What a 0.99-Acre Mistake Taught Me About Selling Land

Every seasoned agent eventually meets a transaction that tests the difference between doing the job and doing right by the client. Mine arrived through the Dave Ramsey program, in the form of a widow living on two acres about ten minutes outside Idaho Falls.

Her husband had passed a few years earlier, and the financial weight had accumulated since: medical bills, debt, and the steady cost of maintaining land she no longer used. One of her two acres sat idle, with no horses and no purpose, only upkeep. Her question was straightforward. Could she sell that acre, put cash in her pocket, and be done maintaining it?

A promising start. Splitting off a buildable acre is work I handle fairly often when the county permits it, so I told her I would help. My research placed the acre's value at roughly $80,000, a modest sale, but one that would meaningfully change her circumstances.

I brought the parcel number to Bingham County and laid out exactly what we intended. The county confirmed the split was permissible and the lot would be buildable. Within a month of listing, we were under contract.

One-hundredth of an acre short. Then a neighbor, who happened to be an attorney, noticed the buyers walking the lot and stopped them. He pointed out the parcel wasn’t a full acre. It measured 0.99, too small to build on.

When we returned to the county, they acknowledged the mistake was theirs. The buyer was unwilling to wait for a remedy, and the deal fell apart. I pulled the listing, and my seller asked the only question that mattered: “Chris, what do we do now?”

An unlikely partner next door. The honest answer was that nothing could be sold until she had a lot of at least one full acre. Fortunately, the same attorney was willing to find a solution. Together with my seller, we met with planning and zoning, worked through several scenarios, and ultimately redrew the lot lines, trading a portion of her land for a portion of his until we had a genuinely buildable one-acre parcel.

Choosing the path she needed. By then, she had been through enough. She told me plainly that she needed this to come together to pay off her debt, and that I should do whatever it took. She didn’t have the cash to buy additional ground and had no appetite for another listing.

So we placed the buildable lot with the attorney to sell down the road. She received the cash she needed, kept her home on just over an acre so she can sell the house someday, and released the piece of land that had only ever been a burden.

Measured in more than commission. The entire process stretched across three to four months and demanded roughly five times the work of a typical transaction: endless emails, phone calls, and meetings with the county. On a sale that small, the commission was never the point.

Over two decades in this business, I’ve learned that the hardest deals are often the ones that matter most. Sometimes the job is simply to do what’s right for the person in front of you, and to keep going when quitting would be easier. She left with her cash and her peace of mind, her neighbor gained a building lot, and I closed the chapter knowing I did right by someone who truly needed it.

If you’re facing a situation that feels complicated, or even impossible, and you need an agent who will fight for the right answer rather than the easy one, I’d be glad to help. Call or text me at 208-242-4313, email me at chris@realestate-idahofalls.com, or visit blog.realestate-idahofalls.com.

I’m Chris Schmalz with the Chris Schmalz Real Estate Group: Where moves are made simple, and life is made better.