Key Takeaways
How to tell a real cash buyer from a wholesaler from a scam, and how to work out what the discount is actually costing you.
- Most of these companies are legitimate. The risk is usually price and process, not fraud.
- No independent dataset publishes what cash companies pay for land. Any percentage you read is circulating from the companies themselves.
- The useful test is whether the buyer closes in its own name or assigns your contract to someone else, because that is what causes offers to drop late.
- Oklahoma and Illinois now require a real estate licence for this activity, so a licence check beats a review check.
- Work out your own number first, express the offer as a percentage of it, and decide whether the speed is worth that gap.
If you own vacant land you have probably had the letter, the postcard or the cold call. All cash, fast close, no agent, no commission. It raises a fair question about we buy land companies: are they legitimate, or are they lowballing you?
Both can be true at once, and the more useful question is a third one. This covers how the model actually works, how to check the buyer in front of you, and how to price the trade you are being offered. For the mechanics of a cash sale itself, start with our guide to sell raw land for cash.
Quick verdict: most of these companies are real, and selling to one is a reasonable choice when speed and certainty matter more than price, such as inherited land, back taxes or a parcel that has sat unsold. Go in knowing the offer is below market by design, because the discount is where the company’s profit comes from. Before you answer anyone, work out what the parcel is worth so you can measure the offer against your own number rather than theirs. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Are We Buy Land Companies Legitimate?
Most of them are ordinary businesses doing exactly what they advertise: buying land quickly at a discount and reselling it later for more.
The model is land flipping. The company ties up a parcel below market, then resells it, sometimes within weeks to a waiting buyer and sometimes after months of marketing. Land is illiquid, so the buyer carries property taxes, holding costs and the real chance the parcel sits unsold. The discount is the price of taking that off your hands.
Read that way, the offer is not an insult and it is not a con. It is a trade: money for speed and certainty. Whether the trade is good depends entirely on numbers you have to supply.
The genuine risks sit elsewhere, and they are worth naming precisely rather than leaving as a general warning about scams.
How Much Do They Actually Pay?
Less than market. Beyond that, be suspicious of anyone who gives you a precise figure, including this page.
No independent dataset publishes what cash companies pay for vacant land. The percentages that circulate in articles about this industry mostly originate with the companies themselves, which is the weakest possible source for a number you are being asked to accept.
What does exist is a federal enforcement outcome on the same model in housing. In an alert dated 1 August 2022, the Federal Trade Commission stated that Opendoor’s offers “were lower than a home’s market value” and that “most people who sold their homes to Opendoor typically lost thousands of dollars compared to what they would have made if they’d sold their homes on the open market.” The company agreed to pay $62 million. That is home data, not land data, and land is a different market with different carrying costs. It is still the only regulator-verified statement on instant cash offers versus open-market sales.
So use the gap method instead of a rule of thumb. Establish what comparable parcels have actually sold for, then express the offer as a percentage of your own number and read the difference in dollars.
If your comps support $30,000 and the offer is $18,000, the offer is 60 percent of your number and the gap is $12,000. That $12,000 is what you are paying for speed. On a parcel you have been trying to sell for two years it may be worth every cent. On one that would move in ninety days it usually is not.
Our guide to comparable sales analysis sets out how to build that number from parcels that actually sold rather than parcels that are merely listed.
For a rough sanity check first, the USDA’s 2026 Land Values summary publishes per-acre averages by state and land type. Your county will differ, but a comp set landing far outside that range is worth a second look before you build a decision on it.
Is the Buyer Actually Buying, or Assigning?
This is the question almost nobody tells land sellers to ask, and it predicts more problems than any review score.
A company that intends to close in its own name does not need the right to assign your contract. A wholesaler does. A wholesaler puts your parcel under contract, spends the inspection or due diligence window marketing it to an end buyer, and closes by assigning the contract to whoever they find. They may never own the land at all.
That is legal in most places and not automatically a problem. It does change your risk in three specific ways.
- If no end buyer appears at that price, the deal changes. The wholesaler comes back to renegotiate or walks. This is the real reason behind the last-minute price drop sellers complain about. It is structural, not necessarily dishonest.
- You may not know who is actually buying until closing, which matters if you care where the land ends up.
- Your title can be clouded. A wholesaler who records a memorandum of contract puts a cloud on your title. If the deal collapses you may need that released before you can sell to anyone else.
How to check, in the document you already have. Look for an assignment clause and read who is named as the party taking title. Then ask directly: will you be the buyer of record at closing, or do you intend to assign. A buyer closing with its own money will say so without hesitating.
None of this means refuse to deal with a wholesaler. It means price the uncertainty in, and keep a backup plan while the clock runs.
What Does the Law Say About Land Wholesalers?
Two states now regulate this activity directly, and the trend matters more than the count.
Oklahoma passed the Predatory Real Estate Wholesaler Prohibition Act, effective 1 November 2021. The Oklahoma Real Estate Commission explains that it requires “real estate wholesalers to obtain a real estate license and abide by Oklahoma laws designed to promote consumer protection and ethical practices”, and names the problems it was written to address: “misleading sales tactics, predatory contracts and clouding title to properties.”
Illinois reaches the same conduct through its licensing definitions. Under 225 ILCS 454/1-10, the definition of a broker covers dealing in “assignable contracts for the purchase or sale of… real estate”, and a person is treated as engaged in a pattern of business if they do so “on 2 or more occasions in any 12-month period”. Two in a year and a licence is required.
