The Land Investing Business Secrets From Flips to Development: Turning Raw Land into Builder-Ready Lots (Podcast Ep#145)
Oct 2, 2025
Brandon Cobb, a land developer specializing in horizontal development, shares his journey from house flipping to creating builder-ready lots. He discusses the advantages of pre-selling lots to national builders as a risk management strategy. Brandon provides insights into the approval process, typical timelines, and the importance of building strong relationships with builders. He also highlights common pitfalls for new developers dealing with municipalities and shares a case study on a successful 74-lot project, revealing key costs and lessons learned.
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From Fired To Full-Time Real Estate
- Brandon lost his medical device sales job and used his retirement to start flipping houses, compounding profits back into his business.
- He scaled to 187 transactions and moved from flipping to building before discovering land development opportunities.
What Horizontal Development Means
- Horizontal development focuses on roads, utilities, grading and preparing lots rather than building homes.
- This lets developers sell builder-ready lots and avoid managing dozens of trade contractors for vertical construction.
Pre-Sell Lots To Reduce Risk
- Pre-contract and pre-sell lots to national builders to remove back-end market risk before moving dirt.
- Accept builder deposits (10–20%) to fund development and reduce your financing needs.