Not trying to deny you information or education, just trying to have a practical approach.

We are studying other successful organizations and hope to learn many best practices from this forum!

It takes lots of practice to be able to convert leads to an actual transaction.

.- have a second baby- spend more time practicing and playing piano- play tennis more often- hit the gym again to get my 6 packs back.

Hopefully your new build is near a dental practice. ;-)

What works for me in any "up or down" real estate market, are what I call "life events": ...death, disability, childbirth, health issues, domestic issues, divorce, loss of job, relocation because of employment, retirement, legal problems, back taxes and many others, ...are all "life events" that can "motivate a seller" into selling their real estate!

Your questions/comments are a mix of strategy, financial evaluation and practical advice.

The accounting approach is taking the lower of cost or market value, so at this point you're establishing your actual cost.So long as your land value is reasonable and can be justified through acceptable accounting practices the IRS usually accepts the value, unless there are really big bucks involved.Ask you tax advisor, I'm an accountant type but I don't do taxes.Had you stated the value in the contract, that would have been the agreed price unless you were obviously trying to pull something, like saying you bought a 100K lot for 10K.

It looks like I will be relocating from the Dallas, TX area to Charlotte, and I will be looking to gain some insight into the area.

I mentioned in my introduction that i am currently 16 years old and as such can't do any actual investing but intend to basically as soon as i turn 18, and i figured that at 18 it would be as great a time as any to relocate for a few years into a better market to start off in.