Lithia, FL · Member since 2016 · 90 posts · 4 votes
Hello, I am a new investor and I will be investing in land. So lets say i have a buyer who will sell me his property for $1000, What do i do next? I am lost here
Your finished after that, assuming nothing goes funky in the process
Also, if your planning on buying/selling in the future it will pay off to have a good relationship with an Escrow Officer, they are a really good outlet for questions and getting this work done for you
The easy route is more costly by having someone else do the work (title company or attorney), if I were to try and flip properties, I would even more go through an attorney or title company just for the ease of reselling, and not having any complications upon resale.
I would be very hesitant to do it myself, after seeing so many screwed up titles from people doing deeds them self.
Like I said earlier all states are different, I am in CA so maybe someone in FL has experience in this area and can help you out.
@Justin WhiteSo to clarify, if i went through a title company, me and the seller would meet there and we would have the purchase agreement and the title company would do the rest?
You wouldn't have to even meet with the seller you could come in separately, or you could just e mail in the signed contract. They will create all of the docs and record the docs to transfer ownership as well. all you will need to do is sign and pay.
Your finished after that, assuming nothing goes funky in the process
Also, if your planning on buying/selling in the future it will pay off to have a good relationship with an Escrow Officer, they are a really good outlet for questions and getting this work done for you
Sarah Ziehr
If Seth can do it anybody can right? Doesn't matter where the land is.... Steven Paul you need to listen to the land guy podcasts. You probably have, but they are good for what you are talking about.
Why not have the best of both worlds? The best would be for you to use a professional to close your transaction ( i.e., Attorney or Title Company ) and not have to pay for any of it. That is possible. There may be an opportunity here for you to make that happen. But you gotta ask to receive. Go to the seller and ask him to pay your closing costs. All he can do is say no. Who knows.....he may be a motivated (for any number of reasons) seller, in which case he may say yes. Or he may offer to pay a portion of it. Say all costs associated with closing the property total $1000. He may meet you half way and offer pay $500. Again, you won't know until you ask. When a land owner wants to sell many times he discovers he's sitting on a non-liquid investment. The pool of possible land buyers can be can be quite shallow. That provides you, as buyer, an opportunity to negotiate a more favorable deal. The sale of all real estate can be broken down to Terms and Price. The general rule of thumb is you can have either Price or Terms but you can't have both.. So if your Seller says he'll sell you his land for $1000 (his price) then you, as buyer, should get your terms (in this case your terms are that he, as seller, must pay some or all your closing costs). Considering your seller is likely sitting on a property that he can't easily move due to a shallow pool of potential buyers, there's at least a decent chance you may strike gold with your terms. Three other variables to the possibility your seller may help pay your closing costs are this:
More so than a structure (house, etc.) many times land falls into the category of being a commodity. Therefore if your seller is unwilling to negotiate on your terms request, and/or unwilling to come down off his initial price.......then just move on to the next seller. With any commodity it just becomes a numbers game. Ask enough sellers to pay your closing costs and eventually you'll find one that says, yes.
Your seller may be sitting on a lot of land.....as in too much inventory that he can't move. In which case he may be happy to pay your closing costs to unload unwanted inventory.
And finally, there's also the "luck is shining down on you" possibility. By that I mean your seller may have a lot of inventory........he likes you because >>>> you remind him of himself years ago when he was starting out, yada, yada, yada.
So you have options here. But you won't receive unless you ask......and then be a good negotiator.
Steven Paul sorry I'm super sarcastic. Just try to learn the process before trying to skip parts of it or do it yourself. Every time I have tried that it has back fired.... Severely.
Sarah is spot on and asks a very good and important question. As she said, what makes you confident you're going to flip this land so quickly? Flipping land is not an easy task and is best left to seasoned professionals. The thought of you as a newbie flipping land >>>>> well I can't help but feel afraid for you. Not trying to tell you what to do but IMO... there are easier and less risky paths to success. Please keep this in mind, ALL investments --- whether the investment vehicle is stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. --- are weighed/evaluated on a Risk vs. Reward basis. From that standpoint I am concerned the amount of Risk outweighs the Reward in this case. However, I do admire for desire, determination and passion and wish you the best.
