Resources · Free tools
What is your land worth, and what would you keep?
Two questions every landowner asks before selling. The first depends on your parcel's characteristics; the second depends on how you sell it. Here are both, with the reasoning shown.
Four things move the number more than anything else.
Acreage is what everyone leads with. It is rarely the reason two neighbouring parcels sell for wildly different amounts.
Location & access
Location is the biggest single lever, and legal access runs a close second. A recorded right to reach the parcel from a public road is not the same as being able to drive there — landlocked ground routinely trades at roughly half of what a comparable parcel with frontage does. Road frontage matters twice over, because it also determines whether the parcel can be split.
Size & topography
Bigger is worth more in total and less per acre, because each step up in size cuts the number of buyers who can write the cheque. Terrain compounds it: flat, well-drained ground that will perc is far cheaper to build on than steep or boggy ground, and buyers price that difference in before they ever make an offer.
Zoning & infrastructure
Zoning sets the ceiling on what the land can legally become, and minimum lot size decides whether it can be divided. Utilities at the property line are worth real money — running power and water in can cost tens of thousands, and every dollar of that comes straight off what a buyer will pay you.
Environmental constraints
A FEMA flood designation or protected wetlands can make large portions of a parcel unusable and push insurance costs up. It cuts both ways, though: merchantable timber, water frontage, or retained mineral rights can be worth a meaningful share of the total on their own.
See which of those factors is helping you.
Describe your parcel and watch the indication move. It reports a multiple of a typical parcel in your county rather than a dollar figure — see the first question below for why.
Describe your parcel
Five characteristics that move land value more than anything else.
Relative indication
1.00×
the per-acre price of an otherwise typical parcel in the same county
About typical
Nothing stands out in either direction — this reads as an average parcel for its county.
Illustrative only. This is a teaching tool, not an appraisal, an offer, or a substitute for comparable sales in your county.
A price is not what you keep. This is.
Once you have a rough value, the second question is what survives commission, closing costs, and the months the parcel sits on the market.
Your property
Vacant land commissions typically run higher than houses because parcels are harder to move.
Vacant land routinely sits far longer than a house. Every month is another month of taxes.
Selling direct puts back
$6,000
Listing with an agent
MLS routeGross list price
$50,000
- Agent commission (8%)
- −$4,000
- Closing & title fees
- −$1,400
- Holding costs (6 mo)
- −$600
- Typical time to close
- ± 225 days
Estimated net to you
$44,000
88% of list price · still subject to buyer financing
Direct cash offer
Agreed purchase price
$50,000
- Agent commission
- $0None — we are the buyer
- Closing & title fees
- $0We pay 100%
- Holding costs
- $0Closing starts now
- Guaranteed timeline
- 30–90 days
Net cash to you
$50,000
100% of the agreed price · no deductions
Side by side
Estimates only, for comparison. Actual commissions, closing costs, taxes, and time on market vary by county and by parcel. Nothing here is an offer or an appraisal. See how we build a real offer.
What each number means.
The calculator is only as honest as what you put into it. Here is how to think about each field.
Estimated land value
What a retail buyer would realistically pay. If you are unsure, start with recorded sales of similar parcels nearby rather than the assessor's figure.
Agent commission
Land commissions run higher than houses because parcels take longer to move and require more explaining. Six percent is optimistic on rural land; eight to ten is common.
Annual property taxes & HOA
Everything the parcel costs you to hold for a year. Taxes, HOA or POA dues, mowing, and insurance if you carry it.
Months on market
The number sellers most often underestimate. Vacant land regularly sits six to twelve months. Every month is another month of carrying costs coming out of your proceeds.
Three ways to find out what it is actually worth.
Ours is one of them, and it is not always the right one. Here is the honest comparison.
Hire an appraiser
Most accurate. Costs money.
A licensed land appraiser will weigh every factor properly and give you a defensible number. Expect roughly $400–800 and a couple of weeks. Worth it if the parcel is valuable, contested, or part of an estate where the figure has to hold up.
Comp it yourself
Free. Costs an afternoon.
Pull recorded sales — not asking prices — for similar parcels in the same county over the last twelve months, compare within a similar size band, then adjust honestly for access, utilities, and buildability. Our guide walks through exactly how.
Read the comping guideGet a cash offer from us
Free. Takes two minutes.
We research the comparable sales, access, and title ourselves and come back with a written number in 24–48 hours, along with the math behind it. No obligation, and if listing it would net you more, we will say so.
Get my cash offer
What these tools assume
- Closing and title costs are estimated at 2.8% of the sale price — title search, title insurance, escrow, deed preparation, recording, and prorations. Your county may differ.
- Holding cost is your annual carrying figure divided by twelve, multiplied by the months on market.
- The listing route assumes the property actually sells at the price you entered. Many land listings close below asking, or not at all.
- The direct-sale column assumes you accept our offer. We pay every closing cost, so the agreed price is what reaches you.
- Neither tool is an appraisal, an offer, or tax advice.
About valuing land.
Because an honest one needs recorded sales from your specific county, and a dishonest one is worse than nothing. Automated estimates are trained on houses, which have square footage, bedrooms, and thousands of nearby sales to compare against. Raw land has none of that.
Two adjoining forty-acre parcels can differ in value by a factor of five because one has deeded road access and the other does not. No algorithm reading public records can see that, so it falls back on a county-wide price per acre — which is close to meaningless for your particular piece of dirt.
The explorer above tells you something we can actually stand behind: which of your parcel's characteristics are helping you and which are costing you.
Not from this tool. ZIP-level land data is usually too thin to be reliable — there simply are not enough vacant land sales in most ZIPs in a given year to produce a stable average.
If you want a real number for a specific parcel, send us the address or APN and we will research it properly, or hire a local appraiser.
It is a starting point, not an answer. Assessed value is calculated for taxation, often on a lagging cycle, and in many counties it sits well below what land actually trades for. In a few it sits above.
Treat it as one data point and check it against recorded sales of similar parcels nearby.
Not well. Commercial and entitled development land is priced on what can be built and what that will earn, which depends on zoning, entitlements, traffic counts, and utility capacity rather than the general factors here.
For anything with a development plan attached, get a professional appraisal.
It does not change what the land is worth — it changes what you walk away with. Liens and unpaid taxes are settled out of the purchase price at closing, so they come off your proceeds rather than off the market value.
It does narrow your buyer pool, since many retail buyers walk away when they find a title problem. We do not.
Want the real number for your parcel?
Send the address or APN. We pull the comparable sales, access, and title ourselves and come back with a written offer in 24–48 hours — free, no obligation.
Get my cash offerOr call (813) 331-5462 and ask.
Find out what your land is worth to us.
Send us the address or parcel number. We do the research, and you get a written cash offer within 24–48 hours. If it isn't the right move for you, we will tell you that honestly.
Monday–Friday, 8am–6pm CT · We answer the phone ourselves