Need guidance on 4+ acres in southern New Jersey

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
General Real Estate Investing
3yFollow

Need guidance on 4+ acres in southern New Jersey

Raphael Braschoss
Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes

My Wife and I purchased a 4+ acre property with a 1930’s 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1200 square foot house and a large wooden workshop.  The house is in pretty rough shape and we are trying to determine if it is worth rehabbing or if it is better to tear it down.  The house needs a roof and the existing roof is very old asphalt over cedar shake so according to the roofers they need to completely remove everything down to the rafters and install 5/8th inch plywood then reroof from there (one estimate so far came in at $31k for that).   The house needs all new electrical.  Estimate there to rewire the whole house with 200 Amp service is $15k.  The existing forced air HVAC apparently has the ducts routed incorrectly (they come out in the inner parts of the rooms not along the perimeter of the house).  We have the house down to studs but are starting to think it may be better to just tear it down and start fresh.   

With a large property we think we can subdivide into four slender one acre lots and build 4 single family homes.   The land is in Deptford, NJ.   

Does anyone in the area have any info or war stories they can share?  

Remodeling is a more or less known quantity for us - new home building is not. 

Thanks in advance!



0Reply
26 views

Most Popular Reply

Jessie Dillon
Investor · Hopedale, MA · Member since 2021 · 321 posts · 212 votes
3y

i see a lot of people (outside CA) using ~$75/squarefoot for a gut renovation. If you parceled this off, sold the vacant lots, and sold the fully renovated property, what would you walk away with after spending 75/sqft on the rehab + holding costs?

1Reply
See this reply in the discussion

10 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Jessie Dillon
    Investor · Hopedale, MA · Member since 2021 · 321 posts · 212 votes
    3y

    i see a lot of people (outside CA) using ~$75/squarefoot for a gut renovation. If you parceled this off, sold the vacant lots, and sold the fully renovated property, what would you walk away with after spending 75/sqft on the rehab + holding costs?

    1Reply
  • Raphael Braschoss
    OP
    Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes
    3y

    Thanks for the reply. I’m honestly not sure what parcels would end up fetching.

    I see some going for his little as 50k then others for a lot more in the area with seemingly similar characteristics.

    I think fixed up the house should fetch at least high 200k range but the home is right in the middle of the total footprint so if I decided to keep the home then I could probably only get three parcels out of the property instead of four.


    If anyone knows any good general contractors that can do end to end w the southern jersey area that would help.



    0Reply
  • Sergio A. Chucaralao
    Investor · Teaneck · Member since 2022 · 49 posts · 29 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Raphael Braschoss:

    My Wife and I purchased a 4+ acre property with a 1930’s 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1200 square foot house and a large wooden workshop.  The house is in pretty rough shape and we are trying to determine if it is worth rehabbing or if it is better to tear it down.  The house needs a roof and the existing roof is very old asphalt over cedar shake so according to the roofers they need to completely remove everything down to the rafters and install 5/8th inch plywood then reroof from there (one estimate so far came in at $31k for that).   The house needs all new electrical.  Estimate there to rewire the whole house with 200 Amp service is $15k.  The existing forced air HVAC apparently has the ducts routed incorrectly (they come out in the inner parts of the rooms not along the perimeter of the house).  We have the house down to studs but are starting to think it may be better to just tear it down and start fresh.   

    With a large property we think we can subdivide into four slender one acre lots and build 4 single family homes.   The land is in Deptford, NJ.   

    Does anyone in the area have any info or war stories they can share?  

    Remodeling is a more or less known quantity for us - new home building is not. 

    Thanks in advance!

    Hi, my questions would be;

    How much experience you have doing full rehabs?

    Have you already fins out if it could be sub-devided? Some areas in NJ are minimum of 1 or 3 acres per parcel. Is very part of 4 acres buildable?

    How are you plainig to pay for the sub-diving process?

    Did you finance the 4 acres, how much will you spend in holding cost?

    I spent $160k in a full 1300 sqf. How ever this was in North NJ. I hope this questions help best of luck!



    0Reply
  • Raphael Braschoss
    OP
    Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes
    3y

    I meant to say ‘If anyone knows any good general contractors that can do end to end remodeling in the southern jersey area that would help.’

    0Reply
  • Raphael Braschoss
    OP
    Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes
    3y

    Thanks Sergio for your reply.   We have at least 2 rehabs under our belt but this house needs literally everything including some foundational repairs.  If we did split it four ways it would be over an acre per slice and it does seem to meet all the requirements (such as minimum lot width and road frontage etc.) for its current zoning as a four parcel set up.  We did have a phone conversation with the director of development at the city who said it seems doable.  Our next step to proceed in this direction would be to hire a civil engineer to do surveying and site map and that engineer would also see if the creek in the back of the property affects build-ability.  We paid for the property in cash and plan to pay cash for the rebuild.  We got a thumb in the air quote for the remodel at 150k.    I would love to hear any feedback on if anyone has done the new-build route in this area.  Did they do a prefab house?   Or a regular build?   What are some rough costs for a 3 bed 2 bath house.   I know there are so many variables but having some data points really helps us formulate how we want to proceed.  Thanks!

    0Reply
  • Nicky Faucett
    Member since 2018 · 1 post · 0 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Raphael Braschoss:

    Thanks Sergio for your reply.   We have at least 2 rehabs under our belt but this house needs literally everything including some foundational repairs.  If we did split it four ways it would be over an acre per slice and it does seem to meet all the requirements (such as minimum lot width and road frontage etc.) for its current zoning as a four parcel set up.  We did have a phone conversation with the director of development at the city who said it seems doable.  Our next step to proceed in this direction would be to hire a civil engineer to do surveying and site map and that engineer would also see if the creek in the back of the property affects build-ability.  We paid for the property in cash and plan to pay cash for the rebuild.  We got a thumb in the air quote for the remodel at 150k.    I would love to hear any feedback on if anyone has done the new-build route in this area.  Did they do a prefab house?   Or a regular build?   What are some rough costs for a 3 bed 2 bath house.   I know there are so many variables but having some data points really helps us formulate how we want to proceed.  Thanks!

    I know this is an old post, but just curious how this worked out for you and what you wound up doing? I am considering buying land and learning ground up construction, so just wondering how much progress you have made (if you decided to subdivide and also if you did a tear down and rebuild or just renovate)
    0Reply
    • Raphael Braschoss
      OP
      Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes
      1y

      @Nicky Faucett Hi Nicky - we have not made any progress just yet.  We do not think the house is worth renovating at this point so are trying to find a land surveyor to help us determine if parcelling out the property makes sense.  

      0Reply
  • Stuart UdisPro Member
    Attorney · Philadelphia · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    2y

    @Raphael Braschoss There is no "we think we can subdivide"....You either can or can't depending on the zoning and parcel characteristics. You should engage a civil engineer to complete a survey and they will be able to tell you based on the  zoning and dimensional requirements whether the subdivision is plausible. This is not something you should be speculating on. 

    [email protected]
    1Reply
    • Raphael Braschoss
      OP
      Investor · San Francisco · Member since 2020 · 9 posts · 0 votes
      1y

      @Stuart Udis Hi Stuart, good advice.  Do you happen to know any good surveyors in the area?

      0Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free