Frequently Asked Questions

So many times when someone hears about a sale that’s very much like their own property, you’d think you’d know what your own property is worth. Well, it’s a start, but so many factors play into the value of a property.

For instance, if you had 2 identical farms just 10 miles apart. Farm A is close to a large livestock enterprise and some other very aggressive smaller livestock farmers. In this neighborhood, sons have stayed home to farm, land passes down in families instead becoming available to the public. Farm B has the same lay of the land, the same soil qualities, the same drainage, the same fertility, the same taxes, everything is the same, except it’s in a different type of neighborhood. Here farms are bigger, land has been easier to accumulate through the years, there is a feeling that if I don’t get this farm, others will come up for sale. If you live in farm country, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some areas just have that factor that demands a higher price. Competion for your property is what drives the price. Without a doubt, this is the number 1 reason why you want to sell in a competive manner, at auction. Many times buyers bid even more than they realize they are going to bid, just because they know if they quit, the other guy will end up with it. I’ve seen this happen over and over. It’s also why we will easily pay our way when we sell your property. Some people think that they know the going rate of land, but I’ve seen people consistently leave 15 – 20% lay on the table, just because they tried to save a few percent in commission.

Mages Land Company and Auction Service agents are the best in the industry for knowing how to properly price properties of all kinds, including farm land, residential, hobby farms, and commercial real estate. This ability is good for both the sellers and the buyers. So many agents just plop a big price on properties to get the listing and then think they can always come down. The problem with this disservice is twofold. The people who would have been the buyers have now turned their noses up at the property and no matter what you do with the price later, experience tells us that they will never come back. The other thing that happens is that the sellers become very frustrated. It takes forever, plans are ruined, and in the end, out of frustration, they settle for less money than they would have gotten had it been priced right in the first place. Mages Land Company and Auction Service buyers also benefit in knowing they are buying properly priced properties. After a while, buyers become wary of agents that are always reducing prices, further reducing those agent’s ability to sell.

Mages Land Company and Auction Service’s ability as auctioneers are also exceptional. With nearly 100 years of combined experience, they know values and consistently get top prices. Mages Land Company and Auction Service have held several hundred real estate & farm land auctions. Resulting in a 95% success rate on the sale of those properties, and nearly 100% success rate on farm land. Knowing how to find the buyers and create an excellent auction atmosphere takes knowledge and excellent people skills. The auction method has become very popular and offers several huge advantages. Knowing the date of your sale and being able to plan ahead is so nice. A very interesting comparison occured in which a house was sold twice, once by Mages at auction and then by another major real estate company. No changes were made to the house between sales. The two sales occurred just 6 weeks apart, but Mages’ seller walked away from the closing with nearly $10,000 more money.

As an auction seller, you have the choice of having the buyer paying the commission, known as a “Buyer’s Premium” or you can pay the commission yourself. Some people think they receive more when the buyer pays it. Some companies will lead you to believe that they are doing the auction for free if the buyer pays the commission. I would say that is untrue, the buyer knows what the total is regardless of who pays. The seller also has the right to reject any or all bids if they feel it is not high enough. We always sell real estate in “AS IS” condition when selling at auction. We know what easements need to be created or what to do if a survey reveals a big surprise etc. Another big convenience, is that you can sell the personal property at the same auction.

Mages Land Company and Auction Service is also exceptional at knowing what you can do to increase the salability and value of your property. They have years of experience of economically improving properties to get the top sales results sellers are looking for. In the end, the seller benefits by a higher price, a quicker sale, and a happier buyer. And the buyer benefits by moving into a well maintained property they can be proud of. So many times, for very little money and some effort on the part of the seller, a property can be improved by many thousands of dollars. Plus, it is a much easier property to sell.

There are many ingredients absolutely necessary for top price no matter what you’re selling. Number One is, you need buyers. We have extensive lists of buyers for anything you are selling, whether it is a collection of a thousand toys, a lifetime collection of antique furniture, farm land, or a complete line of farm machinery or construction equipment. We’ve sold everything from cows to cranes, to combines to coffins or roadsters to RVs to rings to real estate and on and on. We have proven ways to not only bring in the local buyers but to bring them in from across the nation when necessary. No matter what you’re selling, we KNOW how to find the buyers.

