Sell Land for Cash Georgia

I buy rural land in Georgia for cash. That means tracts of about five acres and up: timber, hunting land, farm ground, old family acreage nobody uses. I’m Bubba Peek, I run Bubba Land Company out of Jacksonville, and I make offers on land across the state without a listing, a sign or a showing.

Send me the county and the parcel number. I’ll look at it and come back with a number. You can say yes, say no, or ask me how I got there.

Here is the whole path, start to finish.

1. You send the basics. County, parcel number or address, and rough acreage. A survey, deed or photos help if you have them. Plenty of owners start with just the parcel number.
2. I research the land. I pull county tax records and maps, then check road access, flood zones, timber and what’s happening nearby. I may call or email with a few questions.
3. You get an as-is cash offer. You don’t clear brush, order a survey or run a perc test. I buy the land the way it sits today. If you ask how I priced it, I’ll walk you through it.
4. You decide. No pressure, no deadline games. Take it, counter it, or turn it down.
5. We sign a purchase contract. It spells out the price, the closing date and who pays what.
6. A Georgia attorney closes it. Georgia is an attorney-closing state, so a licensed attorney searches the title, prepares the deed and settlement statement, pays off liens and back taxes from your proceeds, and records the deed. You can sign remotely.
7. You get paid. The attorney sends you what’s left after any payoffs.

When the title is clean, closing usually takes 7 to 30 days after you accept. That’s my target, not a guarantee. Some deals run longer, and I’ll tell you early if one is going to.

What slows a closing down

Almost every delay comes from the title or the people on it.

• Title defects. An old lien, a deed that was never recorded, or a missing heir can take weeks to clear.
• Estates. If the owner has died, the county probate court may need to finish its work before anyone can sign.
• Several owners. Every owner has to sign. If one lives in another state, mailing papers eats days.
• Unclear boundaries. I can usually buy without a new survey. Sometimes the attorney wants one, and then we talk before anything is ordered.
• Back taxes. They get paid from your proceeds, but the payoff figure takes time to confirm.

If something turns up, you’ll hear from me right away.

There’s no commission, because there’s no agent. I pay the closing costs on my side of the deal, so the price in the contract is the price you get, less any liens, back taxes or other payoffs that come out at closing. The one item to check in your contract is the Georgia transfer tax, covered below. Sellers customarily pay it, and it’s small.

Here is how selling to me compares with the other usual routes.

That last row matters. A cash offer from me will often come in under what a perfect retail sale would bring. You’re paying for speed and certainty, and you’re skipping repairs and commissions. If your land has road frontage, utilities and clean title, a good local agent might get you more. I’d rather tell you that than waste your time.

Not much. Here is what a Georgia land sale actually requires.

• The deed. It’s recorded with the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the land sits.
• Proof taxes are current, or a payoff figure if they aren’t. Back taxes come out of the proceeds.
• The purchase agreement. It sets out price, closing date and costs.
• Disclosures. Georgia is a buyer-beware state, but a seller shouldn’t hide a known defect or an unrecorded easement from a buyer. Tell me what you know and we’ll put it in the open.

A survey, plat, timber appraisal, well test or old perc test is nice to have. None of it is required. If you’ve lost your deed, the closing attorney can pull the record from the county, and I’ll help track down whatever’s missing.

This is general information. Your closing attorney can tell you what applies to your sale.

Assessment and property tax

Georgia assesses property at 40 percent of fair market value. Your county tax assessor sets the value, and your bill is figured on that 40 percent. Most counties post parcel records online, so you can look up your acreage, assessed value and past sales yourself.

Transfer tax and the PT-61

The state transfer tax is $1 for every $1,000 of the price, which is ten cents per hundred. The seller usually pays it unless the contract says otherwise. On a $100,000 sale that’s $100. The PT-61 is the form that reports the sale and the tax. It’s filed electronically through the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA) before the deed is recorded. Your closing attorney files it, so you don’t have to.

Conservation Use (CUVA)

Lots of Georgia farm and timber owners enroll in the Conservation Use Valuation Assessment program to lower their tax bill. The covenant runs 10 years. If it’s broken early, by a change of use or by a sale to a buyer who won’t continue it, a penalty can apply. Tell me if your land is enrolled. I can usually continue the covenant, and the attorney will confirm what’s owed, if anything. Splitting the parcel can also affect enrollment, and my guide to subdividing land in Georgia covers the basics.

Here is what “continuing the covenant” looks like in practice. The covenant is an agreement between the owner and the county board of tax assessors. When land sells, the new owner can sign on to the remaining term instead of starting over or breaking it. That keeps the penalty from landing on you. The catch is that the land has to keep qualifying, and the buyer has to file the paperwork with the county assessor’s office within a set window after closing. The attorney will confirm the deadline and the forms for your county. Bring me your most recent assessment notice or the covenant itself, and I can see how many years remain before we sign anything.

