All Forum Posts by: Joe Schmitt

This is a much more sensible approach than trying to develop the land. It doesn’t necessarily have to be back taxes or tax liens either. Nor do you have to sell on terms. You can easily flip for cash. Most of the lots that I buy do not have back taxes, and I sell them for cash to end buyers who have their own development plans.  

I do this all the time. Send them a letter telling them of your interest. In addition, there may be some information about the busniness and it’s manager(s) on the Secretary of State website. That’s another route to pursue. Good luck!

I don’t see a compelling advantage here. The separation gives you some advantage if you ever wanted to sell or further divide the other lots. The only real hassle, as I se it, is dealing with separate tax bills.

If you are going to build an SFR, the typical rule of thumb is that the land value is 25% of the total value. So if most SFRs are running $300K on similar-sized lots, the lot is probably worth $75K. But it has to be like-kind, so make sure that access to utilities is there and that the lot is zoned similar and considered buildable.

The ultimate question is what is the lot worth to you? If you know the costs for the rest of your project, how much does the lot have to cost for your to hit your numbers?

This sounds like a bad idea. Most municipalities have laws or ordinances about Boat/RV parking and camping. It's especially troubling that this is in a residential area. Typically, the only play in non-buildable residential lots is to either pursue an entitlement to make them buildable or sell them to an adjacent neighbor. 

My seller financing contract strictly forbids residential improvements and also states that the property is for recreational use only. 

My rule of thumb is that the land is generally worth about 25% of the total property value.

I do vacant land exclusively, and I have been doing it for four years. My experience is that most tax delinquent properties are not worth pursuing. They are quite often junk lots that are not buildable or have title issues because the owner died and the lot was not probated. My approach has been to send LOTS of direct mail to owners. There are several good programs out there for this method. 

If a builder owns them, there is very likely a very good reason why they were never developed. My experience as a land investor is that most of the time, the owner of a failed subdivision is not willing to piecemeal them off property by property or even do a release. They typically want to be cashed out all at once. Of course, every situation is different. I would start by contacting the owner to see what kind of interest they have in selling and understand why, from their perspective, the lots were never developed. Then do some extreme due diligence if there is a willingness to sell. 

I recommend connecting with @Michael Schraepfer and attending the monthly REIA meetings that he facilitates. Jordan DeCaro is also a good resource.