Quote from @Sarah Ali: The seller has a contract with the agent, which means they can't legally sell the property without compensating the agent.

For a land cost of $150k, how would you think about how much the completed home would need to sell for to make that land cost worth it?

I have a lot in a nice community in Gouldsborough that I have not been able to sell.

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.

The one guy I spoke with said they make money only when they sell to potential investors and they only sell new construction homes that are usually pre-leased to buyers (currently they are building in Texas state and Missouri State).

So the property owner can never sell?

From there, I try to figure out why this house isn't selling, and if I'm still interested I'll make an offer at a price that works at my numbers.Other than that, yes I think it is a great idea to dig deeper into more creative methods of finding deals - wholesalers, direct mail, door knocking, networking, etc.

I've been buying and selling properties since 2019.

I now sell STRs in FL.  

Any development work they've done on the property also becomes your property.If the property becomes yours, you could try to sell it back to them quickly and below market for a nice profit.