Land Control - How to create value

Posting anonymously as this might just be too much info along with some of my past posts -

I've found a ~30 acre parcel for sale in my hometown, it's in a perfect location for multifamily development

I will be working with a small development shop in Chicago after I graduate school this June, I've been interning with them throughout college so I understand the development process well, but at the same time I literally have no real experience or $ to put toward this deal, this is clearly an issue.

My hometown is relatively small, and I loosely know the broker who has the listing for the land parcel and the city's building and zoning administrator

I'm looking for any advice or suggestions as to how I can create value in this situation, and ideally be involved with the development - or - work in some sourcing fee with a development company in the area, and maybe even take a small portion (5% ?) of the dev fee if I put together an OM/pitch that illustrates the opportunity along with doing the initial legwork with the broker and the city

@luv2speed has a post somewhat similar to this situation called "How I did my own development", if you have any recommendations I would love to hear them

I'm struggling to understand how I can attack this situation without real experience, I think my best bet is to leverage my relationship with the broker & zoning administrator, tie up the land/control the parcel in some way, and then try to take a sourcing fee from a development company who can then actually run the project - and ideally I would ask to be involved with the project in some fashion, if anything just to gain more experience with the development process

I would really appreciate any and all thoughts/comments/concerns

3 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I’m going to quote something I wrote in another topic, it’s a general comment but relevant to your question. Real estate has a creative side, Also I’m more of an urban infill investor, so when I see cows I don’t develop (I get nervous). I get it, this is a path of growth land play. You don’t mention what the surrounding uses are, who would be strategically interested in doing this deal vs the thousands of other acres of land elsewhere. You don’t mention whether the land is on a major highway or a sleepy country road with cows. Non income producing land is a big money suck. If you want to take this question off-line happy to give you my thoughts. I did six years of multi family development including a heavy dose of land acquisitions and structuring. Actually I’m a land acq guy who did Development. I get creative. I also like hometown deals. Means you are trying to go full circle which I think shows something that is often lost in professionals these day$$.

Here’s my quote:

There are rules / laws that one must follow in real estate and creativity is generally between the laws of the law (building codes, zoning, physics, etc) and the parameters of what is financeable.

Have compassion as well as ambition and you’ll go far in life. I am interested in digital immortality. Check out my blog at digitalimmortality.com
 

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