I have a block of land in a small town 45 mins from Dubbo NSW that I'm looking to sell. For reasons that will become clear, it suits a DIY/owner builder type, or perhaps a removal house or prefab.
I didn't buy it as an investment. The town is a tiny town and I intended to live there. (My plans changed when my son had health problems and I needed to be near the city).
Not that it has been a bad investment - my on-paper return ten years on is 12-15 fold, making it my best on-paper investment ever. However, it isn't particularly liquid as undeveloped land. There's a lot of land there. My half-acre residential block, one street back from the main drag, is one of many.
The real problem is, the price is too low to sell through an agent. I bought it privately for $1000 - yes, $1000 - ten or eleven years ago, and it's now worth $10-15,000, depending on whether we're talking optimistic or firesale. (I'd be aiming for $13,000). Of course, selling through an agent would eat up 30-40% of that on the flat rate basis used for such low-cost properties. (One agent tried to sell me on an auction! I asked him what clearance statistics he was using to support such a recommendation. Jenman would have been proud). So I would not recommend anyone buy it unless they planned to either build on it or sit on it for another decade.
The housing profile there doesn't really lend itself to building a glossy project home. The figures might work out if you're in the trade, but the standard house there is a 3 bedroom weatherboard going for 150,000-170,000. I don't think you'd have any trouble getting 170K for a 3br removal home done up nicely, although you might have it on the market for quite a few months. (Houses are more liquid than land there, but it is still a small town. Modestly tidy houses seem to sell in 3-6 months while tired houses sit forever). That's why I say it's suited to a DIYer, tradie, or a removal home as opposed to someone contracting everything out. There's a nice profit possible there in a relatively short time, but you'd have to be able to front or x-coll the money - lending would be an issue for such a small town.
There may be a rental market there - there is an agricultural TAFE I believe, as well as a K-10 school and a public pool - but I don't think there's enough history there to get any statistically reliable data. I wouldn't have that as my main strategy.
I'm not desparate for the money so I'm not going to put it to an agent nor accept a firesale price, but I do have other things I could do with the cash. I am happy to keep sitting on it if I don't get any takers though.
Please PM me if you are interested.
I didn't buy it as an investment. The town is a tiny town and I intended to live there. (My plans changed when my son had health problems and I needed to be near the city).
Not that it has been a bad investment - my on-paper return ten years on is 12-15 fold, making it my best on-paper investment ever. However, it isn't particularly liquid as undeveloped land. There's a lot of land there. My half-acre residential block, one street back from the main drag, is one of many.
The real problem is, the price is too low to sell through an agent. I bought it privately for $1000 - yes, $1000 - ten or eleven years ago, and it's now worth $10-15,000, depending on whether we're talking optimistic or firesale. (I'd be aiming for $13,000). Of course, selling through an agent would eat up 30-40% of that on the flat rate basis used for such low-cost properties. (One agent tried to sell me on an auction! I asked him what clearance statistics he was using to support such a recommendation. Jenman would have been proud). So I would not recommend anyone buy it unless they planned to either build on it or sit on it for another decade.
The housing profile there doesn't really lend itself to building a glossy project home. The figures might work out if you're in the trade, but the standard house there is a 3 bedroom weatherboard going for 150,000-170,000. I don't think you'd have any trouble getting 170K for a 3br removal home done up nicely, although you might have it on the market for quite a few months. (Houses are more liquid than land there, but it is still a small town. Modestly tidy houses seem to sell in 3-6 months while tired houses sit forever). That's why I say it's suited to a DIYer, tradie, or a removal home as opposed to someone contracting everything out. There's a nice profit possible there in a relatively short time, but you'd have to be able to front or x-coll the money - lending would be an issue for such a small town.
There may be a rental market there - there is an agricultural TAFE I believe, as well as a K-10 school and a public pool - but I don't think there's enough history there to get any statistically reliable data. I wouldn't have that as my main strategy.
I'm not desparate for the money so I'm not going to put it to an agent nor accept a firesale price, but I do have other things I could do with the cash. I am happy to keep sitting on it if I don't get any takers though.
Please PM me if you are interested.