@Kevin PrenticeIf i can get a piece of land for under $2000 that i know i can sell for $4000 or $5000 when the market value id $8000 there is not that much risk involved, worst case scenario is that i hold on to it for a couple months.
Steven, not to be harsh and please don't take this personally but.....confidence based on selling "way under market value" sounds good but can easily turn into fools gold. What if there are no buyers? ......at any price? Not possible? Think again. History is littered with products that people couldn't sell....no matter how much under market value they perceived their selling price to be. Examples such as the VCR machine, 8 Track tapes, polyester Leisure Suits ( Hmmm...that was random), to name a few. What happens if they discover a toxic waste dump down the street from the land you're getting ready to buy. There goes the neighborhood, so to speak. To sell property "way under market value" requires buying at a deep discount. With that in mind have you asked yourself why the seller is willing to sell at such a low price? Does he have inside information you're not privy to? Find out. Ask questions. Set aside visions of big and quick profits for a moment and investigate why you're getting such a great deal from this seller. Again, I'm not trying to beat you up or throw water on your fire. Just looking out for your best interests and in doing so hopefully helping you avoid a few landmines in the road.
Steven, again, I applaud your passion and desire but I caution you, there are some serious flaws to your thinking. You're new to this game, lacking experience and not seeing the full spectrum of potential outcomes. Your comments on "worst case scenario" are flat out wrong and near sighted. Your worst case is that you'll have to hold on to it for a couple of months? Think again >>>>> As my last post mentioned, what happens if there are no buyers? At any price? Which means you're stuck holding the bag, so to speak, your money tied up in a non liquid investment that you can't get rid of. Then you check the mail and find a letter from the county treasurer's office with a bill for taxes due on that property. You go to write a check to pay the taxes then realize you have no money in the account because all your money is tied up in that damn piece of land you can't sell. Which brings you to the door of "Opportunity Cost". What is that? That's sitting by depressed and watching a whole boat load of great deals (the opportunity) slipping through your fingers because you don't have access to any capital because all your capital is tied up in that damn piece of land you bought that your can't get rid of. Then by the grace of God a buyer comes knocking at your door offering you a full cash offer on your land (this is the Greater Fool scenario, in action) ONLY TO DISCOVER you don't have clear title to the property because you threw caution to the wind and went with the DIY method.....rather than do what you should of done in the first place and hire an Attorney or Title Company to handle your closing for you. NOW THAT's a more accurate and likely outcome. Again, don't mean to beat you up. Just looking out for your best interests to help you avoid the landmines in the road.
Unless you are an actual attorney, I would never, ever, ever recommend doing any of that paperwork yourself.
You think you're saving yourself money. If you keep going down that path, there will be a time you lose a lot of money because of that methodology.
Caveat emptor.
Also, many of these questions you're asking can be succinctly answered with a quick call to any title company. Make a list of your questions and call them, Tell them you've purchased a piece of land and want to know the process and fees.
They're in the business. They'll be happy to talk to you.
1. If this is a purely educational question - call the title company to run title
2. If you currently have a house you are buying and are asking that question, I would strongly suggest learning a bit more or meeting an experienced investor at a local REI Group. Don't risk money just to do a deal.
If it is educational in nature, then disregard my #2
make sure what you buy is buildable. Some land is not buildable and worthless because of a number of reasons. You may want to talk to a contractor, understand the zoning laws, and double check everything with the county.
Shoot me a PM. we buy vacant land in the Tampa area.
I am a big believer in DIY. But there are some things I am are best left to people who do it every day. It could be fine 9 times out of 10, but when it goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong!
I don't know how much they charge, but here is who I use in Jacksonville.
Are you familiar with the phrase penny wise and pound foolish? You may do it on the cheap and everything is fine but, if it isn't you loose 100% and you really did not learn much.
If you spend a few more bucks and ensure it is correct you guarantee that the only way you loose is if you made a bad judgement on the purchase. Sounds to me like it's a1 k entry fee to take and learn the process walk it through "the right way" - Might cost another 1k so at the end of the day it is cheap and yet very valuable education. Heck, you might end up making a few bucks to boot. Good luck!