Because of Mages Land Company and Auction Service’s method of selling, we come into contact with pretty much everyone that is looking for a property in our area. In business since January of 1990, Mages has extensive lists of who is looking to buy each and every type of property, many hundreds of buyers. In the case of farm land, They knows nearly every farm land investor in the state, over 400 active farm land investors. Their “hobby farm” buyers list is also quite impressive, with many buyers actively looking for a place in the country. Each category, no matter what it is, homes, buildable lots, hunting land etc, has an extensive list of ready and hungry buyers.

First of all, the first thing you should know, is that selling by auction is the best way to receive what an item or property is fully worth. It’s a fantastic system of checks and balances. If you’re interested in an item and you think the other guy is getting too good of a deal, then you will bid and vice versa, until finally you’ve bid so much that you almost hope the other guy does bid over you. That’s when you know the price is high enough. Some people think they are smart enough to save the commission of an auction by pricing everything just perfect and selling it on their own. That is almost certainly impossible. As an example, a gentleman said after an auction “no wonder that guy was so anxious to buy that “Minneapolis Moline” clothes pin bag for $5 at my garage sale, you guys just got $55 for the same thing”. That is so true, no matter how you sell your items, the things that are sold easily were probably priced too low and the things you just can’t sell, are too high. When Mages Land Company and Auction Service is done, you will have received the maximum amount possible.

No matter what you’re selling, from farm land and other real estate, a tractor or a box of Christmas wrap, an auction is the best way to determine exact value. It’s a wonderful checks and balance system. The key is to find all the interested parties, present the item well, and hire a truly profession auction company. If buyer A has the bid and buyer B thinks it’s selling to low, buyer B will bid, eventually everyone interested will feel it is bringing more than it’s worth and let the person that has the bid, buy it. Some sellers ruin their own sales by first trying to sell something privately at a “miracle price”. The interested parties that they would have had, have now decided the seller is ridiculously high priced and their interest is gone, never to come back again.

You can only sell something once, so you might think it’s pretty hard to prove if someone sold something in the best possible manner or not. To someone who is thinking that they can save the commission, or they can get top price themselves, I just say, good luck. If you price it too high they won’t come, that is, not until you’re good and frustrated, then they’ll be there to take advantage of you. But even a bigger thing that happens, is that you will sell what’s easy to sell and everything else will just become so much junk, staying under the shelves, in the attics, behind the buildings and in the grove. No real value to that, right? Wrong! That’s where you will get your free auction from. When you have an auction, we sell everything, those small items add up. They easily pay for the auction and you get to keep all the money from your expensive items, and now you can be confident, because of the checks and balances of an auction, that each item brought all that they were worth.

I know people with a thousand antiques, living in poverty. People letting their machinery rust away and become obsolete. People living a thousand miles from Mom’s house, all, with no way to find the time or the help to get everything ready for an auction. We will do everything from being in an advisory role to completely getting everything ready, all at very fair rates. We have added 10s of thousands of dollars to peoples property by properly preparing their items for auction. Mages Land Company and Auction Service has the manpower and equipment to get any size auction ready. We also have many realtors on staff that can help make your real estate look as appealing as possible. We have washed, waxed, and detailed farm machinery, or trimmed trees, landscaped, and painted homes, whatever it takes to get you the greatest return, we can provide.

Another thing I’ve heard through the years is that “If I sell my stuff, I’ll just have to pay taxes.” Numerous people still have lines of machinery in their sheds after quitting farming 10 years ago. Truth is, if they sold their machinery the year they quit farming, it would be worth the most money because it wouldn’t be obsolete, it wouldn’t be all rusty and covered with dust and you would have had the money in the bank making you interest instead of your machinery going down in value. In the long run you would have many times more money by selling and paying the taxes, and putting the money into a returning investment. Another important thing happens, you get your space back, to be used for far more useful things.

We have the ability to hold the auction inside, either at a building in your town or at one of our sites, but you will have the best dollar auction holding it right where you are, regardless of the weather or any other factor. We have held auctions in every type of weather. We know how to handle anything thrown at us. Lots of people come because the weather is bad. It’s not unusal to have our biggest crowds when the weather is bad.

An auction is a social event as well as a business event. If we sell your mother’s items right at the house, or your machinery on your farm, you will have the largest crowd and receive the most money. Especially when the sale site was well taken care of. When people walk up to a nice place, they know this tractor or this car was well taken care of. Another reason is that it costs a lot of money to have everything packed to travel, then loading it and unloading it, mileage etc. Also, you will not get the people to follow the sale like they would have if you had it right at the source. There is no better auction than one held right there at home.