Getting to Know Your Land Contract

To learn how this all fits together lets suppose you are interested in investing in some real estate and developing your own little broker business to generate some extra income.
Before you can really do anything in your business, you must first acquire some real estate. Now you might sift through the local papers and real estate guides looking for that ideal piece that fits all your requirements. This method could take quite some time as it is hard to come by really good deals in this manner.

On the other hand, perhaps a friend mentioned in passing how he built his first house on a piece of property he purchased at a land auction and got a great deal on. Your friend may be on to something here. Have you ever thought about checking out a land auction? For more info on Cathedral Open houses visit our page.
If you have not been to a land auction now is the time to go check one out in your area.

Thanks to the great format of auctions, the land you are bidding on will start at a relatively low bid price and the land auction will proceed just like a normal auction. Often there will not be much competition for land and you will be able to purchase a great piece of land from the land auction. After you have got your piece of property from the land auction you must find a way to finance it.

This is where the land loan comes in. A land loan is exactly what it sounds like – a loan for a piece of land. The land loan will be secured by the real estate that it pays for and you will be able to get a loan for the amount of the sale price of the real estate property. Your lender will likely dictate some terms as to what can be done with the land to ensure the value of the land remains intact and the land loan balance can be paid off. If you are into rentals then you might consider building a house or two on this property, depending on the size of the property you won in the land auction. Once your land loan is secure and you have built the houses and landscaped the property then your energies must turn to making this acquisition profitable to you.

Hopefully you have added value to the land and can sell the property at a profit. This will create a nice little return on the project and allow you to focus your efforts on the next project. On the other hand you might consider exiting the property by selling the land and closing on a land contract with the buyer.

A land contract insinuates that you are essentially financing the purchase for the buyer. Thus, when a buyer signs a land contract he is agreeing to submit monthly payments to you directly at the agreed upon terms. In turn you will pocket some of the money and turn the rest over to the bank that issued you the land loan. By using a land contract you can help somebody who has bad credit purchase the land and charge them a premium on that agreement so that you are making money on top of money.

That is to say you are making interest on top of the net profit you got with the sale of the property.