Episode 022 - Interview w/ Zack King

The Clarified Realty Podcast | Real Estate Secrets Your Agent Doesn't Want You To Know!

On this week's Clarified Realty Podcast, we're taking a trip into territory that's a little less traveled -- Vacant Land. When people talk about real estate, they're usually thinking mostly about purchasing or selling a pre-existing, pre-owned, pre-built single-family residence or condo. But, it doesn't have to be that way. There's another option -- buying land and building your own. But as our guest for this week, Zack King, will tell you, it's definitely not always that easy. Zack is a rock star when it comes to representing buyers or sellers of vacant land and he is an expert of determining whether or not building your "dream home" from scratch is really a viable option in the first place. We start off by discussing an interesting fact -- that only 30 years ago, 1 in 3 houses were owner built. We talk about what type of atmosphere could have possibly led to such a change in attitudes in the market since then and how realistic it is for someone to build their own house on land that they purchase. We talk about challenges that need to be overcome, like zoning, easements, and getting utilities to the property (spoiler: there's only one utility that is the most difficult, but, unfortunately, that's the one you most need to live). We also go over the types of inspections that a potential buyer should need to have done (soil, perc, etc.) and how they impact whether or not the land is buildable in the first place. We then talk about how developers are primarily the main purchasers of vacant land and what they seem to be building these days. We then wrap up with a conversation with both Ron and Zack about how lenders deal differently with vacant land compared to homes. It's a really fascinating episode and definitely off the beaten track! I really hope you'll give it a listen and tell us what you think in the comments!