By Johnny Klemme, CAI

Ask a farmland buyer what matters most and you’ll hear familiar answers: price, productivity, location, soils and income.

While all of those matter, after years of sitting at tables with farmers, investors and families making significant farmland decisions, I believe today’s buyers are running two calculations at the same time:

What will this land be worth, and what could this land mean?

That distinction matters for anyone marketing farmland today.

Buyers Want Proof, Not Promises

Farmland values have risen enough that buyers can afford fewer surprises. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports U.S. farm real estate averaged a record $4,500 per acre in 2026, while cropland averaged $6,020 per acre.

Whether an operator is expanding or an investor is making a seven-figure acquisition, details matter.

Serious buyers want yield history, productivity, fertility, drainage, improvements, leases, taxes, management practices and access. They want to understand what has been invested in the farm — and what may need to come next.

Today, that story of the farm needs to be backed by data.

Buyers Are Looking Beyond Today’s Income

Income still matters, especially to non-operating buyers. However, sophisticated buyers increasingly ask what else the land can become.

What improvements could increase productivity? Is there irrigation potential? Are there conservation opportunities? Does the property have renewable energy potential or other attributes? How might future growth and land-use patterns influence the property over time?  How strong is the existing tenant relationship?

These questions are really about optionality.

A buyer is investing in far more than this year's cash rent. They're often acquiring decades of future choices, opportunities and wealth-building potential.

That is an important distinction for land professionals. The highest value feature of a farm may not always be reflected in its current income statement.

The Farmer Buyer Is More Sophisticated Than Ever

I think we sometimes underestimate the modern farmer.

Successful operators today are agronomists, mechanics, risk managers, marketers, financial analysts and business owners. They understand what an additional farm could do for their operation while also understanding what a poor acquisition could cost them.

With tighter margins and substantial capital requirements, many operator buyers are becoming increasingly selective.

They may pay aggressively for the right farm, but the “right farm” means more than acres. The long-term strategic fit influences what one buyer is willing to pay versus another.

A New Generation Is Buying More Than an Investment

There is another buyer I am encountering more often.

They may have grown up around agriculture, but built their career somewhere else. They may be completing a 1031 exchange, diversifying wealth, building a family portfolio or making their first farmland investment.

Sure, they want a return, but they also want something tangible. They want to understand who farms the land, how it has been cared for and what responsible ownership might look like.

For some, acquiring farmland represents the beginning of their own family land story.

This is an important idea I explore in my book, “American Family Farmland: Preserving Values and Creating Wealth.” Legacy does not only belong to the family selling or inheriting a farm.

Sometimes the buyer is standing at the beginning of the very journey the seller is completing.

One family may be converting generations of farmland wealth into retirement, investments or opportunities for heirs. The buyer may be taking accumulated wealth and putting it into land they hope their children and grandchildren will someday inherit.

Both can be building legacy.

ROI Is Still Important, But It’s Not the Whole Return

This broader way of evaluating wealth is described as Return on Life.

It doesn't replace ROI. It expands the conversation. It asks not only what an asset can earn, but what owning that asset can help someone accomplish in their life.

For one buyer, farmland may create operating efficiency and financial growth. For another, it may provide diversification and dependable income. For another, it may create a connection to agriculture, conservation, family experiences or something meaningful to pass forward.

The best buyers know what they want the land to accomplish.

And the best land professionals learn enough about those motivations to recognize value through the buyer's eyes, helping them become more successful along the way, no matter how they define it.

Our Job Is to Market the Whole Farm

So, what are today's farmland buyers really looking for?

They are looking for productivity, documentation and financial performance.

Many are also looking for resilience, stewardship, and a reason to believe the property will remain meaningful long after closing.

That changes how we should present farmland.

We should market more than the acres.

We should communicate the full value of what those acres can become.

Every farmland transaction has two sides and, often, two legacy stories: one owner turning the page and another just beginning to write theirs.

About the Author

Johnny Klemme, CAI, is Principal Advisor and Licensed Auctioneer at Geswein Farm & Land. A multiple RLI APEX Award recipient, he advises landowners, farmers, investors, and their trusted advisors throughout the Midwest on farmland valuation, sales, auctions, investment and long-term land decisions. His #1 Amazon bestselling book, American Family Farmland, explores how farmland can create financial wealth, stewardship, opportunity and legacy across generations. Learn more at American Family Farmland.