Any Land Investors Out There?

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Any Land Investors Out There?

Robert C.
Financial Advisor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2019 · 15 posts · 4 votes

Hi BP Community,

I’ve recently been learning lots about land Investing and I was wondering if there are many other land investors here in the BP community. Does anyone else invest in vacant land flipping? If so, is anyone close to Sacramento? I’d love to connect and perhaps meet up over lunch.

Thanks for everyone’s time.

Rob

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
6y
Originally posted by @Michael Ealy:

One of my best deals are land deals.

One time I bought 8 parcels of land (I was hoping to buy more) for $500 to $2,000 a parcel at a land auction. I knew a road was about to be built and that's why I bought those parcels. Two and a half years later, I sold each of them for $80,000 to as high as $150,000 a piece.

Ka-ching!

Land can be very profitable if you know where to buy.

Mike,

One thing that keeps me up at night is the deals that were there to be had in Atlanta metro area circa 2011 ish.. finished subdivision selling for 1k per lot..  I bought 14 lots in one subdivision for 3k a lot these were half acres.. with really nice new homes .. Not as good as your deal but we sold them 18 months later for 30 to 40k apiece.. I tried to raise a fund for lots  but had no luck.. you know land does not cash flow. But if i could have raised a few million then we could have made 20X on that money easy.

I close next month on a 4 acre in CA i bought for 27k in the mid 90s .. came into the city and got up zoned.. that one is cooking off a t1.9 million cash to a developer. 

I spent most of my early years in the land business my dad was a land geek befor the land geek was born.. he roamed most of CA buying tax sales lots and then flipping them on contract which is what most that get into this do.. the lady talking about San Berdo and such those are just high desert lots there there are hundreds of thousands of them..  Lehigh acres in FLA  ( Ft. Meyers has hundreds of thousands of lots as well)..

In Oregon we did mainly timber plays so bigger dollars.. one of my star's was a 700 acre tree farm we paid 1.8 for i busted 10 lots off the front half that i sold for about 1.5.. we held the rest of the land logging it gently each year bringing in about 30 to 50k net in log revenue ( commercial thinning is what they call it).  we then sold it about 5 years ago to big lumber firm for 3 million .. that was a nice one as well.

they don't call them Timber Barron's for nothing LOL..   its a fun business it really is.

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  • Jo-Ann LapinPro Member
    Loan Officer · Tustin, CA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 713 votes
    6y

    You are welcome to pm me . I have a solid land broker referral .

    [email protected]
    0Reply
  • Marc Dunlap
    Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2016 · 2 posts · 1 vote
    6y

    Hi Ben I might be interested in the land p.m. me details thanks

    1Reply
  • Robert C.
    OP
    Financial Advisor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2019 · 15 posts · 4 votes
    6y

    @Ben Dao what type of land flipping deals do you do? Low dollar? Larger parcels? Timber/resources? Tax Deed/Lien? Auction? General mailers? Just curious what other investors are finding that works.

    0Reply
  • Ben Dao
    Rental Property Investor · Saint Louis, MO · Member since 2016 · 123 posts · 84 votes
    6y

    @Robert C. I do general mailer deals. I usually buy parcels 1-10 acres and from $5k-$20k. Mostly in Western States.

    1Reply
  • Mark Dubler
    Investor · Bellville, OH · Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 0 votes
    6y

    My experience is similar to Ben Dao except I am focused in the southeast.  A lot of people dream of building a cabin in the country or have land to park their campers.

    0Reply
  • Andrew Caldieraro
    Collinsville, IL · Member since 2018 · 98 posts · 17 votes
    6y

    @Ben Dao

    Have you done any land deals in the St. Louis or other Midwest areas?

    0Reply
  • Ben Dao
    Rental Property Investor · Saint Louis, MO · Member since 2016 · 123 posts · 84 votes
    6y

    @Andrew Caldieraro Yes, I have done a few deals in Ohio and Tennessee. Not in my home state of Missouri yet.

