As long as the price is right, it is certainly a good investment. I don't like giving the "as long as the price is right" answer, because that is just a blanket answer to any problem. Have you looked at what land is going for per acre around you? Forsyth county is still relatively rural so I doubt it would be hard to pull up some sales of land recently. Is this parcel located near a town or any commercial development? Or close to any residential development? What is the sq. footage or acreage of the lot you are purchasing?
As long as the price is right, it is certainly a good investment. I don't like giving the "as long as the price is right" answer, because that is just a blanket answer to any problem. Have you looked at what land is going for per acre around you? Forsyth county is still relatively rural so I doubt it would be hard to pull up some sales of land recently. Is this parcel located near a town or any commercial development? Or close to any residential development? What is the sq. footage or acreage of the lot you are purchasing?
I personally am not a land investor as I like passive income from rents. With that being said land investment can be very lucrative if done correctly. As @Andrew Turner said the price has to be right and you have to do some further due diligence. How is it zoned? What is it near? Is it in the path of development? How much acreage is there and is there an opportunity for assemblage?
Development costs play such a huge role in suburban land values, I personally wouldn't invest without knowing exactly what can be built and the cost to build it. But then again, that's how I feel no mater what the deal.
On suburban land a tract right next to you could be substantially cheaper to develop than your parcel, meaning its value would be considerably higher than yours. If you use that parcel as a comp, you have immediately shot yourself in the foot before you even get started.
This thought process is the same in an urban environment, but the tract size is fractional (dollar for dollar) so the development costs as a percentage of project cost will usually drop (making it less influential).
Sitting on land has its disadvantages:
- Property Taxes
- Insurance
- Maintenance (grass?)
- Trespassers and the associated risk from them on your property
- Income taxes: you can NOT write off expenses until you sell the property
Forsyth County is notoriously difficult, and very slow, in its development process. Values can be high, but zoning, planning, permitting, etc... in Forsyth can take YEARS there. Unless you have a huge warchest, it's tough to have that much capital tied up for so long. If you're just wanting to "sit on it" until values increase, then sell to a developer, that's an understandable goal, but keep in mind what type of developer would be your eventual buyer; do they need 100 acres? Are they able to work with something under 10 acres? Are you paying cash for the land, or will you have to include a mortgage payment with your carrying costs?