On a Wyoming note the land does most of the talking: access, water, minerals and how much the payer has put in. Here is what a buyer asks about acreage, ranch parcels and houses, and how to answer.
What drags down an offer on a Wyoming note, most of it about the land.
The same worksheet comes with every offer.
| Remaining balance | $129,400 |
|---|---|
| Payments left | 168 |
| Buyer’s target yield | 8.0% |
| Purchase price | $115,000 |
| Discount from balance | 11.1% |
| Our fee | shown on every offer |
| Sell the whole note | Sell 60 payments | Keep it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash today | $115,000 | $56,200 | $0 |
| Payments still coming to you | None | 108 payments of $1,140 | 168 payments of $1,140 |
| Total you receive | $115,000 | $179,320 | $191,520 |
| What you give up | Every future payment | The next five years | A lump sum now |
Illustrative example. Totals add up the payments as scheduled; they assume the payer keeps paying and are not adjusted for the value of money over time.
The promissory noteThe mortgage or deed of trustA payment historyThe closing statement from the saleWyoming has fewer people than any other state and a great deal of land, and that shapes its notes. A good share of them are secured by acreage: a thirty-five or forty acre parcel carved from a ranch outside Cheyenne, Laramie or Casper, sold on terms to a buyer who planned to build some day. Others sit on houses in towns that rise and fall with energy work, such as Gillette, Rock Springs and Douglas, or on small ranches near Sheridan, Cody, Lander and Buffalo. A few are on property around Jackson and Star Valley, where prices bear no relation to the rest of the state.
The holders are ranch families who sold off a corner, developers who subdivided and financed the lots, and owners who sold a house during a slow stretch when no bank would lend to the buyer. On the acreage parcels the payer may live in another state and may never have used the land.
A note buyer has to answer one question about a Wyoming file: if the payments stopped, what could this property be sold for, and how long would that take? In a state with few sales and long distances, that is difficult to answer from a desk.
So the buyer asks about the things that make land usable.
Put whatever answers you have with the note, the recorded mortgage or deed of trust and your payment record when you request a price for your note, because a buyer left to guess about access or water will assume the worse case.
The payer’s stake counts heavily on bare land. Someone who put little down on a parcel they have never used gives up little by walking away, while a solid down payment and several years of payments tell a buyer the opposite. The down payment affects the value of any note, and it weighs most on vacant land notes, where there is no home for the payer to lose.
The promise to pay is the note. The recorded document that pledges the property is commonly a mortgage in Wyoming, and deeds of trust are seen as well. Either one commonly contains a power of sale, a clause allowing the property to be sold after a default by advertising and holding a public sale, generally without a lawsuit. That out-of-court route is the one commonly used, though a court foreclosure remains available.
A borrower in Wyoming may also have a right to redeem, meaning to buy the property back for a time after the sale. Neither point should be assumed from what happens on a note in another state: whether your document has a power of sale, and what redemption would mean for your property, are questions for a Wyoming attorney or a title company in the county where the land lies.
Each buyer reaches a separate view of what a remote parcel would resell for, so offers on Wyoming notes can sit far apart. When a quote arrives, ask the buyer what value they placed on the property and what they assumed about access and water. A low offer built on a wrong assumption can be corrected with a recorded easement or a well log. The return each buyer wants and the way each reads the payer are among the other reasons offers differ from buyer to buyer, and those a document will not change. Put the same two questions to every buyer so the answers can be laid side by side.
Mortgages are commonly used in Wyoming and deeds of trust appear too. Either commonly includes a power of sale, which generally allows an out-of-court sale after a default. A buyer checks your recorded document to see what it says.
It can, though some note buyers do not bid on bare land at all. Those who do look at recorded access, water, the size of the down payment and how long the payer has been paying. Bringing those answers with you gives a buyer less to guess at.
Not by itself. A buyer will pay more attention to the payment record and the payer's equity, since an owner who has never used the land has less tying them to it.
They can. A buyer wants to know whether the minerals were included in the sale you financed or kept by an earlier owner, and what surface rights go with them. A title search is where this shows up, and a Wyoming attorney can explain what it means for your property.