Back taxes and tax sales

If taxes go unpaid long enough, the county can sell the property at a tax sale. After a tax sale, Georgia gives the owner a redemption period, a window to pay what’s owed and take the land back. The rules are technical and the deadlines are real. If you’ve already got a notice, call an attorney soon. In many cases I can still buy the land and pay the taxes out of your proceeds at closing.

Inherited land

The first question is who legally owns it. Estate land may have to go through probate in the county probate court first. Sometimes the will or an appointed administrator can sign alone. Sometimes every heir has to. A probate or closing attorney will tell you which. It can lengthen the timeline, but it’s a common situation and I buy inherited land regularly.

What heirs actually do in Georgia probate court

Families often tell me the land has been “in the family” for decades with no paperwork at all. That’s common with rural Georgia acreage, and it’s fixable. The work happens in the probate court of the county where the person lived.

If there’s a will, the named executor files to have it admitted and gets letters testamentary from the court. If there’s no will, one of the heirs petitions to be named administrator, and the other heirs get notice and a chance to object. Once the court issues letters, that person has the authority to deal with the estate. Whether they can sell the land alone depends on the will and on what the court allows. An administrator with no will may need the heirs to sign off, or may need a court order. If the family can’t agree, the court can step in, and a sale that nobody objects to goes much faster.

Some families skip the formal estate and have every heir sign the deed. Closing attorneys sometimes accept that when the heirs are all known, but they’re careful about it, and they may still ask for probate paperwork. A missing heir is the most common snag. If a cousin moved away years ago, someone has to find them, because one unsigned heir can hold up the deed. Georgia also has a law meant to protect heirs who share land, so one relative can’t easily force a sale out from under the rest. Ask your attorney how it applies to you.

I can’t tell you which route fits your family. What I can do is buy once the court paperwork is in order, and tell you early if the file looks like it’s missing a piece.

What the closing attorney checks

People assume the attorney just prints a deed. There’s more to it, and knowing the list helps you gather the right papers.

The attorney runs the title back through the recorded chain of owners at the Superior Court clerk’s office. They want to see an unbroken line from owner to owner with no gaps. They look for security deeds, which are what Georgia lenders record instead of mortgages, and for unreleased ones that were paid off years ago but never cancelled on the record. They look for judgment liens, pending lawsuits tied to the land, and unpaid property taxes. They read the legal description and check it against the tax map. They look for recorded easements, such as power lines, pipelines or a neighbor’s driveway rights. They also check how access works, since a tract with no recorded way in is a red flag.

On the signing side, the names on the deed have to match the names of the people signing. If a name changed through marriage or was spelled two ways in old records, expect a short affidavit. A Georgia deed needs to be witnessed by a notary and one other witness, and the attorney arranges that for you. If someone signs under a power of attorney, the attorney wants to see that document. On the money side, the attorney requests payoff letters, prorates the current year’s tax, and sends your proceeds by wire or check. Always confirm wire details by phone with the attorney’s office before anything moves.

Fences and boundaries

Old fence lines often wander off the deed line. If a neighbor’s fence or a shared boundary worries you, read my post on Georgia fence laws. And if the tract has no road access at all, start with landlocked property in Georgia. Access is one of the main reasons land sits unsold, and there are often ways around it.

Nothing in this section is legal or tax advice. Talk to your attorney or tax professional about your own sale.

I don’t post per-acre prices. They shift with the parcel and the year, and any number I printed would be wrong for someone. Here is what moves the price in each part of the state.

North Georgia mountains (Fannin, Gilmer, Union, Lumpkin)

Views, creeks and privacy sell here. Slope matters a lot, because a steep driveway costs real money and a hillside may not pass for septic. Land near a town, a lake or a tourist draw moves faster than a remote tract. Check for flood zones along streams and for shared roads or easements.

County by county, it varies. Fannin and Union both border the Chattahoochee National Forest, so a tract next to public land can feel private for good. Lake Blue Ridge in Fannin and Lake Nottely in Union bring second-home buyers. Gilmer is built around Ellijay and its orchards, and Lumpkin draws traffic from Dahlonega. A parcel close to those towns reads very differently from one at the end of a gravel road.

Metro fringe (Cherokee, Forsyth, Hall, Jackson, Barrow, Paulding)

Growth sets the price. Distance to Atlanta, highway access, and whether sewer and water lines are close all count. Zoning counts most. A tract that can be split into lots or rezoned is worth something very different from one limited to a single house. Frontage and parcel shape decide how it can be divided.

Hall and Forsyth both touch Lake Lanier, and land near the lake is its own small market. Cherokee and Forsyth feel the most development pressure along the GA-400 corridor. Jackson has I-85 access, which matters to commercial and industrial buyers. Barrow draws commuters headed toward Athens and Gwinnett. Paulding pulls people looking west of Atlanta. In all six, ask what the county’s future land use map says before you assume anything about the parcel’s potential.

