Land Sales Expert Eric Andrews discusses past sales of land near RDU. He has sold raw land and other commercial property near the airport and offers tips for sellers who want to get the most for their land.
Speaker 1: How does somebody sell land near RDU and what is that land worth?
Eric: Well, [inaudible] again, we have to figure out what the potential of the property is. So, if you have warehouse that’s hugely important. If you have any kind of industrial storage, that’s real important.
Speaker 1: What if it’s just raw land?
Eric: Well, raw land, I still have to figure out what its potential is. I sold on the corner of airport Boulevard right next to the airport. I sold three and a half acres there and I went to the town of Morrisville and I said, “Hey, what can we do with this property?” The town planner was a little bit of a smart ass. He said, “I can tell you what you can’t do with this property.” I’m like, “All right, tell me what you can’t do with it.” He goes, “I don’t want a convenience store, and I don’t want a hotel.” I was like, dang. I really thought this would be good for a convenience store or a hotel. It had a pretty big cemetery on it already. I was like, “All right, no convenience store, no cemetery.”
I was representing a bank. It was a bank-owned property. The bank wasn’t going to let you rezone it. So the property was probably worth a million and a half. The bank was selling it for a million, but you were not going to put this piece of land under contract and get it rezoned. It was as is. So you were taking the risk. Sure enough, one of the commercial brokers in that area calls me up and he says, “Eric, we’re going to buy this for a million bucks.” I’m like, “Okay. He goes, “And we want it rezoned.” I’m like, “Yeah, it’s a bank, you’re not getting it rezoned.” It’s as is. He is like, “Okay.” I was like, “So just out of curiosity, what do you want to do?” He goes, “Oh, we’re going to do a big hotel in the back and we’re going to do a convenience store right in the front.”
I was like, “Yeah, man, I already talked to the planning department that’s… I said, “I got to look out the best interest of the seller or whatever, but I don’t want to waste your time here. I don’t want to put it under contract and you find out it’s not going to fly. That’s not going to fly.” He said, “Don’t you worry about it.” I could tell you on that spot right now, there’s a hotel and a convenience store. He got it done. So, you got to figure out what the potential is or whatever. I was involved with another deal that we did a car rental place, and it wasn’t actually the car rental place, it was just the storage of the car rentals. But those are the kind of things. I cannot tell people the shortage of warehouse space, this Raleigh, North Carolina, the Southeast, the United States, there’s a tremendous shortage of warehouse space. If anybody wants to have an opportunity to make some money, they need to buy some raw land and put some warehouse space on it and they’ll make a killing. There’s a huge shortage right now.
