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Tillable Lease Auctions

Creating a Tillable Lease Auction

Run Tillable Lease Auctions for your Clients with GroundOS

Running a Tillable Lease Auction puts money in your pocket while increasing your client’s ROI.

The video below walks through creating a Tillable Lease auction. Below the video is a step-by-step guide for completing the tillable lease listing process.

Please reach out to Silas Berkson at (319) 471-2754 with any questions and for guidance creating your first tillable lease listings.

Walkthrough Video

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https://www.loom.com/share/ed2c64c491a14e2ca9dda64498c407b8⁠

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Step-By-Step Guide

1. Select farm to list

From Land Manager

Click the Listings tab towards the top-center of the page.

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Now you should see the Listings tab highlighted. From here, click the yellow Create button on the right-hand side of the page,

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Click New Farm if you have not yet created this farm within GroundOS. If you have previously created this farm, click Existing Farm and select the relevant farm.

Click Next

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Use the interactive map to locate the parcels for your tillable lease listing. Search by City, State, County, Address, Zipcode, or Parcel ID to locate the parcels. Once you have found your parcel(s), select them by clicking on them.

If the parcel boundaries do not accurately reflect the property you are listing, use

Draw Mode⁠

to mark the boundaries of your listing for this step.

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You will see this pop-up box appear with the question, “Is this a parcel used for hunting or recreation?”.

Select No and click Save. Repeat this step for each parcel.

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Once all of the parcels that make up the farm are selected, click Next.

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2. Select Land Use

You will now see the Common Land Units(CLUs) outlined in green within your selected parcels. These indicate separate land use types within the property.

Possible Land Uses include the following:

Tillable (Irrigated)

Tillable (Non-irrigated)

Pasture

Reserve Program (CRP)

Reserve Program (WRP)

Timber

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As you click each CLU, you will have the option of which land use type to assign it. If a CLU boundary is missing or is inaccurate, use

Draw Mode⁠

to create the proper boundary for the Land Use Type.Once you select a land use type, click Save and repeat for all applicable CLUs.

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Once each CLU has been assigned a land use type, click Done in the bottom right-hand corner.

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Select each Field on this page by clicking on them. Click Next

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On the Location page, click Next.

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On the Details page you can edit the Total acres and Tillable acres if they are not accurate. The Tillable acres is what will be displayed on the lease auction page, and is what is used to calculate rent.

Click the Add landowner box at the bottom of the page.

Add an existing contact as the landowner by clicking into the Search Contact box.

Or, click New contact to add a new landowner. Once you enter the details of your new contact, click Add contact at the bottom of the pop-up page.

Once a landowner’s name is showing in the Select landowner box, click Next.

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On the Listing Type page, select Lease, then CashRent for the lease type, then Auction for the listing type.

Click Next.

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On the General Information page, you can edit the listing start and end date, add a listing description, add directions to the property, and enter any legal description, only as you deem necessary.

The Listing start date will always populate as today’s date to ensure that the listing goes live once you publish it. If you don’t want the listing to go live right away, simply edit the Listing start date field.

The Listing expiration date is when the lease auction will end. For tillable lease auctions it is advisable to run the auction for at least one month for optimal bidding outcomes.

Once you have completed your desired fields, click Next.

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On the Pricing page, you have the option of setting the bidding at Per acre or Per year. It is advised to select Per acre, as this is generally how tillable lease auctions are bid on.

The Starting price is the lowest amount that a bidder can place a bid at. CommonGround auto-fills a starting price, but you can edit this as you see fit. Generally it is advised to set the starting price at or a little below what the landowner is currently getting to encourage the first bidders.

Once a starting price is entered, click Next.

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On the Lease page you will enter details of the proposed lease terms. Enter a Lease start date and Lease end date. When doing this, keep in mind if the landowner has a current tenant and which day their current lease ends as to not overlap.

It is also important to keep in mind the farm lease termination deadline for the State the farm is located in. Proper notice must be given to a current tenant of lease termination. Consult with Silas Berkson, Customer Success Manager with any questions regarding lease termination.

