Jason Smith Iowa Auctioneer Farmland and Real Estate

At Smith Auction Marketing our relentless pursuit to offer the best attended auctions, make the best use of technology and achieve top dollar for our clients we have completed our recent effort to take our Live Public Auctions online. Our Live Public Auctions will not be simultaneously broadcast online at the same time. Onsite and online bidders will compete for your property at the same time. This option allowsanybody in the world to bid at your auction, and since they have been prescreened and required to post a deposit before bidding you can feel secure in knowing the transaction will complete.

This online option also allows us the ability to accept prebids on your auction so you don't have the worry and concern all the way up to auction day what your property might bring. Prebids can not be viewed by the public but can be viewed by our staff. This will be a great indication of what the property will bring and perhaps if you reserve has been met prior to sale day.

If you are selling real estate in Iowa contact us about our auction services. Real estate auctions bring real buyers, right now with closing in 60 days. Only auctions can promise you an offer on the table in 30 days for market value. Our sales include Iowa farmland, recreational land, estates, machinery and farm sales now with the great ability to welcome online bidders to your sale. Visit our Iowa Auctioneering website or click on the Proxibid logo to see our upcoming auction with online bidding.

Western Iowa Land Auction

Yesterday I was able to attend the large land auction in Monona County in western Iowa conducted by Ed Spencer. The land up for auction in this case was a of some historical value and a well known local operation. The large 560 acre feedlot had originally been built by the Hanson family and was later purchased by the Johnson family. The land auction was held at Moorhead Iowa while the location of the land was near Turin Iowa.

With many local folks in attendance, many of them to see who would purchase the farm and what the land would be valued at by the end of the auction. Many stories were shared about the old farm and especially the number of head they used to run in the feed lots. Even today it would be considered a large operation.

Bidding on the land started around $1500 per acre. The farm was sold based on a taxable acres of 554.81 with all of the structures and infrastructure to go with the property. It was all set up and ready to recieve a new cattle operation that very day, in fact the buyer would be allowed to place cattle on the property after signing the purchase agreement after the sale. That was very generous of the sellers, and in addition the sellers were also throwing the 95 acres of corn crop in with the sale.

By the time bidding stopped the last bid was $2200 per acre for a sale price of $1,220,582 which was right where I thought it would land in the end.

If you are thinking of selling a farm or land in Iowa give us a call today to discuss it. We sell Iowa farms and land and they are in demand today. Visit our Iowa Farm and Land website for more information on farm and land auctions in Iowa. While you may be tempted to accept an offer from a neighbor for the ease of "not dealing with it" I'm sure you won't realize a higher price than with a live public auction. Auctioneers more than pay for themselves and can put more money in your pocket.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to sell with the Behr Auction Company at public auction in Mason City Iowa. We were selling commercial real estate as well as the building contents. With 5 auctioneers including myself we were able to complete the sale in exactly 5 hours with two selling rings. The Behr family name is synonymous with auctions in Iowa. Behr Auction Company has conducted thousands of auctions in over 35 years since it began in 1971. Since that time it has grown into a multi-faceted/full service Auction Company now specializing in Iowa Real Estate Auctions including farmland, homes, acreages, and commercial real estate. They also conduct estate auctions.

Owned by brothers Paul C. Behr and Dennis Behr you'll also find many family members working behind the scenes and on auction day. Cory and Dennis run the day to day operations of the company. In my photo above you can see Ed Behr calling bids, while Cory Behr (Dennis's son) on the ground catching bids, while Cory's sister is acting as the clerk in the trailer. If you could look around you'd also see Dennis Behr and his wife Jane working, and Cory's wife Jennifer Behr. The Behr family runs a highly professional auction business and they are the best of the best in Northern Iowa. Their farmland sales have achieved record prices

Paul C. Behr is a 3 time world champion auctioneer and President of the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City Iowa while Dennis Behr is one of the lead instructors at the college.

