Double access is where the entry way is split in half for two houses, versus each having their own.
Finance, you will need solid numbers and a plan to approach a bank. You will need to ask for a construction loan (interest only) for xx months, or till xx units are sold; then principal and interest payments.
If you do a traditional subdivison, you have to put in the roads, underground water/sewer/electricity. This is a lot of money, which you need to quantify. Do your layout and talk with those trades.
Example:
Lets assume you do just one road with two entrances, one at each end. 20 acres if a rectangle is 1,320 feet long. Use this figure for your roads, water, sewer, electric.
Just making the following up:
Road- 25 ft wide, 6 inches thick, before curbs. I paid $450,000 for 1,800 feet for my storage units. Your roughly $330,000
Sewer/water/electric- wild guess $250,000
Curbs and driveway entrances- on 60 units; $500,000
Street lights- ?????
Engineering plans- $80,000
Total above- $1,160,000 not including land cost.
Your realtor above $30,000 per lot times 60 lots= $1,800,000
So your in the $2,000,000 ballpark for 60 lots= $33,000 per lot.
Example: you plan to sell for $60,000 per lot;
Possible profit of 60 lots; times $60,000 price less $33,000 cost= $1,620,000. All of your lots won't sell in a reasonable price range or amount of time. To sell this will probably take 10 years if your in a normal town. You have to carry the interest and principal costs. So you won't be earning the $1,620,000 in total.
Another option is to take the 20 acres, which you have three sides with road access. Divide it into 10 lots and sell each one for $100,000; since they are 2 acre lots. Sales $1,000,000. Less the land cost. Less about $100,000 development costs. You don't put any driveways, electric, water, sewer in. Let them do it.
Option 2: Lets say it takes you 4 years to sell all of the lots. You make $500,000 net on the project.
Option 1: Versus say $1,200,000 above (after interest and 10 years exposure).
Plus how much learning curve and mistakes do you need to go through. Plus you won't make a "profit" on the larger subdivision until you have sold about 70% of the lots. Your funds will be tied up for about 6 to 8 years.
Take the above conceptual approach and firm up the numbers.
Start small and make your Big Mistakes early.