The Duration field indicates the length of the lease in years. Generally, leases offered for 2-5 years perform better than 1 year leases. However, 1 year lease offerings are also common on the platform when the landowner is planning on selling the property within that time. Once you choose a duration of lease, be sure to adjust the Lease end date to reflect the lease term correctly. Lease start date and end dates do not need to be 100% determined when publishing a listing, but can be confirmed and edited during the auction and communicated to bidders.

On this page you can also include any additional agreements you’d like visible to bidders. These additional agreements will be a part of the lease agreement that is signed at the close of the auction. These are items that your landowner client wishes to be apart of the final agreement and can be adjusted during the auction. Bidders will be made aware of any changes and they will be visible on the listing page.

Additional agreements examples:

-The tenant will mow the ditches on the west side of the farm twice per year

-The tenant must share yield data with the landowner annually.

-This lease agreement does not include hunting rights to the property. The landowner reserves exclusive hunting rights.

Once you have completed the lease term fields and entered any necessary additional agreements, click Next.

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On the Auction page you will choose the Bidding start date/time and the Bidding end date/time. The Bidding start date/time will auto-fill to the current time so that it will publish immediately. If you wish to delay this, simply edit the start date and time.

The Bidding end date/time is when the auction will close. As mentioned before, it is advised to run a lease auction for at least one month for optimal results. Let CommonGround know if you plan to run a lease auction for two weeks or less so that we can expedite our marketing of the listing. It is advised to set the bidding end time in the evening so that bidders are likely to be available to participate in the closing minutes of the auction. This is often when the auction gets the most competitive.

Once you have completed these fields, click Next.

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On the Media page you can attach any images or video links you have for the property. Accepted image formats are JPEG and PNG.

Click Next.

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Now, if you have any documents related to the property you can attach them here. Examples of relevant documents include: alternate soil map, FSA map, yield documentation, record of recent inputs, etc. These are unnecessary to include but are encouraged to include if available.

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Select any Amenities listed on the Property features page relevant to your listing and click Next.

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Select any relevant Utilities listed on the Property features page and click Next.

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On the Contract Type page, select Template at the top of the page. This step involves reviweing details which will be included in the lease agreement for the listing.

Review each tab on the page including General Information, Lease Value, Payment Schedule, Signers, and Additional Agreements, clicking Save under each tab as you review. You can make any edits to these fields as you review.

The Payment Schedule details the dates in which payments are due from the winning bidder to the landowner. As you create this schedule, the system is using the starting price to reflect the dollar amounts seen here. These will change as the bidding increases. You can add payments or delete them depending on the length of the lease and the frequency of payments required. When editing this payment schedule, consider if your landowner client wishes to receive annual or bi-annual payments for rent.

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Payment Schedule Example:

You list a 3 year lease for 120 tillable acres at a starting price of $325/acre. The landowner expects to receive bi-annual payments with 50% of the annual lease due March 31st and the other 50% due November 1st of each lease year. See below.

The payment schedule has 6 total payments which reflects bi-annual payments of the 3 year lease term. It is not necessary to have the final payment schedule detailed before posting a listing, but you will need to ask the landowner how they would prefer it to be paid in order for the final agreement to be signed.

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Once you have reviewed the lease details, you will see the draft of the lease agreement as bidders will see it on the listing page. Each bidder will see the payment amounts and schedule update on this agreement to reflect their bids as they participate in the auction.

Click Finish to publish this listing. If you did not edit the Listing start date/time, then notifications will automatically be sent out to Farmers within 60 miles of the listing location upon publishing.

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Done 🎉

The Tillable Lease listing is complete! To view the listing, make edits, and see bidding activity, select this Listing from within the Listings tab in the Land Manager portal.

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What’s Next?

CommonGround will begin marketing your lease listing to encourage farmers to participate in the auction. Share your listing URL to your own social channels so that your audience of farmers are aware of the lease auction, and so that your landowner audience knows that you are able to run lease auctions on their ground!

Learn more about

managing your tillable lease auction⁠

Learn more about

how we market your listings⁠

to drive as many bidders as possible to your auction, ensuring that you and your client have a deep pool of high-quality, high-paying bidders to choose from.

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