Purchasing land in city near Austin a good idea?

[Jarrod Covey]

With supply being in the red across the Austin-Round Rock MSA, supply in peripheral cities is being uncovered and made available to purchase. 

For instance - there is a 5 acre lot with older livable home in Taylor, Texas for sale at 79% LTV. (Appraisal at 332k in 2019)

With land appreciating faster than houses, is this type of deal smarter than a buy & hold in Williamson county? 

[Aater Suleman]

In real estate, money is often made at the time of purchase. So, finding a good deal, which is not easy at all in this market, is another way to increase your return. It’s hard to find deals in standard SF housing but When buying land or farms, comps are much harder to find so the markets aren’t efficient. Anomalies are not uncommon where a motivated or misinformed seller/agent may list something below market.

To actually win though, you will need to be looking relentlessly, have your mental model tuned to spot a good one very quickly, analysis tools ready to validate, and have the paperwork and confidence ready to bid immediately. 

In our fast market, I typically don’t even bother looking at properties that have been in the market for over 2 days because they are either not interesting or undergoing an auction. not useful for me  

All my best deals in this market have been when I was the first bidder, typically the same day it’s listed and out ran my competition. I have been able to buy 5-8% below market a few times. By buying cheap, you immediately put yourself in a position of some minimal profit and can outdo the market returns.