Selling Land

Land flipping is buying parcels below market and reselling them. The margin is operating income, and scale can cost you the capital gains rate.

Submit a plat, get it approved, record it. You cannot legally sell a new lot until the plat is both approved and recorded.

An easement by necessity is not something you obtain. It exists only if your parcel was severed from a tract that had access. Check the chain of title first.

Tennessee charges 37 cents per $100 to record the deed and no state income tax on the gain. The greenbelt rollback is what catches sellers.

List land on multiple platforms without multiple fees by combining free and flat-fee channels and skipping percentage commissions, so one small cost buys wide reach.

Anchor to sold comparables, work out who can walk away more easily, and trade terms. No published percentage tells you what land sells for.

Long-term gain on land is taxed at 0, 15 or 20 percent, plus 3.8 percent above the NIIT threshold, after selling costs come off the price.

Small tracts carry a measured per-acre premium over large ones, so pricing a 1 to 10 acre parcel off big-tract comps underprices it.

A builder’s finished lot budget runs near 13.7 percent of the home’s sales price, and development cost comes out of that before you are paid.

Two costs. One scales with your sale price, the commission, and one does not, the closing costs every seller pays.