A 9 acre parcel split into two lots for about $47k on an administrative plat

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.

Worth taking these numbers apart a bit, because the headline understates the risk and overstates the margin at the same time. First, the per-acre math. Bought at $13,850 an acre in bulk, 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 costs ate $22,590 of it. On 9.1 acres, the total cost stack comes to $2,480 an acre. That means the spread has to be at least $2,500 an acre before a dollar is made, and this one was about three times that. That's the actual margin of safety, and it's the number worth carrying into the next deal rather than the $47,900 headline. Second, commission. $10,270 is 21 percent of the profit. Not an argument for selling it solo, there are plenty of reasons not to, but on a two lot deal that's the single largest cost after the land. Third, the perc test. Lot B is priced at $95,500 with a passing conventional perc assumed. A failed perc typically costs $20k to $25k of price plus double the marketing time. So the downside case on that one hole is roughly half the profit, and that risk sits open after closing with the full purchase price already committed. Moving the tests into the inspection period 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's done well here and worth repeating: the ordinance was read first and the parcel was picked to fit the cheapest approval path. Most people pick the parcel first and discover the path afterward.

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 two comparable finished lots are easy to see. Once a project reaches eight lots with a new road, that's a construction-style facility with draws and a bonding conversation. Worth knowing when scaling, and any specific terms need confirming in writing with the lender being used.

$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.

Take the same split 90 minutes further out and the retail lot prices come in at roughly half of yours, while the bulk prices don't drop by anything close to half. The spread compresses as you get rural, and that's the pattern that catches people. Being 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. That is how splits work, and it is the hardest part to plan around for anyone trying to replace a paycheck rather than build a lump. Did the tax bill on the gain change how you would time the second one?

The wet back corner on lot B is the piece that would worry a careful buyer. Did anything come up about wetlands, or was it just soggy? In a lot of counties soggy means a delineation and a federal conversation, and that is a different timeline entirely.

Two lots, two closings, done in nine months. A small multifamily can take nine months to teach its owner one thing about a boiler. Reading the whole cycle in one post is a pleasure.

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 it take and did it make sense on the first pass? These documents are written for surveyors and county staff, and a first time reader's eyes tend to slide off the page. If it really comes down to a weekend and a phone call to the planner, that is a bar almost anyone here can clear.

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?