Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about buying
We have a set of strict due diligence criteria we use to buy parcels of land. This includes properly identifying the parcel number and legal description, clearing up any back taxes or chain of title issues, taking or acquiring recent photos, defining zoning, road access, and so on.
In addition to our criteria for individual properites, we closely follow trends for any of the counties we are invested in, including property value rises/drops, new developments or zoning changes, law updates, and so on.
Our goal is to provide the best properties in high-growth counties at a reasonable price.
If you purchase with owner financing, we will send the loan documents to you for your signature via docusign and set you up for ACH autopayments. The deed will be transferred to you when the final payment is made. There are no penalties for prepayment. In fact, if you choose to pay the loan off within a year, we will give you 5% cashback. You can start using the land as soon as your very first payment is made; you will not, however, be able to pull any building permits until the loan is paid in full.
If you purchase with cash, we will draft and record the deed transferring title to you. Once the deed is recorded, we will send you a copy for your records.
If the property is valued at $10,000 or more, we hire a title company or closing attorney to handle the sale of the property. For lower-value properties, we do not always purchase a title search or title insurance when we buy a plot. We, however, do our own research to check for title issues and liens and would never purchase a property that has a known title issue. We are also happy to work with a title company of your choosing at your expense.
With owner financing, we will sign a land contract that gives you legal right to use the property; you will not, however, be able to pull any building permits during the loan term. Once the down payment and document fee are paid, we will send you a link to our third party loan servicing software, where you will make monthly payments for the length of the loan term. After the loan is paid in full, we will then transfer title to you.
You will receive a special warranty deed, which means the seller is guaranteeing that the property wasn’t encumbered during the time of their ownership.
We can add as many people to the deed as you would like.
Yes, the deed can be made out to an LLC or corporation.
We buy all of our properties assuming that we only have surface rights. This includes the right to build on it, plant and sell crops and timber, use the surface water, lease the land, or sell it. (However, there may be exceptions depending on the area. We try to note this in the details of each property. You can certainly conduct your own search using the parcel number to determine rights as well.)
In order to determine whether a particular property has mineral rights, you will usually need to hire a title company to run a rights search going all the way back to the original homestead.
Questions about selling
Typically we send you an initial offer, which you will need to sign and accept. Then from there, it takes us about seven to ten days to do our due diligence. We need to confirm if you still own the property, that the back taxes are not too high, there are no liens or encumbrances, and that there is no break in the title chain.
Once due diligence is confirmed, we settle on a final price. We then go through the process of transferring the title to us and recording it with the county. (This will require you to sign and notarize the new deed.) You receive payment usually directly from the title company or in the form of a check. If you would like to sell, reach out to us at sales@platusa.com or fill out this form to receive an offer.
If you owe back taxes, we are probably interested in your property. It depends on how much you owe in relation to the value of the property. Many of the properties we buy are delinquent on their taxes. When we purchase them, we clear up all the tax debt, which benefits you because you no longer have the debt on your credit report and us because we can sell the property encumbrance free. The price we pay you, however, will need to be reduced by the tax amount.
Some property owners have been able to save money on their income taxes by declaring a tax-deductible loss, where they write off the difference between the original purchase price and our offer price. Please check with your tax advisor to determine if you can realize similar savings.
We buy land that is vacant. We typically pay more if the land has special features, such as road access, favorable zoning, access to utilities, close proximity to national parks, hiking trails or other attractions, unique or attractive landscape features, and so on.
All land we buy must have a clean chain of title and be under your control. (i.e. if it belongs to you and your stepmother, you must both sign off to sell it.)
Not at all! The entire transaction can be completed by mail, e-mail, and phone. When you return the sales agreement, we will do all the necessary legal work to complete the transaction. After the title research is completed, you will receive a package of final documents to sign along with simple instructions. We strive to make the sales process as quick and convenient as possible for our clients.