1st Time Dividing Lot In Multiple Pieces of Land - 100k + Profits

[Guillaume D.]

Hey BiggerPockets community!

I thought I would share my most recent success story in order to help inspire new/beginner real estate investors. 

On June 4 2015, we bought an old house (1951) that had a pretty huge lot (32 000 square feet) in a residential area near Montreal, Canada. What was nice about this purchase is that the house was located on the left-hand side of the lot leaving the majority of the land "ready-to-build" on the other side. The fact that this area has all city services (water and sewer), that the house was not located in the middle of the lot, and that the city permitted us to divide the lot all made it a great deal for us!

Here are the numbers, because we should not be afraid to talk about numbers. This is what motivates us to always do better!

We paid 279k for the property sold by an old lady who wanted to move to a smaller place (she could not maintain the place anymore). We incurred 45k in total expenses in renovating the house (flipping it) and splitting the lot in 4 (taxes, land surveyor fees, etc). 

We sold the house in 36 hours for 220k (we aimed for 205k). We sold the 3 pieces of land for 80k each (we aimed for 85k). All through a broker.

Our net profit (before taxes) has been around 110k! Not too bad for a 3-month project for which we devoted a few part-time hours.

If we could do it me and my partner as a part-time project with almost no money, you can do it too :)! Don't let any excuse get in your way. If you don't have the money (like us), find money somewhere else.