Been following a vacant lot near me and I'm a little skeptical about the price drops

just ask the listing agent. they will prob be honest

All I can think is maybe a small developer bit off more than they can chew

I'll call the listing agent tomorrow. There is another lot that's right down the street that has identical pricing and price movement other than the last 9K drop. Even on the same dates

You didn't give much information but I'd start here.

Call the realtor to get the story then call a different realtor to get that story. Meet the realtor/s at the property and stay there a while, try to go around 5-6 so people can see you there. Go back the next day same time you were there and saw people then talk to them about the lot.
And/or. Just go investigate, hit the courthouse and look thru the details/look for easements/liens/ past liens. Check the obvious like floodzone, insurance rates in the area, cost to get utilities to the home, crime, property tax, and especially make sure it wasn't an old dump or other things that could be a problem.

That last lot might be the dump for the contractor when he built all of his houses. Talk to the old homeowners, they might know.

Get a printout of the past years lot sales
Are they going up/down ?
What have other corner lots sold for ?
Some corner lots buildable areas get eatin up by having front and side street servitudes
Most corner lots have the garage on the side/rear . Do the restictions only allow for a front garage, which would be stupid ?

Maybe some weird servitudes?
is the side street a main entrance street, traffic ?

quote:

---

Seller would be stupid to drop price unless desperate.

---

That's what I'm thinking. And the fact that no one has made a move on it is a little concerning. At the end of the day 15K isn't much in the scheme of things but it's still enough to raise some eyebrows. Particularly how quickly they've tanked the listing price.

quote:

---

In your experience what sort of questions should I be asking before I pursue this?

---

Basic things like underground ROW/utilities/pipelines that may limit development, surface rights, title search, etc. After that I wouldn't be overly worried about it. Likely someone who bought it years ago expecting to develop and never did. So now they're just trying to get off of it. $15k reduction in 3 months isn't that outlandish in this market, properties are getting stale and sellers are getting worried it may get worse.

Even at $67k I would go in much lower, knowing that they are showing desperate/flexible pricing.

This is a little out of what you're asking about so not much relevance. There is a golf course in Weatherford Tx (Canyon West). The houses out there are what I would call mid-high end homes. I'd say homes are in the $800k+ range. There are two houses on the 4th hole that got to the end of the framing stage, then they just sat for the last several years. They have the OSB on the roof but no shingles. Tyvek siding on the outside but no masonry done. Wood is absolutely toast at this point. I got paired up with a guy that lived on the course, and he said that they didn't pour any piers for the house and the soil out there called for it. Apparently the builder ran out of money. At this point, anyone buying the lot, is going to have to absolutely tear everything down and start from 0. Builders do run out of money, and especially given the instability over the last few years of building materials, could be anything.

I'd be mostly concerned about if there is any nuisances on neighboring lots, building restrictions for the lot, and like someone else said, is there anything under the ground that's going to prevent you from doing what you want to do. Is the lot an awkward size or similar sized to the neighbors?

We have a lot in our neighborhood that is one of the last at that same price level and has been unsold for probably 15 years. It’s a pretty severe slope and original developer dug a footprint for a basement house but never moved forward. Our best guess is that it could be unbuildable due to the prior excavation and left to right slope…or at a minimum it would be a weird house.

Any property on the market means someone wants to get rid of it.

You should go with due diligence anyway, but price drops aren't that much of a red flag. If you're not getting offers you might be asking too much. Price changes cause a property to reappear on the daily report.

If you have a buyer's agent they can tell you if the property has been under contract and went back on the market, or if it's stayed on the market the whole time (which means no full price offers).

What’s the address? I’ll evaluate it for you from the information I can gather.

I handle most of the land sales in our brokerage because most agents hate dealing with vacant land.