What the land can actually become, and what that’s worth to the person buying it.
Land is priced on what somebody believes can be built on it. That belief is often wrong in both directions.
Sellers price on the best case a broker described. Buyers discount for risk they can’t quantify. Both are guessing at the same number, what this parcel will actually get approved for, and neither has looked at the record that would answer it.
If you’re selling
A parcel with a documented approval path is worth more than the same parcel without one, because the buyer’s discount for uncertainty comes off your price. Knowing what will approve, what it yields and how long it takes lets you either price accordingly or fix the thing that’s suppressing the number.
If you’re holding
Carrying costs run whether or not anything is happening. The questions that decide when to move, has the political climate shifted, is the comprehensive plan being updated, has the board that would decide this changed composition, are all visible in the public record, and none of them announce themselves.
If you’re a land bank or an investor with a date
You’re carrying land against a return and a timeline, and the risk isn’t usually the market. It’s the approval that takes eight months longer than modeled, or the development that slips past the year end you underwrote to while everyone reports on schedule.
Both are manageable if somebody is accountable for the date. Frequently nobody is, every party is responsible for their piece, and the gaps between them are where the schedule goes.
Your money isn’t waiting on construction. It’s waiting on paperwork nobody owns.
What we’d do
- Read the record for the jurisdiction, what’s been approved nearby, at what density, with what conditions.
- Read the parcel, the code and the dirt together, down to a realistic yield with the binding constraint named.
- Tell you the path, which approvals, decided by whom, how long, and what it costs.
- Carry it, if you want us to, the approvals, and the development after them.
Start with one parcel and one question.