Finding the true market price for land-within an hour of BostonMA

[Jennifer S.]

Hello, due to my pretty unique tax situation at the moment what seems to be the best option for me after selling a property in Boston is to take a slice of the proceeds and buy buildable land for around $100k. Normal style research on sites like redfin doesn't really tell me much because so many properties have many lines of notes about the issues to research. Given that I am eyeing a 1031 I don't have time to inquire with the local authority over many months. Is it even possible in the Greater Boston area to buy land that is buildable and doesn't require many moons of time to vet? For example MLS#72534406 and MLS#72516416. I don't need to compete with fancy homebuilders--I just want to eventually build something small as my toe hold in the area. Thank you!

[Ryan Wittig]

HI Jennifer,
Thanks for expounding on the tax situation. That is incredibly complex! Seems like a very narrow window to crawl to not get squeezed by the US and UK....

All that being said, I would stick with the lot in Amesbury. There must be a reason why the Brockton lot is so inexpensive for the amount of acreage: maybe not all usable and probably hard to turn a profit on new construction in Brockton...

I would also recommend that you call or visit the town's building department. Many smaller towns/suburbs building departments are friendly to owners/developers. Bigger cities like Boston/Cambridge/Somerville are less prone to help because they are busy and don't want to get sued for making claims about use.

Good luck!