Buying land in the Bay Area. What's the catch?

[Tyler D.]

I currently live in the SF Bay area, and am renting as I cannot afford a $1.5m+ house. As both rents and mortgages are astronomically expensive, I'm looking at alternatives.

One is buying land. In the peninsula, there are many plots of land available for several $100k, or even less. In particular, there is a lot of land around boulder creek/ Scotts valley for very cheap. It might be a bit more of a rural lifestyle, and add an extra 10mins to my commute, but that's more than worth the savings, to me.

Assuming that I do my DD and the lot is indeed buildable, I'm wondering what's the catch?

[Jay Hinrichs]

Originally posted by @Tyler D.:

I currently live in the SF Bay area, and am renting as I cannot afford a $1.5m+ house. As both rents and mortgages are astronomically expensive, I'm looking at alternatives.

One is buying land. In the peninsula, there are many plots of land available for several $100k, or even less. In particular, there is a lot of land around boulder creek/ Scotts valley for very cheap. It might be a bit more of a rural lifestyle, and add an extra 10mins to my commute, but that's more than worth the savings, to me.

Assuming that I do my DD and the lot is indeed buildable, I'm wondering what's the catch?

I suspect most of those lots are either not legal to build on or have such tough conditions not feasably possible.

As for Santa Cruz Boulder creek.. 

Well thats where my Dad started in real estate in 1965.. there are thousands of lots that were platted there in the 20s and never developed they are legal lots of record so they do trade.. Usually with the companies that buy tax sale stuff and sell it to others who dont know they are not buildable..  by Loch Lomond Lake there is a big swath of them.. Brings back memories for me.. we used to hang out at the Trout farm in while my dad was working..  It was OK in those days to sell these lots that just had a basic dirt road pushed into them.. NOW the real value is the Red wood on them if and thats a big if you could log it.. The trees are worth far more than the dirt.  

there are antiquated platted lots all around the bay area .. there are some above San Mateo there is a nice chunk of them above Brisbane and Above the little town of Crocket ..  that used to be my specialty finding the gems. 

You can buy lots in Richmond that are buildable I bought one for under 50k it was flat and buildable. 

Good Luck with it..