Land dispositions • Virginia & West Virginia
Selling commercial land in Virginia and West Virginia.
The buyer will price what the record allows: access, minerals, proffers, and the rollback taxes waiting at the transfer. The payoffs, the releases, and the proceeds all have to land on schedule. Prime Title & Escrow provides independent, attorney-led title and settlement for land dispositions across Virginia and West Virginia.
Ready to start?
Have these ready
- Your existing loan and payoff details
- Your entity's formation and authority documents
- Your rent roll and leases, if the property is leased
- Any prior title policy or survey
Planning a 1031 exchange? Tell us early so we can protect your deadlines.
What is your role in the transaction?
Tell us where you sit in the deal.
Select your role to see the closing risks, responsibilities, and outcomes that matter most to your team. The rest of the page applies to every land sale.
Sell the land you have held without surprises at the table.
Land held for years or generations carries its own file: old easements, boundary questions, estate and trust ownership threads, and use-value taxation with rollback exposure waiting at the transfer. Prime runs the title and settlement side so the record comes back clean, the signatures are confirmed early, and the proceeds land where they should.
What matters to you
- Marketable title, confirmed early
- Old easements and boundary questions answered from the record
- Estate, trust, and family ownership threads resolved
- Rollback taxes explained, and assigned by the contract
- Seller-side taxes and costs, explained
- Net proceeds delivered securely
The record decides the price. Answer it first.
A land buyer prices what the record allows: legal access, recorded proffers, severed minerals or timber, crossing easements, and the rollback exposure that follows use-value taxation. The seller who pulls the record first answers from documents, keeps the price defensible, and keeps the diligence clock moving, including when a 1031 exchange clock is running behind the sale.
What matters to you
- Marketable title before the buyer's diligence finds a problem
- Legal access confirmed from the record
- Severed minerals, timber, and recorded proffers surfaced early
- Rollback taxes handled the way the contract says
- 1031 exchange timing and proceeds control
- Net proceeds, wired securely
Institutional dispositions, run on institutional controls.
Selling entitled ground to builders often means options, phased takedowns, and releases that have to track a schedule, on top of entity approvals, investor reporting, and proceeds that land exactly where the waterfall says they land. Prime runs the sell side through one repeatable process built for large files.
What matters to you
- Repeatable closing controls across takedowns
- Option and phased closing coordination
- Entity and fund authority documentation
- Lender payoffs and per-parcel releases
- Recording across parcels and counties
- Documented, verified disbursement
Divest the ground with the deal, not after it.
When land sells as part of a divestiture, restructuring, or sale of the company, the deeds, assignments, consents, debt releases, and entity steps have to line up with the corporate closing. The structure decides the paperwork, and Prime coordinates the real estate side with deal counsel so the ground keeps pace with the deal.
What matters to you
- Asset sale versus equity sale mechanics
- Owned parcels and excess-land schedules
- Lender and third-party consents
- Change-of-control provisions
- Debt releases tied to the corporate closing
- Coordinated closing dates
The number that matters is the one that hits the account.
Between the contract price and the wire, there are payoffs, taxes, prorations, fees, and a settlement statement that has to be right. Prime gives you a clear view of the figures, the deadlines, and the funding path, and protects the proceeds with verified disbursement procedures.
What matters to you
- Net proceeds, modeled before closing week
- Payoffs, taxes, and prorations accounted for
- Material risks surfaced early
- Fraud-protected disbursement
- Named accountability and escalation
- A settlement statement you can take to the board
Access, minerals, rollback, recording. One tracked list.
Prime works alongside counsel, brokers, lenders, and land managers on the sell side without duplicating their work. We manage the title commitment review, curative items, payoff letters and per-parcel releases, access, mineral, and proffer documentation, the rollback allocation on the statement, escrow, funding, and recording.
What matters to you
- Title exceptions and curative items
- Payoff letters and per-parcel releases
- Access, mineral, and proffer documentation
- Rollback allocation on the settlement statement
- Entity authority and resolutions
- Settlement statement and disbursement
- Recording and post-closing deliverables
The record the buyer will read
The buyer prices what the record allows. Answer it before they ask.
A land buyer's diligence starts with questions only the record can answer: whether legal access exists, what the recorded proffers require, whether the minerals or timber were severed decades ago, what crosses the ground, and whether use-value taxation has rollback exposure waiting at the transfer. The seller who pulls that record early answers from documents instead of losing weeks of the diligence clock.
Feasibility, engineering, and county approvals are the buyer's work. Ours is your side of the table: a clean commitment, payoffs and releases in writing, the rollback question handled the way the contract says, the settlement statement right, and the proceeds delivered under verified instructions.
On a land sale, we handle
- Title work and the exception list, surfaced early
- Legal access confirmed from the record
- Severed minerals, timber, and proffers surfaced
- Rollback taxes allocated per the contract
- Loan payoff letters and per-parcel releases
- Entity, estate, and trust authority resolved
- Seller-side taxes on the settlement statement
- Verified, documented disbursement
The market you are selling into
Virginia keeps growing. Your land is what it grows into.
