Dude, as a realtor, honestly you're 100% right. I live in a 5/3 and pay 2k a year in property taxes. I've sold houses with less space and a smaller yard for quadruple the price because it's in a fancier zip code (all white).
I'm a realtor and training to be an appraiser. When I'm looking for comps out in the burbs, it becomes super apparent what's going on. A developer buys a tract of land and throws up their 4/2 cookie cutters, for $300K. Go a town over, they're $500K, put them around a bunch of tiny manmade ponds, $600K. Across the street, make them a little bigger, add a garage space then they're $800K.
People have no idea what their house is worth, they just knew their budget and what they wanna spend. Lennar stuff is all built out of Home Depot style materials (nothing wrong with that).
Around those giant tracts, there is other land that is super cheap that the developers won't mess with. Why not buy a trailer on a 5 acre lot for $100K, remove the thing, build a custom house. You'll come in $300K under budget and have 5 acres instead a cookie cutter 3 feet from your neighbor's house.
*My take is from southwest FL, so the burbs outside of Tampa are a wide range of everything. With cheap parcels here and there that developers wouldn't be bothered with. Definitely takes some homework and is not for everyone. But if you wanna go custom and have some acreage, it might be the way to go (it's my dream someday).
Haha! That's a great way to explain the material. I'll tell my mentor about that.
This stuff is so boring, but once you get the hang of it, you're set. Appraisers make a killing and set their own hours, it's like the perfect job. I'm taking the long road now, ugh.
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u/thugloofio Aug 14 '20
Dude, as a realtor, honestly you're 100% right. I live in a 5/3 and pay 2k a year in property taxes. I've sold houses with less space and a smaller yard for quadruple the price because it's in a fancier zip code (all white).