.
The reason we add our state to the search term is to add specificity. We might get eyeballs on our listing on HorseProperties.net, but the issue is that we might get potential buyers who would NEVER live in Michigan, so they will never buy that horse property.
Those are wasted eyeballs. By adding our state, we can target people who have a desire to live in Michigan, where our horse property listings often are, and wish to buy a horse property.
This is a powerful way to drive relevant and qualified traffic to your listing — giving you the best shot at getting it sold.
Maintain The Land And Buildings
Horse lovers expect the property to be well maintained so be sure to keep the land and buildings in pristine condition. Yes, I know horse properties can never be truly completely top-notch cleaned, but it should look like it’s in good condition.
Defects and repairs just show up as dollar signs in a buyers head. Either decreasing what they will pay for it or causing them to walk away altogether and look for the next horse property.
Areas to keep maintained and clean:
Keep the fence intact and fix broken boards or replace sections. The fence should appear to be secure.
Clean out the barn. Eliminate as many cobwebs, sweep away debris, and clean up after horses daily. Drag and manicure the arena to appeal to competitors who use the space. Get rid of clutter and personal items so buyers can imagine living there.
Selling your horse property is a lot of work. Your realtor will do a lot of work but it’s mainly up to you to keep the property “show-ready”. It’s the difference between getting the highest price and your home sitting on the market for a year without any offers.
What To Expect
Unlike a residential home, horse properties sell slowly. Even when residential homes are selling in a few days, it can take a horse property 5 months or more to sell.
I always like to say that it’s pretty much a “buyer’s market”. Meaning, supply almost always outpaces demand.
In addition, it’s not uncommon for higher-end homes and horse properties to sell below the asking price. In 2019, higher-end homes in the Lansing area sold for 96 to 98 percent of list price. In comparison, the middle residential market sold for 100 to 101 percent of list price. On a $1 million dollar farm, that translates to around a $40,000 difference.
You can expect your home to take longer to sell and get less than asking price.
However, you can shorten the time it takes to sell and get closer to asking price by following some of these tips. It all starts with a sound marketing strategy. If you plan to sell your horse property, look for someone who has experience creating and executing a strong marketing strategy for horse properties.
We have that kind of experience and you can learn about Jim and Becky who needed to sell their horse property so they could move down to Florida. After an unsuccessful try with a traditional real estate agent, they called the Dolinski Group and we helped them get it sold.
For our help selling your Michigan horse property, contact us as realtor@dolinskigroup.com
