Finding the cheapest land in a state is a strategy many land investors use to capitalize on undervalued land to flip or hold a couple years for a nice return. While some land is at full value, there’s always some place in a state that hasn’t reached its full potential. Land in these spots is […]
Finding the cheapest land in a state is a strategy many land investors use to capitalize on undervalued land to flip or hold a couple years for a nice return. While some land is at full value, there’s always some place in a state that hasn’t reached its full potential. Land in these spots is usually fire sold or easy to offer below value bids with motivated sellers. What the sellers don’t realize is that the land they are holding happens to be the lowest in the state, which often draws many buyers eventually and once these investros flip for higher the area in full sees values rise.
Finding the cheapest land in a state is an online process you will learn today, but there’s also an important strategy to make sure the land isn’t cheap for a reason. You want to find the ones with potential and value return, which we will go over here. With the right tools and a sharp eye, you can uncover incredible land deals while avoiding money pits. This guide shows you exactly how.
Start by visiting Zillow and use the selector to only focus on land, removing all home options. Now, you want to start a narrow down process by selecting your target state. Use the “Draw” tool to circle the whole state you are interested in. Then:
This helps you identify where the cheapest land clusters.
After spotting the general area with the cheapest listings, use the draw tool again, this time focusing on a tighter radius around those listings. They are always grouped together as the area is low cost all together in an area vs. other areas.
This step reveals the true low-cost pockets within the state.
Cheap land isn’t always good land. Common red flags include:
You can do this quite easily by reading the listings, if it has an HOA then avoid it. The value usually won’t change with land like this as long term people don’t want to pay HOA dues, so the land will remain cheap. You can also use county GIS maps or contact the assessor to confirm access and zoning. Some land you cannot access, there’s simply no road to the area and with zoning, sometimes building is blocked by the county for various reasons. Some also have environmental issues, completely flooded wetlands land will never grow in value as you can’t do anything with it.
So, if this is your results it’s time to start back over at step 1, now you’re looking for the second cheapest land in the state. You want to do this process till you find good standing land, buildable, accessible and without HOA dues.
Once you found the cheapest land with the qualifications mentioned in step 3 it’s time to research its potential. Cheap doesn’t mean worthless, it’s simply a price point, but for the greatest potential land add these qualifications to your search for the best chance of increased value over time.
Free tools like Google Earth, Redfin, and public tax databases help validate your area. If you start to see that the area is developing a bit, the land is still low cost but growing slightly in value then it’s usually a good start. You can look under sold instead of for sale to see past values. At LandZero we have used this strategy for ages. Our customers throughout the years have seen major increase in value due to our ways to research land. We know the potential of the area, we know the prices and see value in that area over time. If you want some good examples visit our Land in America For Sale
Use listings in your narrowed zone to calculate:
This will give you a price benchmark and identify what’s actually a good deal versus just the cheapest land. If the acreage is super small then it’s cheap because of that, some large acre lots might be way cheaper by average cost per acre. People like large parcels of land, you have a better chance of gain with a 1 acre lot vs a 6000 sqft lot.
Use platforms like:
Create alerts with your filters so you’re notified the moment a new listing hits your price range. Fire sales, estate sales, or out of state owners often price land to move fast. Being on top of new listings first might give you the jump on a fire sale in the area with the cheapest land for the ultimate immediate value upon ownership.
Once you know the average value, target listings that:
Offer below the average and do it in bulk, many sellers take lower offers if they just want it gone. This won’t usually work for homes but for land it does, some just want it off their list so they don’t have to pay annual taxes anymore. If you have notifications on just send a 50% offer each time till someone bites.
With these steps, you can start owning land for the best price possible in an area with great potential. In some cases you can make 300% or more just holding a couple years. These areas are often targeted eventually, people like cheap land prices and once the area is focused on by land buyers the value quickly goes up.
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