All Forum Posts by: Andy Bauman

Have you found a REIA in your area? Many of them have newbie classes that talk about the basics. For example, the house that you purchased with bad debt should have been found during the closing process if you didn't find it yourself. In those circumstances you should have been able to go back to the seller and renegotiate due to the taxes or backed out of the contract. There are many posts on BP as well as many books out there that could give you a good start. Are you listening to the BP podcast?

There are lenders that specialize in raw land (@Greg Anderson), you might only get 50% of the value out of it but maybe that is better than nothing?  But as @Zoran Stanoev mentioned, you need to get clear on your goals and your strategy.  How will you deploy capital that you get out of the land, if you can?  I'm also unclear on why you can not subdivide the property?  Have you check with the county on their zoning?

In my experience, there is no such thing.  Most likely the county records are incorrect or missing something.  All land is owned by some entity or person.

You may want to call the county to verify.  It seems to me that maybe somebody bought this land as a foreclosure from a bank then is having it auctioned off by the auction company.  Be wary with special warranty deeds, you will want to do a very good title search between the previous warranty deed and now.

Following.  I have considered this strategy, but not a primary avenue for me at the moment.

I'd be happy to chat more with you. You can message me on here. As Linda mentioned, your broad question could take pages. Here are just a few variables: State, county, size of lot, land locked or road access, utilities in road, will the property pass a perc test, zoning, set-backs, inside of HOA or not, restrictions, etc...

@Tashina Taylor - Most realtors only sign exclusive agreements meaning that if it sells in the time period stated on their contract, they will get paid the commission either way.  Whether they actively market it or not, hence why some of them are lazy.

If I were you, I would see if the seller is OK with waiting until the contract expires (if both parties can wait) then present them an offer directly.  If they do not want to do that, present your offer through the realtor and let the seller eat the commission.  If you have a good rapport with the seller you may be able to wait, otherwise they'll have to pay the realtor and it will be their own fault.

I'd still make a low ball offer though, either way.

Congrats!  Sounds like an interesting investing, I'll be following!

I've found that MOST realtors of raw land are inept.  They don't seem to give a damn, they take a few pictures, post it and forget about it.  There are realtors that specialize in raw land and many of them are better of course.  Because the holding costs are so low, most people just sit on them until they sell and many realtors have conditioned their sellers that land just takes a long time to sell.  My advice would be to make the homeowners an offer anyway and let them know that you can pay cash and close fast.  Would they rather continue to pay property taxes year after year?

I've had people tell me when they call in on one of my leads that the absolute lowest amount they would take for it would be $5k, but when I give them an offer for $500 they take it anyway.

Here are a few comments:

1. Land is typically around 20% of the total value of a property

2. Due to Prop 13 in CA, assessed values can be way off from market value, however most counties will show you on the tax records how much the land is as a percentage of the total value.  You can look up the tax records for several of the recently sold properties in the area and use this % to figure out an approximate value.

3. Look up other lots that have sold recently in the area that are zoned the same, if they exist