The opportunity to come help the out for the day was an exciting day and certainly one I was able to take away a few good lessons from. My most sincere thanks to the Behr family for their invitation to come help out on sale day.

Looking for an auctioneer in northern Iowa then I hope you will give Dennis or Cory a call at 641-425-8466 or visit their website Behr Auction Company You can email them at behrauctionco@gmail.com

Jason Smith is an Iowa Real Estate Auctioneer and member of the Iowa Auctioneers Association as well as the National Auctioneers Association.

I have many conversations with folks about the value of their property. It might be Iowa farmland or a house, after all everything has value and as an auctioneer value is important to me. Value is complex and more in-depth than I can cover in this short blog post, but I'll hit the high points from an auctioneers perspective.

In nearly every conversation with a potential seller I will always hear something along these lines. "Well I bought it 10 years ago for X amount of dollars and then I did this and that and then this to it, plus I did this, this and this and I know my neighbors down the road sold for X dollars 3 years ago so mine has to be with Z dollars now."

Certainly looking at value from that perspective would seem to be a common sense approach, but it doesn't work. If you are serious about selling real estate you've got to know, and this is the best advice I can dole out..... it just doesn't work that way. You cannot take your purchase price, add all of the things you did to it, add interest, a real estate commission and get that dollar figure today, in most cases. In some cases you can but home values have dropped and being realistic today is what will help you sell your real estate.

Value is determined through many things and in today's residential real estate market pricing is everything, I can't even begin to explain just how important pricing your home is today. Values of nearly everything fluctuates every day. If you look at the stock market you'll notice that values change on a daily basis, things go up and down based on a certain set of factors surrounding them. Certainly demand has the greatest affect on value. When demand is low and supply is high your asset drops in value. If demand is high and supply is low you'll see the value of your asset increase. Supply and demand can be used to summarize all of the factors affecting value.

All other things that affect supply and demand are sub characteristics and you see many of them affecting value today. They do not affect each area the same however. A plus for one area, may be a minus for another area. Take for instance gas prices. Gas prices are affecting today's supply and demand in the housing market where I live. Since we are on the outer fringes of the Omaha Council Bluffs metro area in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska we are starting to see folks put their homes up for sale to move closer to their employment in the city, and fewer people moving out to the country. This creates an oversupply of homes in the area and reduced demand or a minus for our area. Adding supply to a market that already had an oversupply with increased foreclosures in the last 12 months spells a real reduction in value. That very factor however is a plus for the cities of Omaha and Council Bluffs that are seeing more folks move in to avoid commutes and save on gas.

Supply has been affected by speculative building, mortgage defaults, and decreased demand while demand has been affected by a poor economy, gas prices and knee jerk reactions to the credit crisis we are seeing. It's much harder to get a mortgage today than it was 18 months ago. All of these things affect the value of your home.

If you look at that compared to the original statement above in the second paragraph you'll notice that sellers often do not think of supply and demand or current market conditions to determine value of their asset. There is no magic number to calculate the value of your house today and I'm not saying that its worth less than you paid for it, but I can tell you the best, easiest and cleanest way to determine the value of your home is with a real estate auction. Real estate auctions are the best form of appraisal you can find. Better than even hiring an appraiser to appraise your home. An appraisal is only one persons opinion of the value of your home. 3 appraisers would have 3 different opinions and NONE of them are offering you money. With a real estate auction you have someone offering you REAL CASH and not an opinion. Your auctioneer has marketed your home to every buyer interested in purchasing a home, they all came together, bid against each other and the highest bidder has just given you an appraisal for free! The most a person is willing to pay for the property is the value of your home, not what some appraiser said.

While the residential real estate market is experiencing a buyer's market today, land sales in the Midwest are in a seller's market that continues. A very different set of factors are playing into the land sales market and values of land continue to increase month to month. If you thought all real estate was the same and experiencing the same downturn today I'll explain why it's not true.