Growth keeps finding new ground, and the buyers converting it read the record before they price the dirt. The seller who answers the access, minerals, and rollback questions first keeps the price and the clock.
Mostly still green
Share of Virginia land that is forestland
About 62% of Virginia is forestland, so development concentrates where the rights already work.
Virginia Department of Forestry
More people, same ground
Virginia population by decennial census
Virginia added about 1.6 million residents in two decades, and growth needs ground.
U.S. Census Bureau
What recording the deed costs
Virginia recording taxes, per $100 of price
On a $10,000,000 purchase: about $25,000 state (buyer), about $8,300 local, and $10,000 grantor's tax (seller). Northern Virginia localities add regional fees on top.
Code of Virginia 58.1-801, 58.1-814, 58.1-802
Challenges, and how we clear them
What land sellers run into, and what we do about it.
The buyer's access question
Whether legal access exists is the first thing a land buyer checks, and a parcel without recorded access loses buyers and price fast.
How we help: we confirm access from the record at the letter of intent, and if it needs curing, we start that work before it can stall the sale.
Rollback taxes at the transfer
Land taxed under use-value assessment can trigger rollback taxes, up to five years plus the current year with interest under Virginia Code 58.1-3237, and who pays is a contract term.
How we help: we flag the exposure early and handle it on the settlement statement exactly the way the contract says.
Minerals and timber severed long ago
Rights sold or reserved generations back still bind the ground, and the buyer's title work will find them.
How we help: we pull the severance instruments early and put what was actually reserved in front of your counsel and the buyer's team.
Recorded proffers and old conditions
Proffers recorded with a past rezoning run with the land and shape what the buyer can do with it.
How we help: we surface the recorded conditions early, so the conversation happens on your schedule, not at the deadline.
Estate, trust, and family ownership
Long-held land often sits in estates, trusts, or several family members' names, and every required signature has to be confirmed before the table.
How we help: we untangle the ownership thread, confirm authority, and collect the documents early, so signatures are never the holdup.
Proceeds at closing
A large disbursement is a fraud target, and attempted wire fraud shows up in roughly one of every three deals.
How we help: we verify instructions by phone with a known contact, document the disbursement, and move funds only when the conditions are met.
The risk we manage
The work that protects a sale before it ever closes.
$600B+
in risk the title industry clears for buyers and lenders each year
ALTA, 2026
Nearly 60%
of transactions need three to five title issues resolved before closing
ALTA, 2026
1 in 3
real estate deals face an attempted wire fraud
ALTA survey
$150K to $200K
average wire fraud loss, and commercial deals run higher
ALTA / Stewart
Prime clears this work before your sale reaches the closing table.
What Prime handles
Commercial title and settlement, from opening through recording.
- Title search and commitment
- ALTA survey coordination
- Exception and requirement tracking
- Easement and access review
- Entity and signing authority
- Escrow deposit management
- Lender coordination
- Payoff and release coordination
- Closing statements
- Secure funding
- Document recording
- Final title-policy issuance
How your sale closes
Five steps, handled with care from payoff to proceeds.
1
Open and order
Send us your loan details and entity documents. We open the file and order the title search and payoffs.
2
Payoffs and title
We request payoff statements from every lender and confirm what the title search shows.
3
Curative and leases
We clear liens and defects, secure releases, confirm your authority to sell, and square leases and prorations.
4
Coordinate the close
We align with the buyer's side, lender, and any intermediary, and confirm the figures and the Virginia grantor's tax.
5
Fund and disburse
We collect and verify the funds, record the deed and releases, and deliver your net proceeds safely.
Personalized to your seat
What this means for your team.
A clean handoff:
The loan paid, the liens released, the proceeds delivered, and the business undisturbed.
Better exit visibility:
Know the title, payoff, and tenant items that can affect proceeds and timing before the buyer does.
Controlled dispositions:
Consistent title, escrow, approval, and reporting procedures on every asset you sell.
Transaction alignment:
The real estate transfer sequenced with the wider divestiture or sale of the company.
Decision-ready figures:
Payoffs, taxes, costs, and net proceeds laid out clearly before closing week.
Cleaner coordination:
Payoffs, releases, estoppels, escrow, and recording tracked through one process.
Why buyers choose Prime
Local knowledge, legal judgment, and no divided loyalty.
Local to Data Center Alley
Based in Leesburg, in the heart of Loudoun County, we know Virginia's commercial market and its closings firsthand.
Attorney-led
Real estate attorneys oversee your file, so complex title and structure questions get legal judgment, not guesswork.
Independent and neutral
No affiliated arrangements and no divided loyalty. Our only focus is your transaction and a clean close.
Funds protected
Secure escrow and verified instructions guard the large wires that commercial deals depend on.
Commercial seller questions
What Virginia commercial sellers ask us.
Who pays Virginia's grantor's tax on a commercial sale?
