Auction or private treaty?

By Matt Reese

While the excitement and competition among bidders at a farmland auction cannot be matched, sometimes it is not the right option for selling land.

“The decision whether to choose to sell at an auction boils down to the seller and what their desire is. The general public only sees about half of the transactions that Dye Real Estate and Land Co. does on a yearly basis. About half of our business comes from private sales — private treaty sales or listings like you would see with the normal home or a commercial building,” said Devin Dye, auctioneer, broker and owner of Dye Real Estate and Land Co. “Sometimes the client comes to us and says, ‘Hey we’re not interested in an auction.’ There’s a number of reasons why. Some of that is the desire to sell a farm and then continue renting it. If someone wants to sell a farm, but they’d like to continue renting the farm and farming it themselves, it doesn’t really go well with an auction format.… Continue reading