Making the Leap

New Member Introductions
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I’ve listened to @retipsterseth for years as I pounded 10’s of thousands of miles on the road. After working my career up to executive leadership in home building, I recently jumped off to pursue a simpler life. In reflecting on my last 20 years, I found the most fulfillment in using my expertise to help educate people about bare land.

I’ve performed feasibility studies and site evaluations on thousands of properties in the Pacific Northwest for builders, investors and consumers. Now I’m here to hopefully share some of my knowledge and lessons I’ve learned.

I’d also like to learn more about land acquisition and how I can potentially use some of my insights to score great deals on land. Fix and flip properties with potential to partition buildable lots is one of the successful solutions to land cost and affordable housing in my area.

This is a great community based on learning and the humble exchange of knowledge. I’m excited to now have the time to engage!

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Hey @DonHealyBuilds - thanks for being here! We’re lucky to have someone with your expertise in the room.

I am curious: what kind of people order these feasibility studies and site evaluations from you (what are they trying to build)? Is it primarily for commercial or big residential developments?

Do your studies offer any guarantees, or is it just a way to give buyers peace of mind in knowing they can probably do what they’re setting out to do?

I’ve ordered these before, and they greatly influenced my decision to pursue certain projects.

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OMG, I seriously think I found my calling, and then you pop in with your post. Wow! Okay, I may need your help or expertise in my endeavor to help my town, which is growing, but lacks utilities in many parts of our growing town. The town is unincorporated, and I’m proposing possible solutions to the Board of County Commissioners next week, that may help vacant land owners of what is currently useless small parcels. I’m hoping to bring a change for land owners, as we continue to grow. Please reach out to me, at TimeToBuyLand@gmail so we can chat.

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@retipsterseth thank you for this community you’ve created! I’ve always been impressed with your attention to the details, and willingness to pass on all that you’ve learned!

My niche is focused specifically on residential lots that are intended for individual single family homes or small multi family.

I work primarily with customers purchasing a lot they intend to build a home on and custom home builders. The lots I see are both rural and older infill lots. I evaluate quite a few lots that are knock down/ rebuilds. I also work with small investors who are purchasing land to build individual spec homes, or small multi family.

The end goal of my evaluation is to provide all the information needed to ensure feasibility is verified, site development is planned and budgeted, all information is gathered for accurate site plans and all items required for building permit submittal are accounted for. I provide a comprehensive package that covers all of this data, provides recommendations for mitigation on gaps and also includes a complete data package of source information; ie: zoning code texts, plat maps, property reports, permit applications and any other electronically related info specific to that lot.

As a business, I carry E&O Insurance, but I have to provide disclaimers on my reports similar to a home inspection. I provide the information related to the lot at the highest level of accuracy I can, but there is always the opportunity for gaps in info or mis interpretations. As you said, my reports are intended to provide information and recommendations to give peace of mind that customers know all the blind spots related to their land.

In my career I’ve seen so many customers who want to buy land to build on, but fall in this gap where they know there’s costs and issues that need to be planned and budgeted for, but they have no idea where to even start looking to solve those concerns.

I’m assuming in buying and selling land there’s the same risks and concerns, so that’s were I’m hoping I can lend some expertise to this group.

I’ll shoot you a DM, I’d love to pick your brain a little more on the specific needs of land investors related to this

1 Like
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@PatriciaRobb I’m glad my post caught your eye! I’m super curious about your project and how I may be able to help.

I’ll shoot you an email later today!

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I look forward to that.

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@DonHealyBuilds

When you look at a property for development, what are the most common “deal killers” you find that might not be obvious to an untrained eye? I’ve had a few surprises with easements and soil conditions that ended up adding very big development costs.

Also, for those small multi-family projects you mentioned - are you seeing any particular configurations that work especially well on smaller lots? I’ve been wondering if there’s a sweet spot for maximizing return while keeping construction easy enough to manage.

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@mattpayne I rarely run in to issues that can’t be solved with time and money. For customers buying property to build a home, they just want to know what those costs are, and they want to know about them as early as possible.

The biggest issue I run in to is sloped lots. People tend to grossly under estimate the costs related to building on a sloped lot. They pick up a property that is $20k under market only to get hit with $40k + in extra costs. I even see seasoned investors do this all the time.

The issue that I see cancel contracts is Zoning restrictions. People purchase a property that allows a dwelling as a “Conditional Use”, so the jurisdiction tells the buyer that building a home is “allowed”. What they fail to tell the buyer is that the land use process takes 6 months, costs thousands of dollars and typically requires multiples of professions to provide data and reports to execute.

Soils is also up there. Previously disturbed soils and expansive soils can costs multiples of thousands to mitigate.

Regarding multi, in the PNW I’m seeing investors building duplex’s 1400 to 1800 sqft per side. Small efficient footprint is key. 40ft wide to fit on a 50ft wide lot is hyper efficient. I’ve seen investors do really well with partitioning larger lots and doing zero lot line duplex’s or “townhomes”. Utilities and access is the biggest challenge if you partition flag lots, but its not insurmountable.

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Hi Don. How do I reach you? I am a land investor of recreational
properties. I am thinking about marketing residential lots. I’d appreciate it if I could tell you what I’m planning. I know very little about “town lots”. I’m not sure the idea I have even makes sense. Could I get about 20 minutes of your time on the phone? email me at rod@betterviewland.com. Thanks!

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Hi Rod! Thanks for the reply!

My websites are: www.sitefactsreport.com and for my consulting firm: www.sandandsagesolutions.com

But I’ll shoot you an email so we can collaborate on your project. Hopefully I can help!