Eric Masaschi: Before the Home, There’s the Land

Well, while you're evaluating land, what makes a property a great residential opportunity and what can make you walk away from a site that looks promising?

Yeah, so location, location, location.

I think everybody's heard that.

Obviously, you want to find land where people want to be.

But then probably the next thing after that is cost.

Is it going to be affordable? We talk about the buyer pyramid.

Only a few people can afford $2 million houses.

And then as you get more affordable, a lot more people.

So we want to make sure that we're looking in the right location, but also providing something that's affordable.

And so that gets into, well, how much density can you get? Do you have utilities that are available? Is the municipality very difficult to work with? What are their impact fees? And then just some of the tangible things about walking away from the deal.

Does it have a bunch of rock? Does it have a bunch of wetlands and stream crossings? There are lots of things that can make a deal go sideways pretty quickly.

Yeah, I think that, you know, lots of people don't realize, you know, we have this thing in Atlanta called topography.

Right.

That can make things really challenging, too.

That, you know, not everything is flat.

It's not easy to put a slab everywhere.

And, you know, I guess the flip side of that is if you really want to put in basement lots, sometimes you've got land that isn't easy for basement lots.

So, you know, all those things add and subtract, you know, cost from the overall project.

Yeah.

And we all talk about that all the good pieces of property have already been developed.

So what's the challenging pieces, which has topo and has streams and wetlands and all the stuff you imagine?

Yeah.

Well, you know, consumers tend to think about the price of the home and they think about the lumber and the construction.

You know, how much of the ultimate home price is actually determined before anyone ever even starts building that home?

Yeah, great question.

Well, while you're evaluating land, what makes a property a great residential opportunity and what can make you walk away from a site that looks promising?

Yeah, so location, location, location.

I think everybody's heard that.

Obviously, you want to find land where people want to be.

But then probably the next thing after that is cost.

Is it going to be affordable? We talk about the buyer pyramid.

Only a few people can afford $2 million houses.

And then as you get more affordable, a lot more people.

So we want to make sure that we're looking in the right location, but also providing something that's affordable.

And so that gets into, well, how much density can you get? Do you have utilities that are available? Is the municipality very difficult to work with? What are their impact fees? And then just some of the tangible things about walking away from the deal.

Does it have a bunch of rock? Does it have a bunch of wetlands and stream crossings? There are lots of things that can make a deal go sideways pretty quickly.

Yeah, I think that, you know, lots of people don't realize, you know, we have this thing in Atlanta called topography.

Right.

That can make things really challenging, too.

That, you know, not everything is flat.

It's not easy to put a slab everywhere.

And, you know, I guess the flip side of that is if you really want to put in basement lots, sometimes you've got land that isn't easy for basement lots.

So, you know, all those things add and subtract, you know, cost from the overall project.

Yeah.

And we all talk about that all the good pieces of property have already been developed.

So what's the challenging pieces, which has topo and has streams and wetlands and all the stuff you imagine?

Yeah.

Well, you know, consumers tend to think about the price of the home and they think about the lumber and the construction.

You know, how much of the ultimate home price is actually determined before anyone ever even starts building that home?

Yeah, great question.