How to write a land listing

Write a land listing in the order a buyer decides: what the property is for, how you get to it, the numbers they price it on, then the details the photos can't show. Cut every adjective a buyer can't check and every sentence that describes a photo sitting right above it.

What should a land listing say first?

The first two sentences should name the use and the access. A hunter in Rochester, a farmer two townships over and a family looking for a building site all read the same opening line, and each one is asking whether this parcel is for them and whether they can get to it.

A strong opening does three things:

• Names the use. "An 80-acre hunting parcel with 22 tillable acres" tells a buyer more than "a rare opportunity."
• Settles access. Frontage on a town road, a recorded easement, or a field approach. If access is the weak spot, say so plainly and say what's being done about it.
• Gives one fact that sets it apart. A creek, a building site with power at the road, income from a lease. One fact, not five.

The title matters too. Land.com's guidance on the anatomy of a land listing recommends a custom title so the listing stands out. Without one, the title defaults to a string built from the acreage and county name. A plain name built from the parcel's own features works: acreage plus the creek, the road or the ridge.

How long should a land listing description be?

Land.com's listing guide (July 2026) puts the title, the primary image and the core details first, asks for descriptions with "useful, specific information" rather than vague phrases, and suggests video or a virtual tour when it helps a buyer understand the land per the same guide. It also says complete, consistent listings make it easier for platforms to match a property to buyers' searches.

In our experience, 200 to 300 words is about right for most land. That leaves room for the numbers, access, enrollments and use without padding. If you're past 400 words, look for sentences that restate a photo or sell a feeling.

What numbers does every land listing need?

Numbers are what buyers price on, and every missing one turns into a phone call or a skipped listing. Pull them from the documents, not from memory.

CSR2 is Iowa State University's "index to the inherent soil productivity of each kind of soil for row-crop production," on a scale of 5 to 100 (ISU CALS, 2015). Iowa farm buyers expect to see it for the tillable acres. It means little to a hunting buyer, so put it where the farm buyer will look and don't lead with it on a recreational parcel.

Enrolled acres deserve more than a line in the fine print. How to present CRP, MFL and SFIA as part of the offer is its own guide: marketing land enrolled in MFL, SFIA or CRP.

How do you write for each kind of buyer?

Most parcels have one primary buyer. Write for that buyer first, then give the second buyer one clear paragraph.

Hunting buyers

Hunting buyers read for how the property works, which is what hunting land buyers look for in any listing: where deer bed, where they feed, where they water, and how you get to a stand without walking through all three.

• Name the cover: the ridge, the thicket, the CRP, the cedar, the marsh edge.
• Name the food: tillable acres, an established food plot and its size, oaks.
• Name the access: which road, which gate, and whether a prevailing wind lets you reach the timber without crossing the bedding.
• Name the neighbors plainly: public land adjoining, a tillable neighbor, a subdivision a half mile off.
• If you use trail camera photos, date them and say where they were taken. An undated buck on a bait pile reads like a sales tactic.

Farm buyers

Farm buyers read for productivity and income. Give tillable acres, the soil rating where it's used, drainage (tile, if the seller has maps), the current lease and when it can end. Elizabeth Strom, a farm manager and broker with Murray Wise Associates, told Farm Progress in 2024 that "Farmland without a lease will always sell better because farmers want to farm what they buy" (Farm Progress, Sept 10, 2024), so state the lease terms early and clearly.

Builders and hobby-farm buyers

Builders read for the site: where the house could sit, frontage, power at the road, the view from the pad, and whether the ground perks (only if there's a test to point to). Say what the local zoning allows only if you've confirmed it with the township or county.

What should you leave out of a land listing?

• What the photos already show. "Beautiful rolling hills" under a drone shot of rolling hills is wasted space.
• Phrases every listing uses. Hunter's paradise, endless possibilities, a must-see, trophy potential, the one you've been waiting for. Buyers skip them.
• Claims you can't back up. "Never pressured," "holds big deer," "best soils in the county." If it's true, show the evidence: dated photos, a soil map, the harvest history the seller kept.
• The seller's feelings. Respect the family's history with a fact ("in the same family since 1962") and move on.

