All Forum Posts by: Linda Hastings

Whether or not you will need to use a title company or attorney for closing or if you can do it yourself depends on the state. This article is helpful for determining which states are which:

https://retipster.com/real-estate-closing-agents/

Documents you may need for closing include the purchase and sale agreement, a deed, other supporting documentation (varies state to state, but may be something like an affidavit of property value or property transfer affidavit), etc. Of those, the deed will definitely need to be recorded with the county. Other documents (like the supporting documentation) may need to be filed, too. You'll also need to be comfortable doing your own title search. Check out this article for more info:

https://retipster.com/how-to-close-cash-transactio...

@Seth Williams has a ton of great (free) information on his website related to buying and selling vacant land (https://retipster.com). I recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

Don't know if it was down temporarily, but the website appears to be up now. 

Are the lots in the platted neighborhood owned by a developer or by individuals? If owned by a developer, I'd pass. If owned by individuals, are there already roads and utilities available? If so and if there is some new construction going on, it might be a good place to start and market the lots to local builders who are building in that area. I know a couple people who have done that; build relationships with local builders, find out what type of lots they are looking for and in which areas, and then go try and find lots that fit their criteria. 

As you mentioned though, there is a limit on how many of those type of lots there are. Like other types of real estate investing, it's a numbers game. The bigger your list or target area, the higher the probability that you find people who will sell at a low enough price to make it work. 

There are three main educators I've heard about in this space (I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I know of):

1. @Seth Williams has a ton of great (free!) information on his site, www.retipster.com. He was on BP podcast #39 and has his own podcast now. He also has a paid course you can go through to get more in depth info than what is on the website. 

2. Mark Podolsky aka The Land Geek. He has a podcast and paid training, too. He's also been interviewed on a lot of other podcasts. Personally, he comes off as a bit more guru-ish to me, but that could just be because of the way he markets himself. 

3. Land Academy These guys have been in the land business for a long time. They also have a podcast and paid training. The land investing forum they host is free though. 

Each of the 3 has a bit of a different spin on land investing, so if you are looking for different approaches, it may not hurt to check out the free resources each has to offer and see what fits better for you. 

I think @Wayne Brooks pretty much answered it, but a few other things the potential buyer might be referring to are whether there is any junk dumped on the property, any structures (houses, mobiles, sheds, barns) or any fencing. Or, you could just ask the buyer if there is anything specific he is referring to. 

This thread may be helpful for more educational resources (books, podcasts, etc):

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/70/topics/411...

That's a very vague question. What are you trying to accomplish?

I don't see why a residential lot would need a commercial contract. At least, in Texas you don't. We actually have a separate contract promulgated by the Texas Real Estate Commission for unimproved land. But really, as long as the agreement states all the important information (buyer, seller, county, state, legal description--especially important, parcel # if there is no address, sales price and terms, closing date and conditions, etc), you can write one yourself. Although it would be prudent to run it by an attorney just in case. 

The following threads should be helpful:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/70/topics/411...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/70/topics/432...

Welcome to BP!

If you close through a title company, they will take care of all the necessary closing docs (deed, etc). If you want to try closing yourself, @Seth Williams has a lot of great info on his blog (https://retipster.com/) about self closing.