What makes land worth more or less
Land is priced on what someone can do with it. A buyer looks at:
- Zoning. Residential, agricultural, commercial, or a mix, and the minimum lot size and frontage the township or city requires.
- Access. Road frontage, or a recorded easement if the parcel sits behind other land. A parcel with no legal access is much harder to sell.
- Utilities. Public water and sewer nearby, or the need for a well and septic system.
- Topography and water. Slopes, wet areas, floodplain and streams limit where a house can go.
- Size and shape. A narrow strip or an odd-shaped parcel can be worth far less per acre than a square lot.
Pull the parcel record and map from the county auditor or fiscal office first. It shows the acreage, the current value, the tax status, and whether the parcel is enrolled in CAUV.
CAUV farmland: recoupment and the new owner’s application
Ohio’s Current Agricultural Use Value program taxes qualifying farmland on its farm value instead of its market value, which can cut the tax bill a great deal. Under R.C. 5713.30, land qualifies if 10 or more acres were used exclusively for agriculture for the three years before the application, or if a smaller parcel produced average gross income of at least $2,500 a year over that time.
Selling doesn’t automatically end CAUV, but two things matter:
- The buyer must reapply. County auditors describe the rule plainly: for recently acquired property, a new application has to be filed, or recoupment results. Applications are taken between the first Monday in January and the first Monday in March.
- Recoupment on conversion. Under R.C. 5713.34, if the land is converted to a non-farm use, the charge equals the tax savings for the three tax years before the conversion. It becomes a lien on the land as of January 1 of the year it’s levied. If only part is converted, the auditor splits the parcel so only that part is charged.
Settle in the purchase agreement who pays any recoupment. A buyer planning to build will expect the seller to price it in.
Septic, soil and whether a lot is buildable
Where there’s no sewer, the buildability of a lot often comes down to the soil. Ohio’s sewage rules set out how site and soil evaluations are done, and health districts rely on them when a new system is designed. Ohio Adm. Code 3701-29-07 says an evaluation must be done by a certified soil scientist or classifier, an equivalent registered professional, or a qualified sanitarian employed by the health district, who visits the site and documents the soil profile with borings or excavations up to 60 inches deep, plus a site drawing.
A favorable soil evaluation is among the most useful papers a rural lot seller can have, because it answers the buyer’s biggest question. For an existing house on septic, see selling a house with septic problems instead.
Empty lots and delinquent taxes
Vacant parcels fall behind on taxes more easily than houses, because nobody lives there to notice the bill. That has consequences:
- In Summit County, a parcel delinquent for 60 days after certification can be offered at the October tax certificate sale. The certificate buyer gets a first lien with interest of up to 18% a year.
- County Boards of Revision can transfer unoccupied, tax-delinquent parcels directly to land banks through expedited foreclosure, a process the Ohio Supreme Court upheld in 2020.
If your lot is behind, sort out the taxes before a buyer’s title search finds them; see delinquent property taxes in Ohio and the Summit County Land Bank guide.
Closing costs on a land sale
Land sales close through a title company like house sales. The seller pays the county conveyance fee: $4 per $1,000 in Summit, Stark and Portage counties and $3 per $1,000 in Medina, according to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, plus a small per-parcel charge. A $30,000 lot in Summit County carries a $120 conveyance fee. Ohio’s residential disclosure form under R.C. 5302.30 covers properties with one to four dwelling units, so a bare parcel usually doesn’t need one.
If the land has a mobile home on it, see selling a mobile home in Ohio, since titled homes add a step. For the full list of seller costs, see the Ohio conveyance fee guide. When you’re ready, send us the parcel number.
