Who's life sucks and wants to make some money?

[LinvilleGorge]

2 hours ago, SmittysLawnGuy said:

I'm not renting a campsite out. I'm taking a cheap overgrown mountain lot, clearing it out and making it liveable for an RV. Then I am reselling this lot for the buyers own personal campsite with electric sewer and water. My profit will be substantial.

No it wouldn't. You'd be making minimal actual improvements to the lot and the price you could actually get would reflect those minimal improvements. If you think you can just run utilities to a parcel of land, put in a driveway and a lot for an RV and turn around and sell it for six figures in rural western NC you're completely out of your mind. But go ahead and try. I'm just telling you you're gonna lose your ass on this venture.

[SmittysLawnGuy]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

No it wouldn't. You'd be making minimal actual improvements to the lot and the price you could actually get would reflect those minimal improvements. If you think you can just run utilities to a parcel of land, put in a driveway and a lot for an RV and turn around and sell it for six figures in rural western NC you're completely out of your mind. But go ahead and try. I'm just telling you you're gonna lose your ass on this venture.

I'll keep you posted.

[thefuzz]

Whoa...Totally missed this over the weekend.

I'm just going to say....be careful...like real careful.

Every real estate guy I know who has tried to tackle any worthwhile land deal in WNC has come to regret it...every single one.  Could it work?  Sure.  But I've been in this biz for 17 years...the hit rate is very close to the hit rate of Marty Hurney 2nd rounders.

Good luck...you are going to need it.

 

P.S. this RV boom is going to shift HARD again...by the time your place is even close to ready to make a profit, there will be LOTS of open lots around again.

[Khyber53]

Okay, I spent most of my life in WNC, in the Boone/West Jefferson area. Family full of real estate agents, brokers, contractors and carpenters. It's a tough area to make a living in, the real estate prices are out of reach of most folks or the plots are out of reach of most services.

Here's my advice. If you're hell bent on doing this, you need to look for land south of Avery County and north of Buncombe County. Mitchell, Madison and Yancey. Everything else is priced based on tourists, second homers or college town rates. All three of those have difficult terrain, but you may find some plots and lots that could fit your bill. A lot of those places have no road access and you'd have to negotiate/buy access, then build a road to them. Grading and gravel alone are going to be massive costs. And then running electricity to them can be prohibitive since you will probably be some distance from a main line. And well-digging is going to require some kind off roadway to get the big truck in. Find you a good well-witcher before buying the property because there's no guarantee of water resources, especially on the size lots you are talking about. 

You may have some luck by asking about recently cut timber lands. They usually have rudimentary roads at least, but you're going to have some non-plus scenery for quite a while. Also check to make sure that the properties don't have restrictive covenants about hunting, etc. Those are more common than you think as families will sometimes sell of small plots to cover taxes that border on their own hunting properties. They'll do the restrictive covenants to create kind of a poaching barrier and protect their own wildlife for later harvesting. And believe me, your sites will be easier to sell to hunters than to RV'ers in the near future. Check the surrounding land records for covenants and walk the property to make sure it isn't posted. Check with neighboring land owners if they are open to leasing hunting rights.

Good luck with this. It's going to be a hard dime to turn, but if you're smart and sweat equity it, you can do it. If there is a good road and room enough for a septic system on site, you might be able to market the lots to tiny house owners who want a more back to nature lifestyle.