Land deal?

[Cesar Garcia]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a good deal, I ran into a guy that wants to sell 30 acres of land, he had it appraised at 375k, city assessment is $281,431 he wants 150k and is willing to negotiate, this is in a rural area in California (mountains), houses there sell over 1m in smaller lots, I'm really not familiar with land, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Bill Gulley]

Then look and see what utilities are there! Mountains? Access, electrical, what type of sewer works there (I know, it goes down hill), water, gas/propane? 

What are the minimum size lots to build on to meet regulations? $1M homes will probably have acreage lots. 

We can write for hours on what you might need to do. To save time, especially yours, put the land under contract with a closing in one year or at least six months. Put the sale price on an addendum not in the body of the contract. In that addendum, agree that at a certain price you'll have 90 days for due diligence for development. Agree that if development costs exceed X dollars that the price is reduced and may be renegotiated. 

Then get professional help, builder, engineer, ask a surveyor, developer. If you don't have deep pockets, you might consider closing on the deal with seller financing with a short term balloon note and then sell it to a developer. Got to know your limitations! Good luck :)