Development Site. What's the best way to sell it?

I have an old 4 BR house on a large block close to central Frankston, beach, uni, TAFE, schools, shops, train station etc.. I have gone through the process of getting plans and permits for three townhouses 1x4BR, 2x2BR. The process took 14 months and cost over $20,000 as Frankston Council is very difficult to deal with.
Now everything is approved and I have decided just to sell rather than go through the hassle of the building process.
Does anyone have tips on the best way to sell a development site?
Should I go through a local agent, a commercial broker or one of the self sell mobs?
Is an auction the best way to sell development sites?
This property would only appeal to investors/builders/developers so there would be a limited amount of potential buyers.
I have been letterboxed by developers but they turned out to be time-wasters looking for cheap buys and very long settlement times or wanting to do a partnership build.
I know the real estate market basically shuts down over Christmas/January so should I wait a month or so?
Any advice would be very welcome.

 

There are a number of ways to work this out -
Recent sold prices for similar product
How much are individual lots selling for
Contact many re agents to find out approximate sale price/sold prices

However, you still need to work out whether it is viable proposition for a builder.

Selling a DA is very much dependent on -

Quality of the Designs of townhouses
Good designs are very important, poor designs will not be attractive to a builder because he will have issues selling the product.

The builder/buyer needs to make a profit of at least 20% otherwise they wont be interested. You can not just whack a price on it and hope for the best.

work backwards-
You need to work out how much the product/townhouses will sell for today?

Then take away all the other costs, including land, site/infrastructure costs what is left?

I am just giving you some basics from my own experience, I have now sold 2 DA's and they both flew out the door, both sold to builders and both had plenty of fat in the deal.

BTW, I know nothing about the Frankston area

All the best

MTR

 

Auction seems to be best way ATM.

eview seems to be achieving great results in the area!

 

Try Permit Approved Property Development Sites for Sale or Development Sites Melbourne
Either way, you'll need to use an agent.
How much do you want to sell it for?
Plenty of buyers on this site...

 

I agree with you here, if the site is unique and in demand and plenty of buyers..... auction all the way. Not sure whether Frankston fits the Melb city mould???

 

You could also try approaching MEL buyers agents who may have developer clients - saves selling agent coms.

 

Thankyou. Your advice has been very helpful and given me a bit more to consider.

 

very welcome

I also hope this helps others if they decide to go down this road.

Interesting thing is you will actually know if your DA is attractive to builders because you will have offers probably within the first week or two if its going to make money and builders are no nonsense, the numbers either work or they don't.

MTR

 

Thanks. It's hard to judge exactly what it would be worth. There is only one other similar development size property on the market at the moment in Frankston and the price range is $730,000 to $800,000 and it doesn't have plans and permits so I think it may be a bit high but who knows - Frankston prices have grown substantially in the last year. I think my property is more unique in its position of town living, walkability and convenience. I guess I would be happy to get $650,000 for a non-agent sale and a reasonable settlement period.

 

Have a chat with a couple of agents, suss out what they've been selling in the way of development approved sites.

Then decide which way to jump.

Also check out Millars List

 

Try to list on Permit Approved Property Development Sites for Sale or 学会说中国话
and get a buyer overseas.

 

By chance my Chinese sister-in-law is here and translated for me. She laughed and said "that's not going to happen - you trying to learn Chinese"! I suddenly realised why Chinese people are so clever and have a higher IQ. They had to evolve a brain that could cope with learning the thousands of complex Chinese characters in their written language. Anyway I don't think any Chinese investor would really be interested in a 3 townhouse site in Frankston. Thanks anyway.