Managing a Tillable Lease Auction

Interacting with bidders and communicating with the landowner

As the listing agent of your tillable lease auction, your headshot and contact information will be visible on the listing page. This means that bidders and potential bidders may reach out to you over the course of the auction with questions about the farm and the bidding process. We advise against sharing the name of the landowner to any prospective bidders, as this presents the opportunity for them to pursue the lease outside of your auction.

For any question about the bidding process, or any difficulties with getting registered for the auction, please refer them to Silas Berkson at (319)471-2754.

As the listing agent you will receive email notifications when bids are placed on the listings. You can view the bids and bidders from within your GroundOS account.

Clerking your Auction

As the listing agent on your lease listing, you will be responsible for approving bidders on your auction. This can be done through the Clerking tool within your GroundOS account. This tool also gives you the ability to deny bidders, or suspend them.

Click the Listings tab from within Land Manager.

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Click the aerial image of the listing you’d like to view the bidders on.

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From the listing overview page, click the Clerking tab above the aerial map.

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Now, within the Clerking view you can see who has registered for your auction. You can view their contact information by clicking the down arrow next to their name on the right-hand side of the screen. Clicking the button below their name will give you the options to Deny or Suspend them as bidders.

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Clicking the button below their name will give you the options to Deny or Suspend them as bidders.

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Within the Clerking view, selecting Auction Settings will result in the screen seen below. This gives you the ability to adjust the Bidding end date/time if necessary.

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Below are a few key points on how lease auctions operate on CommonGround. Feel free to share these with anyone who reaches out, CommonGround will also be sharing this information with them as they bid.

1. Lease Auctions Are Soft-Close

Any bid placed within the last 10 minutes of the auction will result in the auction extending an additional 10 minutes. This ensures that everyone has a chance to submit their final bids before the auction expires.

2. High Bid Does Not Automatically Win

High-Bid does tend to win most lease auctions, but it is not a guarantee. The landowner ultimately is able to decide which bidder to award their lease to regardless of high-bid. So, even when the current bid is higher than your max bid, submit your max bid to keep your hat in the ring. Complete your Farmer Profile in your

CommonGround.io⁠

dashboard to give the landowner information on who you are as a farmer to aid in their tenant selection.

3. Site Fee of 4%

A 4% site fee is due to

CommonGround.io⁠

only if you are awarded the lease. The site fee is due at the time of signing of the lease agreement. Upload a payment method in the "Payments" tab of your CommonGroundDashboard to expedite the signing of your lease agreement.

Working with the landowner

When you created the listing and added your client as the landowner, they were sent an email inviting them to CommonGround. Once they create their account, they will be able to view bids on their listing. Please check with the landowner to be sure that they have created their account. This will be important for the lease signing process at the end of the auction.

If your landowner does not wish to create an account, it’s not a problem. You can communicate with them throughout the auction as much as they would like, and we can get the lease signed digitally outside of the platform at auction close, or you can sign on their behalf within the platform.

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