The Warren County State’s Attorney’s Office has received reports of unsolicited offers to purchase “vacant ” farmland from several landowners in Warren County. According to the State’s Attorney’s Office, the organization identifies itself as a nationwide real estate investment company that is prepared to pay cash for land with a purchase agreement binding the owner to sell the property at the offered price. Warren- Henderson Farm Bureau President Jake Armstrong warns owners this could be a potential phishing scam.
“It looks like the company is reaching out, saying, ‘hey, we will buy your farmland’ or, or do some sort of rent-to-own type of deal for vacant farmland, which I don’t quite understand what that is. I don’t know too many fields around here that lay follow and aren’t used,” says Armstrong. “If you do get reached out by a company to just randomly buy your ground and you have no idea who it is, don’t answer it, don’t click on the email, don’t agree to anything. I would hate to see someone get caught up in a scam like this and lose some potentially valuable real estate over a scam like this.”
The Illinois Farm Bureau has a database of companies with information on the trustworthiness of different land-buying companies available to landowners. For more information, contact the Warren- Henderson Farm Bureau.
