Phoenix, Arizona: Our First Commercial Land
Our first real commercial land deal was a small corner lot on Thomas Road in Phoenix. It changed how I think about land.
See the lot
Zoom in on the satellite view to see the lot lines, or switch to the street map in the top-right corner.
Lot lines: Maricopa County Assessor parcel data. Imagery: Esri World Imagery. Lines are approximate and not a survey.
The deal
In December 2020, one of our cash offers was accepted on 2201 E Thomas Rd in Phoenix (Maricopa County parcel 117-01-034A), about 15,500 sq ft on a busy street. My partner Caron and I found the deal through our mailers, and I posted it on LandTank, where three investors funded it fast. All in, with costs and fees, we had about $171,000 in it.
The bus stop problem
We listed it with Tina Larsen at Candid Realty in Phoenix, and Caron worked with her every step of the way. Buyers liked it, but there was a catch: a bus stop sat right where a driveway on Thomas Road needed to go. An early buyer backed out. Another offered $310,000 with a 10-day close, then pulled out because it’s almost impossible to put a business there without that driveway.
Tina kept working it. She talked to the city planning department and a former city council member about moving the bus stop, and one of our partners called Valley Metro directly. She kept advertising and kept the offers coming.
Sold for $321,000
In July 2021 we had two cash offers at $315,000 from buyers who knew about the bus stop and didn’t care. Tina pushed one of them to $321,000 with a 45-day close. It closed in September 2021 for about $127,000 in profit for the partners.
A developer for Salad and Go went after this lot too. That got me thinking about high-traffic real estate. If a brand wants one site, they want unlimited more. You just need to find the right land for them at the right price, and they can buy all day long. That’s so much easier than selling vacant land to new people all the time. All the marketing gets cut out of the trade.
That idea led to the $127,327.37 offers on high-traffic land all over the country, including Huber Heights, Ohio.
Thank you, Tina and Caron
This deal wouldn’t have closed without a broker who kept pushing through a bus stop, a pulled offer and a backlog on the environmental report, and a partner who stayed on the phone with her the whole way. I like working with good brokers. If you’re one, let’s talk.
Hear the stories live
I tell deals like this one on my free live calls. Bring your questions.