    1Reply
  • David L.
    Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 8 votes
    6y

    @Ben Dao or others doing direct mail. I've been researching land flipping for the last several weeks, as well, and have prepared a list of 68 parcel owners in one county that are behind on property taxes, many of whom are out of town or state, as well.  I planned to start with a direct mail campaign to that list...but I've never done a direct mail campaign before.  Any recommendations for good resources on direct mail for land deals?

    I've got a letter drafted and priced up a yellow letter campaign with ITI Direct Mail with for my 68 recipients at about $150, including one-time (first mailing) setup fee, but I've been feeling a little gun-shy.  Any thoughts, suggestions, things I should be doing before pulling the trigger?

    0Reply
  • Linda HastingsPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Stockdale, TX · Member since 2017 · 285 posts · 202 votes
    6y

    @David L. If you haven’t already, you might check out @Seth Williams’ blog at retipster.com. He has a lot of really good (free) info about direct mail for land and land investing as a whole. He also has a paid course, but the free blog content may be enough to give you the confidence to send the mailer. 

    0Reply
  • David L.
    Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 8 votes
    6y

    Thanks @Linda Hastings, I've been listening to Seth's podcast and reading his blog a lot over the last several weeks, and actually based my mailer on his blog posts.  It's good to get some independent confirmation.  Sounds like I just need to get moving.

    I am curious, do you think an initial list of 68 is sufficient?  I've heard people in this space talk about success rates of 1 to 3 percent, so just curious if others think this is enough to make a first mailing worth it.

    0Reply
  • David L.
    Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 8 votes
    6y

    Hey, I know this wasn't my thread but just wanted to post an update here to say that a week or so ago I finally sent out my small mail campaign, a la Seth Williams style, as mentioned above, and got a couple of quick responses so far.  One was pretty surly ("I got this letter from you, but it don't tell me nothing") and probably won't be selling me his property.  This afternoon I got an email approving my offer for the second one, though.  Just sent them the purchase agreement, so fingers crossed that they'll sign and return it shortly.  It's about a 1 acre, land/water-locked parcel on a country lake for $200, but everybody's gotta start somewhere. :-)

    1Reply
  • Henri Meli
    Investor · Morrisville, NC · Member since 2012 · 1k+ posts · 673 votes
    6y

    Congrats @David L. on your first deal.

    0Reply
  • David L.
    Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 8 votes
    6y

    Thanks @Henri Meli  and big thanks to Seth Williams, Jaren Barnes and the RETipster blog and podcast. Got the deposit/down payment yesterday from a buyer on that first lot I mentioned above.  Bought it for $200, selling for $8k+ on a 12 month term.  I've covered closing costs on both sides, purchase and sale, but even factoring in those and the cost of the mailing, it'll be about a 400% return.  Could have saved a bunch more on closing costs, and probably will in the future, but with this being my first deal I decided to pay an attorney for a couple things to make sure I don't screw anything up.

    Consider me hooked!

    0Reply
  • Henri Meli
    Investor · Morrisville, NC · Member since 2012 · 1k+ posts · 673 votes
    6y

    Thanks @David L. I have been seriously thinking about Land as well. I'm curious if you did anything to improve the "quality" of the land. I.e.: You mentioned it was land locked. Did you try to get some easements on it to add value? 

    0Reply
  • David L.
    Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 8 votes
    6y

    @Henri Meli  I made a couple informal inquiries toward securing access by land for the lot, because I knew that would add tremendously more value (more than 10x what I'm selling it for), but was not successful in identifying an approach that I could control in the short term to accomplish that and decided to just sell it as-is for a quick return.  The thing that worked in my favor for this particular lot is that it was directly on a lake (waterfront lot) and only a short distance from a public boat launch.  The buyer is looking to build an off-grid weekend home and is willing to take a boat to his property.  If it was truly landlocked on all sides (no means of access at all), that would have been a bigger issue and I probably wouldn't have bought it, all other things equal. 

    Actually, I consciously decided not to mail to several other owners in the same subdivision on this mailing because they own internal lots without direct water access.  After looking into things, some of those internal lots might potentially play some role in getting land access to the first lot, and the buyer I'm working with now might have interest in those for that reason, so I'm considering adding those owners to my next mailing.

    1Reply
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