Middle Georgia (Bibb, Houston, Baldwin, Putnam)

This is a mix of city-edge land, farms, timber and lake property. Near Macon and Warner Robins, utilities and zoning drive things. In Putnam and Baldwin, lake access, hunting and timber matter more. Drainage and the shape of the access road are worth a look, and interstate distance helps commercial buyers.

Bibb is Macon, and Houston is tied to Warner Robins and Robins Air Force Base, so housing demand there follows the base. Baldwin centers on Milledgeville. Putnam and Baldwin both touch Lake Sinclair, and ground with lake views or a short walk to the water tends to attract a different buyer than interior timberland.

Southwest Georgia farm belt (Dougherty, Sumter, Mitchell, Decatur)

Farmland rules. Buyers look at soil, irrigation, field layout and drainage before anything else. Cropland, pasture, pecan orchards and timber each get valued a little differently. Good farm roads and nearby grain or processing facilities help. Wet low spots that can’t be planted hurt.

Dougherty surrounds Albany, and you’ll find pecan orchards on its edges. Sumter, around Americus, mixes row crops and timber. Mitchell is working farm country near Camilla. Decatur reaches Bainbridge and Lake Seminole, so water access and hunting appeal to buyers from outside the area. If your land has center-pivot irrigation or a recent pecan grove, say so up front.

Southeast coastal plain (Bulloch, Effingham, Bryan, Glynn, Camden, Ware)

Near Savannah, Brunswick and Kings Bay, port and base activity pushes demand. Farther inland, timber and farming carry more weight. On the coast, flood zones and wetlands limit where anyone can build, and marsh and tidal ground follow their own rules. Septic suitability, drainage and drive time to jobs shape the price too.

Bulloch has Statesboro and Georgia Southern, which feeds rental and housing demand. Effingham serves Savannah commuters. Bryan is growing around Richmond Hill. Glynn and Camden tie to Brunswick and Kings Bay. Ware, around Waycross, is timber country on the edge of the Okefenokee, where wetlands are everywhere and a tract may be mostly unbuildable. Wetlands mapping often decides whether a parcel is a homesite or just good hunting ground.

East Georgia and the CSRA (Columbia, Richmond, McDuffie)

Columbia County and the Augusta area see steady home demand, so subdivision potential, utilities and school zones matter. Richmond mixes city and rural land. McDuffie leans toward timber, recreation and rural homesites. Closeness to Fort Eisenhower, the hospitals and I-20 lifts interest.

Columbia takes in Evans and Grovetown, where builders look for tracts they can plat into lots. Richmond is Augusta itself, with rural pockets toward the edges of the county. McDuffie, around Thomson, is where I see more hunting and recreation buyers than builders.

What matters everywhere

• Legal access. Land on a public road sells more easily than land without one.
• Utilities. Power, water and internet nearby make building cheaper.
• Zoning. What the county allows is a big part of the value.
• Flood zone and wetlands. They limit building and can raise insurance costs.
• Timber and soils. Mature timber and good soil add value.
• Perc test. Where there’s no sewer, land that can support septic is far easier to build on.
• Clean boundaries. Lines and fences that match the deed head off disputes.

Your county assessor’s records show assessed value, acreage and nearby sales. Use them as a starting point, then compare them with my offer. Assessed value and what a buyer pays today are two different numbers.

I’m Bubba Peek. I hold a master’s in real estate (MSRE) from the University of Florida and the CCIM designation, which is a credential for commercial and investment real estate. All of that training comes down to one question: what is this piece of land worth, and what could someone do with it?

When I look at a tract, I’m checking access, zoning, utilities, soils, flood risk, timber and what’s growing up around it. Then I put a number on it and explain the number. If I’m not the right buyer for your land, I’ll say so.

We’re based in Jacksonville, Florida, and we buy across Georgia, from the mountains to the coastal plain, and from the farm belt to the edges of Atlanta, Macon, Augusta and Savannah. You can call me at (904) 595-6095 or use the contact page.

I’ll look at land in any of Georgia’s 159 counties. Each name below is a county, and the best fit is rural acreage outside city limits.

Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Camden, Candler, Carroll, Catoosa, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, DeKalb, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Evans, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glascock, Glynn, Gordon, Grady, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Lincoln, Long, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, McDuffie, McIntosh, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pierce, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Spalding, Stephens, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Towns, Treutlen, Troup, Turner, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson, Worth.

Fill out the form at the top of this page with your county, parcel number and a way to reach you. Or call (904) 595-6095. You’ll get a straight answer, even if it’s “I’m not your buyer.”

Bubba Land Company, 13475 Atlantic Blvd, Ste 8-M569, Jacksonville, FL 32225