Monetizing 80 acres of good commercial property

Monetizing 80 acres of good commercial property

North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 350 posts · 181 votes

Hello Everybody. Love to hear some feed back from anyone that can point out some facts, give opinions or advice, it would greatly be appreciated.

 I am working as the point man on about 80 acres. Its rectangle and mostly frontage on a populated highway in South Texas. Sort of rural but busy local car counts along with some commuters. Still gathering car counts. I see water and sewer across a smaller street with the adjacent land being in the city limits. City officials seem very helpful and easy to get hold of. Happy to be on this deal.

I am looking for comparable land sales to know what sell it for but find none like this tract. I can see selling raw vacant land is not the thing to do there. I figured why not develop the property get it leased, then sell it to a more national REIT that would appreciate the income.

The property is 350 miles from my office.  I would rather not develop and then build with sticks and bricks from that distance. I have to maximize my limited my time there when I make the trips. I am thinking perhaps lease the land and help the local tenants out with finding the financing, planning, permits and utilities. There is a demand there for every kind of tenant you can think of. This is a South Texas and that local economy is always on fire. Lot of babies have been born there for the last 25 -30 years. Now, they are actually many well educated young local people that would rather keep living in that area. The spot is hot for all types of business! but the local appetite for raw land is not hot at all.

Can some one tell me what I can sell a 15 year land lease for with $4,000 (or any number) a month coming in? what is cap rate on that kind of thing

Also if anyone has any tricks on finding tenants?

Any advice on any subject at all would greatly be appreciated  

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Andy BaumanPro Member
Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2019 · 118 posts · 54 votes
7y

Here are a few thoughts:

1.  Contact your local county planning and zoning folks and see what THEY would like there.  This will make it easier to get it approved and sold to a developer.

2.  Do some market research to see what is missing in the area, and approach companies that would like that area.  E.g. If you see there are no or limited self-storage, maybe you could target franchises looking to expand or developers that specialize in building these types of properties.

3.  Subdivide the acreage, keep most of it, and partner with a developer on a smaller piece.  Hopefully a sale to a developer or partnership would cover the original purchase price.

Sounds like a nice problem to have!  Good luck.

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  • Joel OwensBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    7y

    That's tough right now. That's a big land deal size at top of cycle. Larger new developments tend to be bottom cycle as land prices are cheaper and contractors teams will work for cost plus just a little profit to keep crews working. Everything now is expensive (land, labor, materials) for new builds.

    If you own the property or control the property then you can approach developers within a certain radius of the area and tell you what they think of the project. Typically nobody buys the whole 80 acres. There are usually specialist developers in subsets of asset classes such as retail, office, multifamily, self storage, industrial, etc.  

  • Andy BaumanPro Member
    Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2019 · 118 posts · 54 votes
    7y

    Here are a few thoughts:

    1.  Contact your local county planning and zoning folks and see what THEY would like there.  This will make it easier to get it approved and sold to a developer.

    2.  Do some market research to see what is missing in the area, and approach companies that would like that area.  E.g. If you see there are no or limited self-storage, maybe you could target franchises looking to expand or developers that specialize in building these types of properties.

    3.  Subdivide the acreage, keep most of it, and partner with a developer on a smaller piece.  Hopefully a sale to a developer or partnership would cover the original purchase price.

    Sounds like a nice problem to have!  Good luck.

  • Specialist · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2019 · 587 posts · 269 votes
    7y

    @Andy Bauman Thank you for that great advise! I would have never thought to ask the county! 

  • North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 350 posts · 181 votes
    7y

    Thanks everybody.

    @Joel Owens thats solid advice, the only people wanting to buy it now are speculators at 10 cents on the dollar. The subsets (aka end users) seem to be the way to go. On all our smaller tracts, most of our best deals came from leasing the land and fixing our income. 

    There re still a few developers I can approach and I can see where somebody could do great building some office condos, sell them some like 4 or 5 acres for that. Thew only type of apartment developers that approached us relied heavily on grants that never panned out. 

    and I agree, the smartest money buys large raw land with the cycle is at its lowest. By the time they got things developed and ready, the upswing is underway.

  • North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 350 posts · 181 votes
    7y

    @Andy Bauman yea its an nice problem I now need to monetize. I am busy building apartments in the Houston area right now so that's why I was looking for a way to monetize w with out having to be so hands on. 

    Yes I thought about getting GC (other than me) that can build me some mini storage or an RV park big enough to house the manager. Still, that's work, someone has got to manage the manager.. there is just no better income than a triple net land lease. That kind of income leaves free to relax and travel. 

    The only cost right now to recoup was the legal administrative cost last year getting the heirs to divide and fight along the way. WE just got it all recorded a few weeks ago. It was hard for me to watch that property just sit there almost 25 years all the while I had a pretty successful run at developing and spec building here around Houston. The diluted ownership of heirs is always a problem, finally its now over.

  • North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 350 posts · 181 votes
    7y

    @Andy Bauman I do plan to cold call and go introduce myself to local business that want to expand to this area. also get them information on how to get it financed. 

  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Charley C.:

    @Andy Bauman I do plan to cold call and go introduce myself to local business that want to expand to this area. also get them information on how to get it financed. 

    @Joel Owens    

    I would hire an experienced commercial Broker like Joel who Is local to the area and already has all the builder developer contacts the commish you would pay would easily be made up with premium pricing and saving of your time hunting for these folks.   that's my thought.

  • Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2010 · 234 posts · 145 votes
    7y

    Land price will depend on that what someone is planning to do on it ...Keeping that in mind .. land owner will get the least amount from the overall value since typically land close of the lower portion of overall development ...

    More capital = more risk = larger share of the profit..

    4k/acre for land lease if only possible if you allow someone to drill on your property actively thus need to have active hydrocarbon reserves as mineral right ... Given the gas price , that lease amount is HIGHLY UNLIKELY unless you happen to be in Core Permian Basin area :) Lot of people will say a lot of things ..

    To see whether a new dev may work , check population growth and home price increase from 2010 till now. Gap and price will decide what you can build and then back calculate to see how cheap the land price has to be. 

    And lastly , you can always put that on MLS to retail market place ..

  • North of Houston · Member since 2018 · 350 posts · 181 votes
    7y

    @Jay Hinrichs You speak wisdom and I agree with all that but let me paint a better picture of the location, we are not at this time going to get the usual bed bath and beyond, DSW, or any of the upscale aggressive growth retail. None of them would understand this location as is. If it were, then I know to get a connected broker and stop fooling around...best money spent, yes sir I do agree with you   

    My whole life, I have known how to beat the bushes and make things happen on a grass roots level and that's on the schedule of events. Once this site fills up somewhat, it will be attractive to the more aggressive retail chains, then I will reach out to a connected commercial outfit..Absolutely they can start writing contracts and leases for me while I travel and go spend money. 

    @Shahriar Khan the part where you mention the end user speaks volumes. No matter what I think or want, the only way any development works is if the END USER can use it, want it , like it. The deals I seen go down the tubes are when the landowners decree as if the market will take a knee and obey. I seen these landowners get just so full of their self and actually think they can dictate like the king. The dictator on most deals is actually the end user.

    Minerals? (another subject) and I can't get an outfit to drill a well there because all the exploration right now is in West Texas (just west of Fort Stockton) .. pretty sure there is both gas and oil under me but why would they want to drill there when there is much cheaper desert way over in west Texas? If you ever drive though that area in West Texas, its nuts I mean like weird so much crazy activity. its like gold rush but that gold rush has most wells striking gold big time. 

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