Buying Land/property that seems to good to be true

Buying & Selling Real Estate
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Buying Land/property that seems to good to be true

Connor Mather
Investor · CA · Member since 2020 · 31 posts · 12 votes

Hi everyone,

Often times I find properties in seemingly good locations, with great buildings around it. However the zillow post says its been on the market for over 100 days or even longer. This makes me think that there is some underlying red flag related to the location, ability to develop the land, or some other issue. Where can I dig up this info on whether or not property is buildable, why it hasn't sold, it has changed owners frequently over the last 5 years, and/or other potential issues. Many times I cannot go to the actual house because many of the properties are out of the state that I live in. I would hate to buy a piece of land that looks great and then have the city say I can't build for x,y, z reason, discover that it has changed hands so many times because there is some major land issue, easement that isn't good for owners, ect and now I am stuck with a non-income producing piece of land that would be hard to sell. 

What do you all do for your due diligence to make sure the tear downs or land that you buy are able to be turned into the vision you have for the property before placing an offer? And how can I replicate your advice from out of state if pieces of your advice require me to be at or around the location (maybe this is impossible).

Thank you in advance

-Connor

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Mason Hickman
Real Estate Agent · Sandwich, MA · Member since 2014 · 974 posts · 636 votes
5y

@Connor Mather

You know the old saying about if it’s too good to be true.....

There are a couple of quick ways I will look into a property:

1. Search on google for the property address and the town name and the words planning board. If there are old planning board meeting minutes regarding the property, read everything you can find. If you suspect others have tried building on the property, there will be records of it.

2. Do the same searches of the town name and the previous owners. Sometimes the address or lot information doesn’t show up in local news articles but they will write about the building or development.

3. Call the building department and ask about the lot you’re considering. Oftentimes, they can tell you a lot of information about any given property in town. I would wait to do this until going through the first two steps. The town workers will get annoyed with you for calling every day with new properties; do your own homework first.

Hope some of these help!

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  • Mason Hickman
    Real Estate Agent · Sandwich, MA · Member since 2014 · 974 posts · 636 votes
    5y

    @Connor Mather

    You know the old saying about if it’s too good to be true.....

    There are a couple of quick ways I will look into a property:

    1. Search on google for the property address and the town name and the words planning board. If there are old planning board meeting minutes regarding the property, read everything you can find. If you suspect others have tried building on the property, there will be records of it.

    2. Do the same searches of the town name and the previous owners. Sometimes the address or lot information doesn’t show up in local news articles but they will write about the building or development.

    3. Call the building department and ask about the lot you’re considering. Oftentimes, they can tell you a lot of information about any given property in town. I would wait to do this until going through the first two steps. The town workers will get annoyed with you for calling every day with new properties; do your own homework first.

    Hope some of these help!

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Mason Hickman:

    @Connor Mather

    You know the old saying about if it’s too good to be true.....

    There are a couple of quick ways I will look into a property:

    1. Search on google for the property address and the town name and the words planning board. If there are old planning board meeting minutes regarding the property, read everything you can find. If you suspect others have tried building on the property, there will be records of it.

    2. Do the same searches of the town name and the previous owners. Sometimes the address or lot information doesn’t show up in local news articles but they will write about the building or development.

    3. Call the building department and ask about the lot you’re considering. Oftentimes, they can tell you a lot of information about any given property in town. I would wait to do this until going through the first two steps. The town workers will get annoyed with you for calling every day with new properties; do your own homework first.

    Hope some of these help!

    Most cities counties these days in the modern world have all this info on line..  get to know the term GIS.. also start with google earth and get a view of it from up high..  Or get with a good broker in the area that specializes in what you want to do.. most will know a lot of this stuff off the top of their head.. Like if you called me.. ( when i actually worked at the street level) this was my job but there are many others out there that will save you a ton of time and money..

    for instance in our are you can go to Portlandmaps.com  google that and see how robust the information is at that site all for free.

    the other thing is subscription services  I highly recommend  Property Radar.. 

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  • Steve K.
    Realtor · Boulder, CO · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    5y

    @Connor Mather this is changing as Zillow is becoming a broker with an IDX feed from local MLS systems, but they often have properties listed as active when they were sold months ago, so it could be just that the info on Zillow is not up to date. I have clients asking me all the time about properties listed for sale on Zillow and when I look them up in the MLS I see they were sold long ago. I don't know if Zillow doesn't update them on purpose or just manually updates them really slowly or what, but I'd definitely recommend starting by verifying that the listing is actually still active with a different source than Zillow because they don't seem to be very up to date. As far as determining development possibilities, you have to research the zoning designations and what can be done within them, get whatever info you can from the local planning department, or consult with a local architect/engineer/design-build firm who works with developers.

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  • Connor Mather
    OP
    Investor · CA · Member since 2020 · 31 posts · 12 votes
    5y

    Thank you!!

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