So the strongest single check is not a review score. It is whether the person offering to buy your land holds a real estate licence in your state, and whether they need one. Every state publishes a licensee lookup through its real estate commission, it takes about a minute, and it is a matter of public record rather than opinion.
Rules differ by state and change. Confirm your own state’s position with a local real estate attorney before you sign anything. This is general information, not legal advice.
How Do You Spot an Actual Scam?
By how the buyer handles money, disclosure and pressure. Outright fraud is the smaller risk here, but it exists.
| Signal | Real buyer | Warning sign |
| Closing | Through a licensed title company or attorney | Wants to skip escrow or close informally |
| Money up front | Never asks you for anything | Requests a deposit, processing or release fee |
| Pressure | Gives you time to decide | Demands you sign today or lose the offer |
| Identity | Verifiable entity, licence on file, named principals | Vague, no track record, no licence |
| Payment | Funds through escrow at closing | Wants to send a cheque directly, or overpays and asks for the difference back |
That last row is a documented pattern rather than a hypothetical. The FTC’s alert on avoiding a scam when selling online, dated 27 July 2022, describes the overpayment scheme directly: “the scammer offers to give you a check for more than the selling price”, asks you to return the excess, and the cheque turns out to be counterfeit weeks later after your bank has already withdrawn the funds. It also covers fake mobile payment confirmations and bogus double-payment refund requests.
The defence is the same in every case. Money moves through a licensed title company or closing attorney, never directly, and you never send anything back.
When in doubt, slow down. A legitimate buyer will still be there tomorrow. If you want to see who else is active before you answer, our page on cash land buyers covers how to find and vet more than one.
When Does Selling to a Cash Company Make Sense?
When speed and certainty are genuinely worth more to you than the gap.
That is a real situation more often than sellers admit. Inherited land you do not want and cannot visit. Back taxes accruing. An out-of-state parcel you have never seen. Land that has sat unsold long enough that you have stopped believing it will move. A deadline that a normal sale cannot meet.
In those cases the discount buys something specific: a close in weeks rather than months, all cash with no financing contingency, no marketing effort, and a buyer who takes the parcel as-is including landlocked and problem land that a retail buyer would refuse.
The trade is easier to judge once you know how long the alternative actually takes. Our page on days on market sets out the realistic timeline, which is the other half of this decision.
When Should You List Instead?
When you can wait, and the parcel is marketable.
If your land is desirable, has legal access, and is priced from real comps rather than hope, listing it will usually net more than a cash offer even after the time and effort. Patience is the single variable that separates the two paths, and the gap you calculated earlier is the size of the prize.
The common mistake is not accepting a low offer. It is accepting one before doing the arithmetic, because an unsolicited letter arrived and the number looked like a lot. Receiving a letter does not mean your parcel is valuable. It means you are on a list of owners.
Price it properly first. Our guide to how to price vacant land walks through it, and many sellers list at full value while keeping the cash offer in their pocket as a fallback.
You can also do both in sequence. List, give it a defined window, and if it has not moved by then take the cash exit knowing exactly what you gave up. That way the decision is priced rather than guessed.
Know Your Number Before You Answer
Every part of this decision runs through one figure you do not have yet: what the parcel is actually worth. Without it you are negotiating against someone else’s number.
Work out your own number first. Check the value first, then decide whether the speed is worth the gap.
If listing is the better play, you can sell your vacant land directly and keep the margin a cash company would have taken.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are we buy land companies a scam?
Most are legitimate cash-buying businesses. The bigger issues are price and process rather than fraud, since even honest companies buy below market by design. Confirm the buyer closes through a licensed title company, never pay an upfront fee, and check whether they hold a real estate licence in your state, which some states now require.
How much do we buy land companies pay?
Less than market, and no independent dataset publishes a reliable figure for land. Percentages that circulate mostly originate with the companies themselves. Work out what comparable parcels sold for, express the offer as a percentage of that number, and read the gap in dollars. That gap is what you are paying for speed.
Why do companies keep sending me letters about my land?
Because mass mailing owners is cheap and some recipients accept without checking their value. A letter does not mean your parcel is unusually valuable. It means your name appeared on a list of owners, often pulled from county assessor records. Treat it as a starting point, verify the sender, and establish your own number before replying.
What is a land wholesaler and how is it different?
A wholesaler puts your land under contract and assigns that contract to an end buyer rather than closing with its own money. If no end buyer appears they renegotiate or withdraw, which is the usual cause of late price drops. Ask directly whether the buyer will take title in its own name, and read the contract for an assignment clause.
Should I sell to a company or list my land?
Listing usually nets more if you can wait and the parcel is marketable. A cash company buys speed and certainty, which is worth the discount when you have inherited land, back taxes, or a parcel that will not move. Calculate the gap in dollars, then decide which side of it you would rather hold.
Resources and Further Reading
- FTC: Closing the door on home-buying company Opendoor’s false claims records the $62 million settlement and the finding that sellers typically lost thousands compared with an open-market sale.
- FTC: Selling stuff online? Here’s how to avoid a scam describes the overpayment cheque scheme and fake payment confirmations in detail.
- Oklahoma Real Estate Commission: the Predatory Real Estate Wholesaler Prohibition Act explains the licence requirement effective 1 November 2021 and the conduct it targets.
- Illinois 225 ILCS 454/1-10, Real Estate License Act definitions brings assignable real estate contracts inside the broker definition at two or more occasions in twelve months.
- USDA NASS Land Values 2026 Summary publishes per-acre averages by state and land type as a baseline before you judge any offer.
