Split 9 acres into two lots for $47k, and the whole thing was one form

The thing I'd want to know is how repeatable it is. You found a county where three or fewer lots off existing frontage skips the hearing. How many parcels in that county actually have 300+ feet of frontage, decent soils, and a seller who'll take bulk pricing? If the answer is two a year, this is a nice outcome, not a strategy yet.

I want to take your numbers apart a bit, because the headline understates the risk and overstates the margin at the same time.

First, your per-acre math. You paid $13,850 an acre in bulk. You sold at $22,900 and $20,300 an acre retail. So the entire deal is a $7,000 to $9,000 per acre spread, and your costs ate $22,590 of it. On 9.1 acres, your total cost stack is $2,480 an acre. That means the spread has to be at least $2,500 an acre before you make a dollar, and yours was about three times that. That's your actual margin of safety, and it's the number I'd carry to the next deal rather than the $47,900.

Second, commission. $10,270 is 21% of your profit. Not saying sell it yourself, plenty of reasons not to, but on a two lot deal that's the single largest cost after the land.

Third, the perc test. You've priced lot B at $95,500 with a passing conventional perc. Your agent's estimate says a fail costs $20k to $25k of price plus double the marketing time. So the downside case on that one hole was roughly half your profit, and you took that risk after closing with your own $126,000 already committed. Moving the tests into the inspection period, like you said, doesn't just save money. It converts an unpriced risk into a walk-away.

Fourth, taxes on the gain are their own conversation and depend on how the activity gets characterized, which is a CPA question and varies with facts.

What you did well and should keep: you read the ordinance and picked the parcel to fit the cheapest approval path. Most people pick the parcel and then discover the path.

On the lending side of this, a two lot administrative split is about the only land deal shape a small local bank will look at without an appraisal fight, because they can see two comparable finished lots. Once you're at eight lots with a new road, you're in a construction-style facility with draws and a bonding conversation. Worth knowing if you scale, and any specific terms need confirming in writing with whichever lender you actually talk to.

$1,100 to mow and open the sight lines returning on two $95k+ sales is the best line item in your post. On renovations I spend that much on a dumpster. Buyers can't imagine a house on land they can't see into.

Nine months for $47.9k, no crew, no contractors calling you at 6am. I do fast flips and I'd take that trade some weeks! The catch is you had to find the parcel, and I bet the search took longer than the deal.

Your retail lot prices are roughly double what mine would be at 90 minutes further out, and my bulk prices aren't half of yours. The spread compresses as you get rural, which is the thing I keep running into. 40 minutes from a mid-size city is doing a lot of work in this deal.

How did you screen the buyers, or does that not apply the same way? With rentals I'm learning to check everything. Is a land buyer just cash or pre-approved and that's the end of it?

Nine months of no income and then a lump. I know that's how it works and I still find it hard to plan around, since I'm trying to replace a paycheck rather than build a lump. Did the tax bill on the gain change how you'd time the second one?

The wet back corner on lot B would have kept me up. Did anything come up about wetlands, or was it just soggy? Around here soggy sometimes means a delineation and a federal conversation, and that's a different timeline entirely.

Two units, two closings, done in nine months. My small multifamily takes nine months to teach me one thing about a boiler. I like reading the whole cycle in one post.

Which came first for you, the county or the parcel? I've been researching holding patterns and I'm starting to think the county's subdivision ordinance is the actual asset and the land is just the thing you put in it.

When you read the subdivision ordinance yourself, how long did that take and did you understand it the first time? I've downloaded two of them and my eyes slid off both. If it really comes down to a weekend and a phone call to the planner, I can do that.

The discipline I'd point at: you bought the smallest thing that could work and finished it. Most people's first land deal is 80 acres and a dream about eleven lots, and they're still holding it in year four. Small and complete beats big and pending.

A perc test means they dig a hole, fill it with water, and time how fast it drains, because a septic system needs the soil to absorb wastewater. Fail means either no conventional septic or a much more expensive engineered one. Verity, did the county require one test per lot, or was that your choice for marketing?