Accidental investment property

[Douglas Case]

Investment Info:

Other other investment.

Purchase price: $53,000
Cash invested: $150,000

My wife and I purchased 40 acres about 1.5hr outside of Boise, Idaho in 2019. We started the process (power, well, septic, garage, living apt, road, etc.) with the plans to next build a house but we ended up deciding to move to another area.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Two properties adjacent to ours sold last summer for amounts that were astronomically higher than what we paid and developed for our land.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Luck. Found it by chance, and lucked out as the market was slow. Offered a lowball offer that was accepted.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash, including all improvements.

How did you add value to the deal?

When we bought it it was just barley, we ran underground power 1/4 mile, built a road, had a well and septic put in, and had a 1200sf residential quality 2 car garage and what was going to be a guest quarter built (inside finish work scheduled to be completed within a couple of months).

What was the outcome?

Rushing to complete the finish work and planning on selling this summer.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I knew this before, but this experience is illustrating that significant money can be made in real estate. The biggest challenge we have at this moment is because the market and demand have gone up astronomically since we purchased and we're in a rural area without a lot of good comps how do we determine a market asking price and if we should use a realtor.