The seller, as grantor, pays the grantor's tax, set at $0.50 per $500 of value, and in Northern Virginia the grantor also pays regional fees such as the WMATA capital fee and the regional congestion relief fee. The buyer separately pays the recordation tax on the deed. We calculate your exact amounts for the jurisdiction where the property sits.
How do you handle my existing loans and lien releases?
We request payoff statements from each lender, pay them from your proceeds at closing, and secure the releases so the loans come off title cleanly. If older liens or unreleased deeds of trust are still on record, we work to clear those too.
Can you close a sale held in an LLC, partnership, or trust?
Yes. We confirm the entity's authority to sell, prepare the resolutions and documents the structure requires, and handle out-of-state entity questions with your counsel so authority is settled before closing.
Will we owe rollback taxes when we sell?
If the land is taxed under use-value assessment and the use changes or it no longer qualifies, Virginia Code 58.1-3237 allows rollback taxes of up to five years plus the current year, with interest. Who pays is a contract term. We flag the exposure early and handle it on the settlement statement the way the contract says.
The property is leased. How are tenants and prorations handled?
We coordinate the assignment of leases, prorate rent and operating expenses as of the closing date, and account for security deposits, so the buyer steps into a clean set of tenant obligations.
Can you handle a 1031 exchange on the sale?
Yes. We coordinate with your qualified intermediary and structure the closing to fit the exchange, with attention to your identification and closing deadlines so the timeline holds.
How do you protect my proceeds from wire fraud?
We verify your payout instructions, confirm them with you by phone, and will never change them based on an email alone. Before your proceeds move, call our office to confirm the details.
Do you work with our broker, lender, and attorneys?
Yes. We coordinate with every party in the deal, keep the title and escrow side on schedule, and make sure each requirement is met before closing day.
Role-specific questions
Questions from your seat at the table.
The land has been in the family for decades. What should we expect?
Long holds usually mean estate or trust ownership, old easements, and sometimes heirs in several states. We untangle the ownership thread, confirm who signs, and clear the old record items early, so the sale is not waiting on paperwork at the end.
What do you need from us to get started?
Your entity documents and authority to sell, your loan and payoff contacts, any existing title policy or survey, and the contract or letter of intent, plus any leases on the land, like farm, hunting, or cell tower agreements. From there we open title and build the payoff and release list.
We are selling into a 1031 exchange. What changes at closing?
The proceeds cannot touch your hands. We coordinate with your qualified intermediary so the exchange funds move under the exchange documents, and we keep the closing aligned with your deadlines. Your tax advisor and intermediary drive the exchange itself.
The buyer's diligence found a title exception. Now what?
We deal with it. Some exceptions clear with a payoff or a release, some are corrected with curative documents, and some can be addressed through the title insurer or by agreement. We tell you which path each item takes and what it means for the timeline.
Can you run one process across multiple dispositions?
Yes. The same escrow instructions, authority checklists, settlement statement format, and reporting apply to each asset, so your team reviews familiar documents instead of relearning a process per closing.
How is the payoff handled when debt crosses several properties?
Cross-collateralized loans need the lender's partial release terms confirmed early. We obtain the payoff and release requirements in writing and build them into the settlement so the lien clears the property you are selling.
The land sells with the company. Do we still need a real estate closing?
If the entity that owns the real estate is what transfers, the deed may stay put while the entity changes hands; if assets transfer, deeds and assignments move the property. Either way, title, liens, and authority still have to be confirmed, and we coordinate that with deal counsel.
Can the property closings match the corporate signing date?
We sequence title, escrow, funding, and recording to the deal calendar and flag the dependencies, like lender releases and third-party consents, that sit outside our control.
When do we see the net proceeds figure?
Early, and then again as the real numbers land. We circulate the settlement statement ahead of closing with payoffs, taxes, prorations, and fees itemized, so the final wire is a confirmation, not a reveal.
How are the proceeds protected?
Disbursement instructions are verified by phone with a known contact, never changed on an email alone, and funds move only when the closing conditions are met and documented.
Who assembles payoff letters and releases?
We do. We request payoff letters directly from each lienholder, confirm per-diem figures through the closing date, and track every release to recording so the record closes clean behind the sale.
How do you handle estoppels and lease deliverables?
We track them on the open-items list with the rest of the closing conditions and coordinate with the broker and asset manager collecting them, so the escrow can confirm delivery before funding.
Sell the land without surprises at the table.
Tell us the closing date the contract sets, how the land is owned, and whether it is under land-use taxation.
Close the exit on your timeline.
Send Prime the contract, the loan and tenant details, and any exchange deadlines in play.
Standardize the disposition process.
Bring title, entity, escrow, and reporting for every sale through one attorney-led team.
Align the sale with the corporate closing.
Tell us how the ground fits into the divestiture, restructuring, or sale of the company.
See the net number before closing week.
Prime can lay out the payoffs, taxes, costs, and expected proceeds ahead of the wire.
Put the sell-side file in motion.
Send the contract, entity documents, loan contacts, and target closing date.
(703) 552-4155
118 Edwards Ferry Rd NE, Unit 210, Leesburg, VA 20176