Some (hopefully) helpful ideas:Familiarize yourself deeply with your community-Get to know your neighborhoods, styles of homes, housing tracts, and the people that live there.

After a Dave Ramsey "moment" I have found myself debt free, 39 years old, in a rental (as I haven't fount the right deal on the home and property I want to own) since selling my last home.I'm in an area that has EXPLODED in value due to recent oil field activity and a shortage of homes for sale, much less for rent.My initial thought was to continue looking for that 50 - 100 acre property to build a home on so that I can leave my kids that "legacy" that many of us in Texas dream of.My thought process has changed as I can't afford it in this area and school district anymore.I'm considering buying 10-15 unrestricted acres and buying a mid sized mobile home to live in for 2 years while continuing to save for that bigger property and modest country home to live in.I'm watching single wides on 1 acre rent for $1500 per month in this area and double wides rent for $2,000 + while larger stick built homes rent for $4,000-$5,000 per month as the oil field workers will "split" a 4 bedroom home at $1,000 per month each without batting an eye.My thought is to buy this property, put the double wide on it, live in it for a couple of years while adding a single wide rental or 2 per year in the process.This oil activity (The Eagle Ford Shale) is expected to be a "20 year play".I can pay cash for the property, as a conventional mortgage would likely prevent me from "splitting" the property into 1/2 -1 acre tracts with mobile homes if I wanted to.My thought is that if I can buy this property at $10,000 an acre, put a used yet remodeled double wide on it for $60,000 - $70,000 to live in temporarily while adding a few $25,000 (after utilities, septic, pads and driveways) single wides that would rent for even $1200 per month I could fund and cash flow my goal of that 50-100 acre "home stead".Have I lost my mind?

Around half of our sales come from land sales and there are still large tracts around which could be developed as the market in our area heats up.

I am NOT a numbers person and this is the first easily digestible explanation of what I should be doing on every property I consider.

Very informative information, lots to digest.

While I do enjoy looking at data, I do find myself getting easily distracted when digesting it.

Geography is also easy to digest, Atlanta is the driver, big and urban, a few smaller cities, lots of burbs.

I'll digest all the other posts and respond accordingly.

So much to digest!

@Ned Carey  short hand for new construction loan.. as in from the ground up construction .. we call them vertical loans.. then when I build housing tracts.. and have to put in sewer water elec storm sewer roads etc.. we call that loan a Horizontal loan.. :)  or commonly known also as an underground loan.but since some of the work is on top of the ground we just came up with Horizonatal..