Today's grain prices are up, the stock market is down and more people are investing in the safety of farmland ownership. Farmland used to produce income is the most valuable land. This may be row cropped land for producing corn, soybeans, wheat or many other types of land. Land used for pasture of livestock comes in second in value while other lands used for timber production, recreation such as hunting usually falls 3rd in value. Determining the value of the land you are interested in selling will be determined by the amount of income it can produce, or its proximity to development. Certainly you'll see cases of land in close proximity to metro developments that will fetch a much higher price than it would if it was not in close proximity.

A reasonably steady supply of demand has not kept pace with the demand for land. Land auctions have been especially popular over the last 24-36 months with great attendance, many times with record prices set at each consecutive auction. Things continue to look bright for the future of land sales and ownership and as long as income keeps pace the value will remain steady and increase.

Could value of land fall? As I said before values fluctuate everyday up or down and if you were subject the land market to the same things the housing market is experiencing today you would see the same affect. While its highly unlikely its possible because value is affected by the supply and demand.

The distinct difference between homes and land is supply and demand. Land has a higher demand than supply today while homes are in oversupply and in low demand. In either situation an auctioneer can get you the best offer with cash on the table in 30-60 days. The alternative is to list it and let it sit on the market for months, or even years while you continue to pay the holding costs of interest, taxes and insurance. Add those up and see what you could save by calling an auctioneer today.

On April 18 we will be selling a nearly new home in Missouri Valley at auction. This custom home was built in 2004. All carpet and wood floors were recently replaced and the buyer will enjoy completly new flooring. The home also comes with stainless steel appliances and includes 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, walk in closets, 2 car garage and a large bonus room above the garage. You can find additional photos at at AuctionZip.com and AuctionBill.com here.

Nearly new home! Residential real estate to be sold at public auction in Missouri Valley Iowa.

Seller: Garrett and Melissa Klutts

Address: 1103 W. Michigan Street Missouri Valley, Iowa 51555

Sale Location: 1103 W. Michigan Street Missouri Valley, Iowa 51555

Sale Date: April 18, 2008 at 2:00pm

Lot Size: 70 X 100 feet

Square Footage: Main floor 1457, bonus room 928

Terms and Conditions

Down Payment: 10% down payment due the day of sale. Your bidding is not contingent upon financing, financing must be arranged prior to sale. All bidders to provide approval letter or proof of funds.

Taxes: Gross Taxes: 2599.14; Net Taxes: 2450.00; Tax Year: 2006

Closing: Closing May 19, 2008

Flood Plain: Property is located in a flood plain.

Buyers Premium: 10% buyers premium

Public Inspection Times: March 28, 2008 at 5pm and April 11, 2008 at 5:00pm

Cooperating Brokers: Cooperating brokers paid 2.5%. Register your buyer by contacting Jason Smith 402-250-1006

Sellers Agent: Jason Smith is the sellers agent only and a licensed real estate agent in the State of Iowa.

Auctioneer: Jason Smith 402-250-1006

Open Houses: The home will be open for public inspection on the following dates and times. March 28, 2008 at 5:00pm-6:00pm and April 11 at 5:00pm-6:00pm

Directions: Home is located near the swimming pool. From the swimming pool in Missouri Valley go west on Huron to Shawmutt Street, north on Shawmutt to Michigan, Michigan west to 1103 W. Michigan.

Auctioneers Notes: This home is a newer custom home built in 2004. The home has 3 bedrooms and 1.75 bathrooms. 2 car garage with large bonus room above the garage. All stainless steel appliances in the home are included in the sale. All new carpeting and wood flooring was just installed and will be brand new for you. Heating and cooling system is a heat pump. Home is sold "as is where is" with no contingencies. This home is ready to move in and live in immediately.

Visit our Iowa Auctioneering site for more information.

Contact information Jason Smith 402-250-1006 or 712-646-2061