Advertising question for commercial properties & investing

[Jordan Prentice]

Howdy BiggerPockets!

I have recently stated working with a commercial real estate broker in The Woodlands, Texas and have been tasked with attempting to sell either partially or in its entirety 70+acres of a continuous lot and/or raise infrastructure funds for partial development. Being new to commercial real estate, I want to ask for general advice on BP regarding methods used for finding an audience big enough for this larger, less-liquid property? The land itself is in an incredible location, directly along a developing highway that has been anticipated for years. This makes me think that the land itself will spark a lot of interest for the right people, I am simply asking for advice on best practices for getting in touch with these individuals and the differences (if any) from methods used in residential properties.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Jordan

[Joel Owens]

Google shows Magnolia about 30 miles away from the Woodlands. Google mentions Magnolia median income of only 44,000 which is below the national average. Says 21% lower than Texas and 22% lower than national average.

Median income in the Woodlands is about 110,000. You are talking about different Universes for development. I know most of the developers in Texas in my database on the commercial retail side. We are long in the cycle right now. 70 plus acres is a master development that to finish out could take multiple developer specialties and phases over a 7 to 10 year cycle or longer. That is a massive project that developers typically like to start bottom of a cycle to mid cycle at most. Typically developers are after quick 1 to 2 acre projects they can turn in 1 to 2 years max with not much capital outlay. That size of a project 70 plus acres you could spend 7 figures in due diligence and costs alone.

Sounds like a huge project in just an okay market to me but I am not a Texas expert. I do know most of the high end areas as my clients want to own retail there. Usually high end areas are at 100k incomes or higher with strong density levels for population.

If you have nothing but time and want to learn then calling and calling might not get you any money earned but knowledge. 12 years ago I worked on a project assembling 25 acres for a commercial developer with lot's of different property owners. I was successful but timing was not right as top of the cycle. Publix was going in but said mix of 800k homes and 50k homes they would not have close to 100% their ideal customer living there. Local developers in my area stopped building high end residential as down turn was happening. Ground up developers when cycle starts downward want existing projects for turn around to create cash and value faster.

I do know some developers doing big projects (250 million value) in other states but they have very deep pockets and have been doing it over 40 years. They can hold a project and pull it through regardless of cycle and calculate it into their returns. Right now steel costs and materials, land costs, labor costs, and legal costs are all up. That means rents have to be strong to pencil a large project like that.

I could keep going on and on about slope of the land and cost to get vertical ready etc. This stuff has tons of moving parts. What made you want to work on this??