Rural land, no broker, and a lease signed before the slab was poured
I own a couple of small rental houses in central Missouri and I've been watching a guy in my county do something I didn't think worked at this price point. He bought 1.8 acres on a state highway corridor outside Macon for $38,000 in early 2023, nothing entitled, no broker involved, just a direct call to the landowner. He got a regional farm supply tenant to sign a 7-year NNN letter of intent before he ever pulled a permit. Construction lender came in at 70% of cost once he had that LOI, so he was carrying maybe $140,000 of his own money into a building that penciled at a 7.1 yield on cost against a 6.6 cap rate exit. The whole thing was under $900,000 all in. I always assumed commercial ground-up started with a different zip code and a different net worth, and this is 20 minutes from where I grew up.
