5 Things Landowners Should Know
Before Their First
Rental Auction

Every year, dozens of Saskatchewan landowners run their first competitive rental auction through ExtrAcre — and almost every one of them says the same thing afterward: "I wish I had done this sooner."

The most common follow-up question is: "Why was I getting so much less than this for years?" The answer is simple. Private negotiations between a single landlord and a single tenant systematically undervalue farmland. When only one farmer knows the number you'll accept, there is no upward price pressure. When multiple qualified farmers bid against each other transparently, the market finds the true price — and it is almost always higher than what private negotiation produced.

But before you list your first auction, there are five things every first-time landowner should understand clearly.

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1Set Your Reserve Price — But Trust the Process

A reserve price is the minimum bid you will accept. If the auction closes without meeting it, no lease is awarded and no fees are charged. The reserve protects you from an anomalously low result in a thin market.

Here is the critical nuance: set your reserve conservatively. The purpose of the reserve is not to anchor the price at your target rate — it is to protect against a floor scenario. Setting your reserve too high can discourage bidders from entering, reducing competition and paradoxically producing a lower final price than a conservative reserve would have.

If you are uncertain what reserve to set, ExtrAcre's team will help you calibrate it based on comparable auction results in your RM. The free rental appraisal is your starting point.

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2The Highest Bid Does Not Automatically Win

This surprises many first-time landowners, and it is one of ExtrAcre's most important differentiators from a simple price auction. You review the winning bidder's Renter Profile before awarding the lease. Price and quality, together.

Every farmer who bids on an ExtrAcre auction has completed a verified Renter Profile — including farming experience, equipment list, current land base, cropping history, references, and financial capacity. After the auction closes, ExtrAcre provides you with the top bidder's profile for review. You can speak with references, ask questions, and make an informed decision about who will be farming your land.

If you have genuine concerns about the highest bidder after reviewing their profile, ExtrAcre can move to the second-highest bidder. Your long-term landlord-tenant relationship matters more than a few extra dollars per acre from a farmer you don't trust with your land.

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3Soft Close Protects You From Last-Second Sniping

In a traditional timed auction, sophisticated bidders "snipe" — waiting until the final seconds to place a bid, leaving other bidders no time to respond. The result is an artificially low final price that reflects one farmer's private estimate of value, not the market's collective opinion.

ExtrAcre uses Soft Close technology to eliminate sniping entirely. Any bid placed in the final 5 minutes automatically resets the auction clock to 5 minutes. This continues until a full 5-minute period passes with no new bid — meaning the auction only closes when all active bidders have had a final opportunity to respond.

As a first-time landowner, you do not need to do anything differently because of Soft Close — it works automatically. But understanding it will help you read your auction results: the closing time shown in your dashboard may be later than the scheduled close time, and that is a good sign. It means multiple farmers were actively competing right up to the end.

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4Decide Your Lease Terms Before You List

The rental auction determines the price. But there are several other lease terms you should decide in advance — because they affect which farmers bid and how confidently they bid.

Lease length. A longer lease (3–5 years) generally attracts higher bids — farmers will pay more per acre for security of tenure, because it makes long-term investment in inputs, equipment, and crop planning worthwhile. A shorter lease (1–2 years) gives you more flexibility but typically produces slightly lower bids. Most ExtrAcre leases are 3 years.

Crop restrictions. If you have soil health concerns or previous damage from overuse of canola, decide upfront whether you want a crop rotation clause. Common practice: maximum one canola crop in three years. This is standard and most farmers accept it without resistance.

Access and buildings. Are there bins, a yard site, or machinery storage on the land? If so, clarify whether these are included in the lease, excluded, or available for additional rent. Ambiguity here creates disputes later.

Summerfallow restrictions. In most modern leases, summerfallow is prohibited or strictly limited. Include this clause to protect soil organic matter and long-term productivity.

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5You Probably Don't Know the Real Market Rate for Your Land

This is the most important thing to understand before your first auction — and the most uncomfortable for landowners who have leased the same land to the same farmer for years.

Saskatchewan cash rental rates are a dark market. The government's last published leasing survey was in 2019 — and rates have increased 40–50% since then (FCC / Western Producer data). If your current lease rate was set informally more than 3 years ago, there is a meaningful probability it is significantly below what competitive farmers in your RM are willing to pay today.

This is not because your current tenant is dishonest. It is because private negotiation between one landlord and one tenant has no mechanism for price discovery. Without competing bids, there is no information about what the second or third farmer in your RM would pay — and that information is what creates upward price pressure.

The appraisal is also useful for one more reason: it helps you have an informed conversation with your current tenant before the auction. If they are a good farmer and you want them to stay, knowing the current market rate gives you the opportunity to offer them right of first refusal at that rate before going to auction.

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