@Travis Gutting I wouldn't let someone discourage you from investing in an area, but rather do your own due diligence and decide for yourself.

Building on existing land helps eliminate the issue of land scarcity, which is a significant challenge due to California’s high real estate prices.

If it was due to a natural disaster they cannot raise your rates.

@Andrew Slezak Opportunity Zone (OZ) investing allows you to defer capital gains taxes (e.g., from crypto) by reinvesting the gains into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) within 180 days.

You must exclude the land value, typically allocated based on property tax assessments or an appraisal, as land is non-depreciable.

You can find the most recent sales price for the property on the local tax records website or by doing a quick search on Zillow.

And must be pretty significant unreported income if it would have caused $45k in state tax liability.You advised your client to wait past the expiration of state statute.

County has assessed for 200k but is worth more due to the area they are building homes left and right on that road and they are selling 300k+ and up.

Plus with no state income tax, cheap insurance, and very low property taxes, I’m probably starting $20k ahead of most people, and that’s a tax free $20k.).

It would/could be only 15% capital gains tax and yes you could/would deduct all selling costs including commissions and transfer taxes.