Is this a Legitimate Land Deal - From a Yellow Letter?

[Burt L.]

I sent a YL to a house built around the turn of the last century that was the orginal farmhouse that is now surrounded by duplexes, one of which has been townhoused. The lot size is 32,000 feet and and extends from one street to another, with frontage on both streets.

I know nothing about "bringing property out of the ground" although I did townhouse a duplex some years ago, creating an increase in value of about 50%.

The cost of the lot with buidlings (to be removed) is 250k and the duplexes next door are 300K each, and the one that is townhoused has its asessed values increased to 400K, combined. Thus it would seem that there could be two lots of 16k sq. ft. with four townhomes of 200k, or 800K in total. The local market is strong and rents are even stronger.

I would be looking for an assignment fee to the eventual developers, and this could a great find from a yellow letter. I don't want to bring in potential builders until I "know what I have" or suspect I'll be taken advantage of as am not knowledge about this now. I dont know about construction costs, permitting, etc. It is zoned R-3, or thee units per lot so could conceiveably have three townhomes on each lot, or six in total at a total value of 1.2 million.

The owner is a burned-out landlord who is just finishing an asbestos abatement on the farmhouse and plans to turn it back into a rental, but is clearly tired of it and the property. It was the original farmhouse for what once a 6000 acre farm: he said the title work on it is 34 pages long.

What might be my next step(s) in determining if this is a workable deal? It its current use its not a deal.