Land & Estate Marketing

To uncover hidden value, preserve family lands, ensure the highest and best use, and help you navigate complex transactions with the technical and financial information you need to make an informed decision about some of your most valuable assets. Bassick | Forbes Global Properties's Real Estate Consulting Group offers comprehensive land planning, appraisal, brokerage, and project management services for owners of significant real estate assets. With MAI-designated appraisers, land use planners, GIS specialists, licensed brokers, and staff with hands-on development and project management skills, Bassick | Forbes Global Properties is an industry leader in:

• Helping families and their advisors with estate planning issues in real estate.
• Analyzing the feasibility and economics of property development and conservation.
• Valuing unique properties, even in the absence of good comparable sales.

Our clients include private individuals, families, foundations, municipalities, state and federal agencies, non-profits, fiduciaries, and educational institutions. We service projects nationally and internationally.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties’s licensed and MAI-designated appraisers are qualified to appraise significant land-based assets, including residential, commercial and resort development land, coastal estates, timberland and other natural resource properties. We are also experienced in the valuation of partial, undivided interests, including conservation easements and working forest easements.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties assists clients and their legal and financial advisors in developing strategies for tax-advantaged disposition and transfers of real estate assets, including:

• Preparation of appraisals for gift and estate tax or conveyance purposes.
• Equitable partition analysis and valuation for tenancy-in-common (TIC) ownerships.
• Conservation planning for family lands and generational assets.
• Alternative disposition planning, including conservation easement and limited development planning and valuation.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties appraisers are qualified as real estate valuation expert witnesses in a number of courts and jurisdictions. Our experts provide valuations and testimony in matters involving divorce, contract disputes, damage claims, and class action environmental lawsuits.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties also provides appraisals and testimony in tax appeals and abatement cases.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties evaluates the “highest and best use” of developable land by employing conceptual land planning techniques applicable to a broad range of property types, including residential, commercial, and industrial properties. This process typically involves:

• Preparing GIS base plans that identify key physical features and constraints that may include topography, wetlands, floodplains, soil types, improvements, roads, utilities, and easements.
• Analyzing deeds, easements, restrictions, licenses, or other matters that may affect the use of a property.
• Researching relevant land use regulations, including zoning, subdivision, wetlands, floodplain, septic, and various environmental ordinances.
• Preparing conceptual development plans for valuation, disposition, or acquisition models.
• Working with engineers to undertake further analyses and permitting, as necessary.

A determination of the highest and best use typically involves the financial evaluation of alternative development models that are legally permissible, physically possible and financially feasible. Bassick | Forbes Global Properties has extensive experience in financial modeling using discounted cash flows (DCF) to determine the value of land to a hypothetical developer-buyer based on specific development assumptions. This requires an understanding of the market for the finished product and an accurate estimate of associated development costs.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties’s consultants are experts in valuing conservation easements and structuring conservation transactions in creative, cost-effective, and timely ways.

We often work with property owners who want to ensure that their land is protected from high-density development but are concerned about limiting their choices in the future or reducing the value of their property. Some options that Bassick | Forbes Global Properties routinely advises on include:

• Donations or sales of land to conservation organizations, natural resource agencies, state or federal entities, or municipalities. • Donating or selling conservation easements. 
• Selling land at a “bargain sale” price to obtain cash and tax benefits. 
• Advising on enrollment in and/or withdrawal from “current use” property tax programs. 
• Experienced fundraisers to assist conservation groups in achieving their financial goals from private philanthropy and public sources. 
• Excellent understanding of the qualifications and process to achieve funding from most local, state, and federal public funding opportunities.

Bassick | Forbes Global Properties’s appraisers are experts in valuing conservation easements, which includes the determination of a property’s highest and best use and market value both before and after it is encumbered by the easement. Bassick | Forbes Global Properties has appraised hundreds of conservation easements on properties located from New England to California, ranging in size from several acres to over 500,000 acres. We are frequently asked, by both landowners and acquiring entities, to evaluate the financial and tax implications of alternative easement terms and configurations prior to conveyance.