Part two of our series drawn from Mike Swan’s recent talk on buying, selling, and operating ranch real estate across the Mountain West. Read Part 1 for how Swan Land Company builds trust and assembles a team around a seller.

How does Swan Land Company actually land on a listing price?

We sit down and realistically figure out what a place is worth from a market standpoint. Where does it sit relative to comparable sales? Has an appraisal been done recently — for an estate purpose, for marketing purposes — and what does that data tell us? Appraisal data is genuinely useful here, because appraisers dig into raw numbers that help round out our own read on value.

Aerial view of a rustic wooden barn on land for sale, surrounded by green fields and trees, with a horse near the fenced area on a sunny day.

A winding river flows through a lush green valley with grassy fields and scattered trees, ideal as recreational land or hunting property, bordered by distant rolling hills under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

A herd of cattle moves across a grassy field on a beautiful cattle ranch for sale, guided by two people on horseback. Sparse trees and bushes dot the landscape beneath a blue sky with clouds overhead.

One thing I try to drive home constantly: a comparable sale has to actually be comparable. We get sellers who want to compare a thousand acres of pasture ground in White Sulphur Springs to something that sold up in the Big Sky market or the greater Gallatin Valley. Those aren’t the same animal, and getting a seller to understand what a true comparable looks like is half the battle.

Once we’ve worked through that, we put it in writing. Sellers have a tendency toward selective amnesia. We send a letter that lays out where we see the market, what we’d suggest listing at, the basic terms of the listing contract, and our marketing strategy. Then we sit down and collaborate with the seller on the actual number, and we make sure they understand why we landed where we did — because they need to take ownership of that pricing decision. Six or eight months later, sometimes a year, when an offer finally lands on the table, and that amnesia sets back in, we pull out that same letter. And after this many years of doing it, we’re not often wrong. We tend to land within a percentage or two of where we told them the property would sell.

Before a property ever hits the market, what’s actually happening behind the scenes?

A full due diligence assessment, before we’ve put up a single ad or a single word on our website. We put together an entire due diligence package, in print and in a digital data room, and there are two reasons for that. First, it’s information we’re going to need anyway when we get to closing — the buyer’s attorney is going to ask for every bit of it. Second, and honestly more important, it’s how we find out where the ghosts in the closet are.

Old title claims from the 1940s or ’50s that need cleaning up. A UCC filing on a pivot that was installed years ago and never got released. A legal description that needs fixing. An inholding tied to a deceased aunt or uncle where we have to track down siblings to get a quitclaim deed done. It’s remarkable how often these things surface, especially with families who haven’t gone through a transaction like this in generations. Legal counsel, the CPA, and the seller need to go through every document with a fine-tooth comb before we ever bring a buyer near the property.

Does that homework pay off beyond just avoiding surprises?

A large wooden and stone gate marks the entrance to a cattle ranch and hunting property, set among rolling hills, a dirt road, a lake, and distant mountains beneath a clear blue sky.

Enormously, because it also means we know that property like the back of our hand. We know what the easements read. We know the terms of the state leases and the turnout dates on the forest permits. When we’re out in the truck with a buyer and they ask specifically what a particular easement across a neighbor’s ground actually allows, we can tell them — agricultural use only, June 1st through October 1st, and here’s the recorded document that says so, right out of the three-ring binder in the back seat.

That builds an enormous amount of trust with that buyer, fast. And that buyer, and their agent, notices it all day long as we’re driving the property. When we eventually get into negotiations or a due diligence dispute, and there’s almost always something to work through, that groundwork means the other side already knows we’ve been upfront and transparent from the start. Nine times out of ten, that lets us work through the issue without much friction at all.

What’s on that due diligence checklist that sellers wouldn’t necessarily think of?

A wooden fence stands in a green grassy field at sunset near Sypes Canyon, with a tree on the left and Five Ranges mountain scenery in the background under a pink and orange sky.

We’ve built this list over many years, mentored by some excellent legal counsel along the way, and it covers things people don’t expect. Old missile silo sites up around Great Falls — we’ve learned the hard way how those need to be handled and disclosed. Whether a Phase One environmental study has ever been done, and if so, what’s in it. Buried fuel tanks, old dipping vats, spilled fertilizer — anything that could raise a flag later gets found and addressed now, so we can disclose it upfront and stay above board with a buyer.

We’ve also had sellers swear their fence lines are exactly where they think they are, only to discover half a section of ground fenced into the neighbor’s property for the last several generations. Getting that fixed before a buyer finds it is a lot better for everyone than getting it fixed after.

Next up in Part 3: what’s actually happening in the market right now, the debate over off-market sales, and whether social media really sells a ranch.

See Part 1: Ask Mike Swan, Part 1: Educating Sellers and Building the Team