Land Pitfalls and Best Practices Recap

Key Takeaways

• Land failures cluster in three categories: due diligence failures, valuation errors, and structural risk management failures.
• Environmental investigations (Phase I ESA, wetland delineation) are non-negotiable — the cost of skipping them dwarfs the investigation expense.
• Every land deal must pass a 5-point decision framework: market demand, due diligence clearance, residual value support, adequate controls, and multiple exit strategies.
• Conservative discipline — walking away from more deals than you close — is the only approach that produces consistent positive returns in land.