Building on Land in Maryland

[Aj Bowman]

Hi Everyone,

I kind of posted about this before and I got a ton of responses and people to talk to about it. However I want to decide exactly what I want to do before I start contacting these people.

I have some land that is available in Bryans Road, Charles County Maryland. At first I was going to sell the land with me just starting my real estate investing career.  But then my entrepreneur mind took over and said why don't I build a bunch of houses on the land. Thinking that a could make a lot more money that way and probably give myself a lot bigger headache in the process. 

At this point the land is 38 acers of all woods that backs into parkland and is about one mile from the Potomac river. I would like to subdivide it out and find the best way to bring in the most profit. I am thinking SFH will be the best to put in being that the location it is in but I will need to some more research. 

A big question that I would have first is how can I get started with this. Next how much would the cost in square feet be to build the houses. And finally how many houses can I put on 38 acres? I am sure that there are a thousand other questions that I should be asking so I could use a lot of help on this.

Thanks ahead of time

[Justin Lenk]

I recently did a couple mailings to what I thought were SFR only but it turns out the list provider I used gave me a large amount of land/lot owners. Since then, I've learned a little about land. Some things to keep in mind are:

What is it zoned as?

Are there any utilities or access to utilities on the property? (probably not if it's wooded assuming no homes have ever been on the land)

***Has it been perc tested?***

How mature are the trees? What type? Are they worth anything to a lumber yard?

Are there any restrictions limiting the amount of trees that can be cut down?

Where will you get the funding to build?

Are there houses nearby? What price range are they selling for?

I'm no expert on land but those are some of the things I have learned from the land leads I received.

-Justin