Five buyer questions to prepare before a farmland showing

Prepare for a conversation, not a presentation

A buyer points to a low area on the map and asks whether it stays wet in spring. You have a terrain figure, a crop history table and a seller’s comment about last season. Which part actually answers the question?

A useful showing brief separates what you can explain from what you still need to confirm. Before the visit, choose the documents you will refer to and prepare a short response for each likely question. You do not need a confident answer to everything. You need to know what supports your answer and where the next question goes.

The five questions below are a suggested preparation exercise, not a survey of buyer behaviour. The sample wording is illustrative and should be adapted to the actual property and your brokerage’s process.

1. Which land are we looking at?

Bring the legal land description and the map you intend to discuss. Check that they refer to the same property before using the map during a showing. When a listing includes several parcels, make it easy to identify which parcel a document or figure describes.

Prepare to explain where the displayed boundary came from. For an Ironpost report, that means checking the boundary source shown in the report and the parcel you confirmed. A supplied KML file should remain identified as supplied material.

Example wording: “This is the boundary used for this report. Here is its source, and here is the land description we matched it to. Let us record any boundary question separately so we can obtain the appropriate confirmation.” Avoid pointing to a convenient fence or track and treating it as a confirmed line without supporting material.

2. What does the crop history tell us?

Start with the years actually included in the report. A buyer asking what was grown most recently may mean a season beyond the last year shown. Keep that gap visible and ask the seller for the relevant records instead of extending the table in conversation.

Agriculture and Agri Food Canada describes its 2024 Annual Crop Inventory as a classification made using satellite imagery, with a final spatial resolution of 30 metres. The official dataset description is linked under Sources and further reading and was checked on September 14, 2026.

Use that distinction in your answer: “This table shows the crop classes in the cited inventory for these years. For harvested quantities or details of field operations, we would need the seller’s records.” A classification table and a production record answer different questions. Keep seller information attributed to its source, including when it differs from the map.

3. How should we use the soil and terrain pages?

Before the visit, locate the report’s soil and terrain sections and read the source notes with them. Pick a feature you can discuss with reference to the map, then write down the question it prompts. Resist turning a summary figure into a promise about how the buyer’s intended operation will perform.

Example wording: “The report presents the soil and terrain information from these named sources. This part of the map is something we can discuss during the visit. Your question about the proposed use still needs its own supporting information.”

If a buyer asks for a soil test or recent field observation, check whether one has actually been supplied. Do not let the presence of a soil section imply that those separate documents are in the pack. Put the requested item on the follow up list.

4. What still needs checking about water?

Turn a broad question such as “Is water a problem here?” into the question the buyer is trying to answer. Are they asking about a particular low area, a well, a recent observation or a document they expected to see? Record the location and the exact question.

If the report includes a relevant public record screen, read its wording and limits before discussing it. Ironpost’s public sample distinguishes records mapped on or near the listing from conclusions about the property. It also explains that an empty search is limited to the named source and the date searched.

Example wording: “Here is what this source returned. I will keep your question about current conditions open and ask for the specific supporting material.” Ask the seller for dated information relevant to that question and identify any appropriate professional follow up. Do not fill a gap with a reassuring general statement.

5. What happens after the showing?

Before leaving, repeat the questions that remain open and agree on the next action for each. A request such as “send more information about drainage” is hard to close. A request that names the area, the document being sought and the person being asked is easier to track.

Offer a realistic time for your next update, even when you cannot promise when an outside party will answer. Record whether each response is a document received, a seller statement or an item still awaiting confirmation. A reply arriving in your inbox does not automatically settle the original question.

Use the report as a reference during the conversation

Ironpost brings available crop history, soil, terrain and source references into a cited PDF land report. Use the relevant page to explain what you are looking at, then keep the buyer’s question beside that reference in your showing notes. The report helps organise the public land context; it does not answer every question about the property.

For your next showing, prepare one short brief with the five questions, the pages you will refer to and the missing items you will follow up. After the visit, send the material appropriate for that audience and a clear account of what remains open. Explore the Ironpost sample report below to see how its maps, figures and source notes can support that conversation.