Before and after: three land listing rewrites

The three parcels below are invented examples. Every figure in them is made up to show the structure of a good description. None of them is a real listing.

An example 80-acre hunting parcel

Before:

Hunter's paradise. This beautiful 80 acres has it all. Rolling hills, mature timber and tons of deer sign. Great food plot potential. Build your dream cabin. Don't miss this rare opportunity to own your own piece of whitetail heaven. Call today.

After:

An 80-acre hunting parcel with 18 tillable acres, 55 acres of oak ridge and a cedar thicket, and 7 acres of marsh along a spring creek. Access is from a town road on the south line through a steel gate, with a field lane to the north ridge.

The tillable is rented through the 2026 harvest and ends then, so a buyer can plant food plots or keep the rent. The thicket on the northeast corner is the bedding. A south or west wind lets you reach the ridge stands without crossing it. The north neighbor is tillable; the west line adjoins a 300-acre private farm.

Power is at the road. Taxes were $1,940 for 2025. Asking $396,000 ($4,950 per acre).

What changed: the use and access come first, every feature has a number or a location, the wind note answers the question a hunter would ask, and the price per acre saves the buyer a calculation.

An example 120-acre tillable farm in Iowa

Before:

Excellent farmland in a great location. Highly productive soils and good drainage. Would make a great addition to any operation or a solid investment. Motivated seller.

After:

A 120-acre farm with 112 tillable acres averaging a CSR2 of 81, on a county blacktop with two field approaches. Pattern tile was installed on the north 60 in 2014; the seller has the tile maps.

The farm is cash rented for the 2026 crop year and the lease has been terminated effective March 1, 2027, so a buyer can farm it or rent it for 2027. The remaining 8 acres are waterway and a farmstead site with no buildings. Soils map, FSA aerial and tile maps are in the listing documents.

Taxes were $3,410 for 2025. Asking $1,320,000 ($11,000 per acre).

What changed: CSR2 and tillable acres lead because that's how an Iowa farm buyer prices. The lease status answers the first question a farmer would ask. "Motivated seller" is gone; it only invites a low offer.

An example 40-acre wooded parcel enrolled in Wisconsin MFL

Before:

Secluded 40 acres of beautiful Northwoods timber. Enrolled in MFL for low taxes. Lots of wildlife. Perfect getaway.

After:

A 40-acre wooded parcel of aspen, red oak and a stand of red pine, enrolled in Wisconsin's Managed Forest Law as closed land under an order running through 2041. Access is from a town road on the west line, with a logging road to the center.

A first thinning of the pine was done in 2021 under the MFL management plan. The next scheduled practice is an aspen harvest in 2029, which would produce timber income. Closed status means the owner controls who hunts it. The buyer takes over the order, files the DNR transfer form within 30 days of closing and pays the $100 transfer fee.

Power is a quarter mile away. Taxes were $412 for 2025. Asking $118,000 ($2,950 per acre).

What changed: the MFL enrollment reads as part of the offer, with the open or closed status, the order term and what the plan schedules next. The transfer requirement is stated plainly, and it's accurate: Wisconsin law requires the new owner to file within 30 days and pay a $100 fee (Wis. Stat. 77.88, 2025).

A check before you post the listing

• The first two sentences name the use and the access.
• Deeded acres, acres by cover, price per acre and taxes are all there.
• Every lease and program enrollment has its terms and end date.
• No sentence describes something a photo already shows.
• No claim you couldn't prove if a buyer asked.
• The photos and film match the order of the description: access first, then the ground. The land listing shot list follows the same order.
• You've answered the questions buyers call about most. Our list of land buyer questions is a good last pass.

The description is one piece of the listing. Buyers who live hours away decide from the photos, the film and the map as much as the words, which is why Kedron builds an FPV drone tour, photos and a print-ready property book into every listing launch.

Take your last listing that sat longer than it should have. Rewrite the first two sentences so they name the use and the access, add any missing number from the table above, and cut every phrase from the leave-out list. More land marketing guides are on the marketing land page.