Investment Land advice (Van Alstyne, Howe, Van: for sale, home, weddings)

[Pinkett]

I am interested in buying 5+ acre in Gunter area. I’ve been to Gunter personally and just by driving around there is no way to know which areas are good or which aren’t. Even the school there isn’t fully built. Most of the listings isn’t on internet so obviously it’s more of going there and guessing. How do one go about buying a land with minimum to no info available for research?? What is current per acre in Gunter close to proposed tollway?

[Katana49]

Wherever you buy, you need to be looking at maps for proposed future use and road expansions. Grayson county has these maps online (I think the most updated is from 2018), very important you do your research so you're not buying property that will someday be butting up against a major thoroughfare or even taken from you in a case of eminent domain. For example, FM902 is listed as a "principal arterial" road. That means that one day, it will be a 3 lane road, instead of the 1 lane it is now. So if you bought along 902, eventually that road could be quite literally in your front yard.


Once you sort out those maps, then you turn to Gunter's future plans, or TxDot's proposed maps. They've already got one out there for a 121 bypass by 289. You'll also need to see where Gunter plans to build new schools... all of these things are proposed years, even decades, before they actually come to pass.


I'm showing a 100 acre plot near the proposed tollway in Gunter in Dec went for $3.5 million, so $35k/acre. That can fluctuate quite a bit, for comparison, I purchased land near Howe last year for a bit under $20k/acre.

[Pinkett]

Thanks. Such a good informative answer. Is it reasonable to say that I can get 10+/- acre near proposed Tollway for $25k/acre for commercial use?
Also, what are some online places to look for land in that area? Not even 1/4 of what’s selling there is to be found online.

[Rakin]

Get a Realtor to set you up a feed from the MLS on raw land in the area you desire and price range.

Don't be surprised if that area sells for a whole lot more than you think it should. Everything continues to move north.

[turf3]

OP, be advised that people have been stockpiling buildable land out there since the 50s. While there's probably still some appreciation to be had, no one is selling at a bargain these days. Everyone knows about the ongoing trend to build further and further north. If you pull up tax records, you'll see how many owners of record on buildable tracts are names like ”Smith Development Company” and ”Jones Land Trust”.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by turf3

OP, be advised that people have been stockpiling buildable land out there since the 50s. While there's probably still some appreciation to be had, no one is selling at a bargain these days. Everyone knows about the ongoing trend to build further and further north. If you pull up tax records, you'll see how many owners of record on buildable tracts are names like ”Smith Development Company” and ”Jones Land Trust”.

Yup. One of my best friends’ grandfather owned what he called “the wedding ranch” up in what I assume is Prosper or Celina today near the tollroad path. Family lore was that when the first granddaughter got engaged, he would sell it to pay for their weddings. Not sure how that actually worked out but he did sell at some point in the last 20 years and my friend did have a phenomenal wedding at Brook Hollow

[Pinkett]

I do agree that the pricing is just ridiculous. I am in my 30s and I don’t even know if I’ll live long enough to see the land give it’s true value. But again it does seems like the max out prices. $25k/acre seems like a dream.

[Katana49]

You can find what you're looking for. Start with a search on realtor.com, looking for 5+ acres as your criteria, either by zip code or city. There are still deals to be had, but I would recommend searching closer to US75. Most investors have scrambled to buy along the future tollroad expansion, but really, land that is near Preston or 75 is going to increase in value as well as growth continues north. There's already plenty of development pushing north along 75, you can probably find something suitable between Gunter/Van Alstyne.



Land directly along a major roadway is higher priced. You may also be limited by zoning restrictions, so my advice would be to find something about a mile or more away from any major thoroughfares. You'll still get the increase in property value as development moves along the road, but won't be paying a premium for it now.


I'd also say that you will probably want to up your budget... the more land you buy, the cheaper it will be per acre. 5-10 acres is probably the most expensive range and what most people are looking for to hold onto or build a home on. Once you get to 15-20 acres, the price per acre goes down as there are fewer people looking to own that much land, and it's not big enough to be attractive to large developers who usually buy 50+ acres for a development. We found 25-30 acre plots that were only marginally more expensive than 15-20 acres, but obviously come with increased maintenance cost.


If possible, you definitely want to find land that already has an ag exemption in place... It will save you thousands of dollars a year.

[crazyforger]

Buying land doesn't make sense when there are so many bargains out there in the stock market.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by crazyforger

Buying land doesn't make sense when there are so many bargains out there in the stock market.

main reason... Asset Diversification and stability of a tangible asset. (+/-)

Depends on your interests and skillset.

I have always done both (for 40+ yrs)
in the end... ~ 30% total wealth was built from stocks ~ 70% from land / RE appreciation.

RE is very dependent on region (growth / desirability), economy, and luck.

In strictly a numbers game, stocks is easier, but my RE has been very interesting and provided a lot of opportunities to balance income (1031, installment sale, depreciation, and income). Most my RE paid for itself a few times (from rents / income), then also appreciated 12 - 17% / yr.

BUT... getting stuck with RE in a downturn can become 10+ yrs of feeding a hungry child.

As with any investment... you make your profit at your entry point. i.e. buy right, or not at all.

I seldolm buy properties that are already listed For Sale. I dig up the deals before he vulchers and competitive bidders arrive. Do know the future development potential (planned roads, zoning, build-out (owners)).

What other investment allows you to reap $500k income tax free (MFJ) every 24 months?

Buy a quality prop.
Put your mailbox there. (Primary residence)
Go traveling for 24 months while you change zoning and find a developer to buy it, and identify your next purchase.
Come 'home',
Sell

Repeat as desired (one coworker did this (9) times)... in his free time.