Buying vacant land to make money
Just about anyone can buy a piece of land. But what we do with that land is truly important. You can make tons of money from buying a small amount of land and a particular area if you’re an investor or a developer and understand why land is so important. And the power that you can do with that piece of vacant land. Cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore are riddled with areas of open land. The reason is that there used to be an existing structure there before. The house either got torn down by the city or almost collapsed on its own. You are leaving a homeowner to owe the city thousands of dollars. What if you are looking to buy land and make money on it. How would one do so? The easiest way to answer that question is by talking about what kind of land we are working with. We will explain why it is a wise investment for an individual to buy land.
Things you can do with the land
You don’t have to be a prominent time developer to purchase vacant land in a rapidly growing city. For instance, if you look on the market right now in Philadelphia. You can find close to 100 parcels of land actively listed in the town at any given time. So what if you don’t build and you want to purchase land? What would you do with that land? The easiest thing to do is buy in a rapidly growing area. If you get in early enough, you can buy the land cheaply. Then hold on to it for a few years paying the small amount of taxes each year. And eventually, sell when you get approached by the right developer. Sometimes you can hold out for almost a decade and make ten times the amount or more you purchase the land.
Plenty of homeowners do this all the time. For example, say they live in a home adjacent to a vacant lot. Certain cities such as Philadelphia have laws that if you take care of the area by cleaning debris and trash and weeds from the piece of land. Then, you can apply for ownership of that vacant lot through the city after some years. They will give the neighbor of the property very cheap. Typically these owners hold on to the property over time; it will increase in value then decide to sell the land.
Sometimes you can do with vacant land in a concentrated area. You can use it for parking, charge people to park in your lot. It is an efficient way to make a couple of hundred bucks a month off your real estate. Or you can apply to the city to build a small garage and rent that out. There are plenty of ways that people can make money that doesn’t have to build on the land.
What developers do with land
If you were a developer, you would understand the importance of the size of a piece of land you purchase. Knowing the dimensions is truly important to figuring out what can be built there. For instance, if there is a 10-ft wide by 80 ft deep, you know there’s not much that can be done. The average home, especially in Philadelphia, is 15 ft wide. So if you only have 10 ft to build on, then there’s not much you can do with the lot. You need to also account for setbacks and easements when you are building. A setback is a minimum distance a house must be from a Street sidewalk, River, or canal. Depending on where the lot is located, you may have to rely on an easement to access the property. An easement is usually made from using another person’s property to access yours. You also need to find out if there are any zoning restrictions on what you decide to build. When each area in a city has been developed, they used a zoning map allowing certain things to be made in certain regions. Plenty of things are going to play when you decide to build. It is what all developers will know as they have been doing this for a long time. When We buy houses, things like this don’t come into question because the house is already there instead of having to build a new one.
Taking advantage of vacant land
The best way to take advantage of vacant land is by going to foreclosure auctions. The same way when we buy houses from foreclosure auctions. You can do the same with vacant land by purchasing them cheaply. Plenty of people are doing this nowadays as development is growing in major cities. Most people do not know that it is cheaper to build a house than it is to buy one. If you are in the market, then you can always buy a small piece of land and if you decide to build a home and design it the way you like. Suppose you live in an area and notice that they are starting to develop commercial or residential buildings. You should maybe begin finding a piece of land that is cheap enough to purchase—holding out until the big-time developers move in and decide to buy it from you.
Be familiar with the zoning, and if you are aware that it is considered multi-family or commercial zoning, it adds more value than a single-family land would. No matter if you decide to figure out how to build a home on the land yourself or if you decide to hold on to it till it rises in value. Either way, buying vacant land is a good investment especially when the area is only going to increase in value. In certain areas in Philadelphia and Baltimore, it almost seems that the development of large apartments is never going to stop. Plenty of people in both cities probably had the chance to buy land at a very cheap price but may have missed out.