I am in OKC and have a small business in the fleet semi-trailer repair / maintenance space. I am looking to purchase some raw land and build a facility, if I can do it efficiently.

I am currently on a month-to-month with my landloard on a facility that is sitting on land that has about .75 acres of usable land. It seems about 12 or so years ago my landloard purchased some vacant probably condemned residential properties, tore down the buildings, rezoned and built a warehouse facility. I am interested in doing the same.

There are 2 properties next door to my current facility, one of which is available for sale by the owner (although no price is listed) and the other smaller property has very little information available, I can only learn about it from the assessors page. My business' competitive advantage is significantly dependent on the location for my largest customers, so there are only a limited number of land options.

Tasks as I see them:
1. Make an offer for the property available for sale; I don't know what the typical offers look like
2. Find out who the owners are for the land listed as owned by "Second Thirty Years, Inc." and reach out to them, likely an offer
3. Look for other pieces of land that may work for my needs.

I have done a bit of research and the building costs for a metal building with no insulation is reasonable and within my budget. I was recommended a very junior local industrial / commercial broker by a friend who really was very little help. As a matter of fact, he is orders of magnitude off on valuation and building costs. Since the $ amounts are low, I think I am best served by working on this one myself.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know how to lookup the people and contact information behind the legal entities (in this case "Second Thirty Years, Inc.")
2. What does a typical offer for a land property looks like?
3. What diligence should I do, including what liens etc. should I look for on these properties?

I would hire a commercial real estate agent in OK to help with that. If you think you might want to use one let me know and I will send you some names. My email is blake@colemanandpatterson.com.

AgBank,

Congrats on wanting to expand.

Offers can be crapshoots. I've been trying to buy a couple of 'raw land' properties for over 5 years, and sometimes owners just flat out don't want to be bothered with even responding to civil inquiries, even when no mention of dollars is initially made.

You can try sending a 'Commercial Letter of Intent', or even try sending a completed 'Contract for Sale' along with a copy of your earnest money check and give it a 60-day expiration time, and see what happens. Maybe you can start a dialog that way.

Good luck. It's not as easy sometimes as the RE gurus make it sound.

I must offer this, however. City codes (for new construction) seem to be getting tougher by the year. Although a simple metal building may be all you need to run your business, the City may want _________________ (fill in the blanks). Hell, you may have to put in an electric vehicle charging station for your Tesla customers!

I've seen some crazy things, and they all seem to really drive up the cost of a build.

So, first check with the City and perhaps a local engineer who has experience dealing with them. You don't want to buy a piece a property only to find out your numbers don't work because the cost of a new building is much higher than just concrete, metal and labor.

AgBank said:

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1. Does anyone know how to lookup the people and contact information behind the legal entities (in this case "Second Thirty Years, Inc.")

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According to the Oklahoma S.O.S, here is what you can find out:

OK S.O.S. - Second Thirty Years

Registered Agent Information
Name: LAIRD CROWE Effective: 2 Dec 2013 Address: HCR 68 BOX 779
City, State , ZipCode: VIAN OK 74962

agtex09 / Blake,

Thank you. I have your email address documented. I tried a real estate agent and didn't care for his approach. At this time I want to try it myself since location limits the areas I am interested in.

Ribeye-Rare,

Thank you for the advice. I will definitely look into the city code for new warehouse more prior to sending an offer. 'Commercial Letter of Intent' or 'Contract for Sale' seem like great strategies.


I cannot believe I didn't think to look at SOS. Thank you for that as well.

Re: "RE Guru" Do you have a book on raw land that you would recomend?

Thank you again.

Have you asked your current landlord if he will sell? Even if you paid a little over market price, you would save moving costs.

AgBank said:

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Re: "RE Guru" Do you have a book on raw land that you would recommend?

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That's a great question. I wish I had a great answer for you.

Over the years, I've looked at a whole barrel full of commercial 'real estate' books, both in bookstores, and online. I only ever purchased one or two of them.

It seems that, at best, only (2) or (3) chapters in those books addressed my particular investment interests, or contained information I considered valuable to my particular situation. Many would deal with apartment houses, or buying existing strip centers, or getting government backing, or foreclosure situations, or X or Y. You get the idea. I'm sure somebody finds that information valuable, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

Some things were obviously way out of my league, where they were putting together deals in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. I prefer either working by myself, or with just (1) partner. That limits the size of what I can do, of course.

The one book I remember buying and keeping is actually up at my office now. I can't remember the exact name. It actually had about (4) or (5) chapters (out of 20) that gave me good information, including trying to find land in areas that, while currently undesirable, was in an area where value increasing change was highly probable, due to any number of factors.

Another chapter dealt with dealing with the local 'gatekeepers' -- Cities, School Boards, Zoning Guys, Water Districts, and other folks who must be considered, because they wield considerable influence over whether projects get built, and at what cost.

Another chapter dealt with making unsolicited offers, and actually making deals when it seems like no one wants to deal with you. Sometimes you have to be creative, and you always have to be persistent.

If I think of it this week, I'll pass on the name of that book. It's well over 10 years old, and maybe out of print, but it was worth buying, or at least I thought so.

The author did make one point that really stuck with me -- in spite of his being a former commercial real estate broker, he remarked that most 'professionals' have no vision when it comes to what will be big. Yes, they can analyze trends and cap rates, and comps, but they have trouble seeing the next big thing. That's for developers and speculators, I guess.

To be honest, even the guys in my very small circle often miss the mark, including me. Sometimes you'll buy a piece of property just knowing that you'll hit a home run, only to be relieved to unload it several years later for about what you paid for it.

So it goes.

I do agree with the previous poster -- see if your current landlord wants out. You might be surprised.

you can look up your target property ownership at the map link below:

https://assessor.oklahomacounty.org/203/Search-Property-Records

You can likely figure out how to contact them if they are in general business via google/linkedin/etc. Unsure of the exact area.

Use the link below if the ownership is an entity:

https://www.sos.ok.gov/corp/corpinquiryfind.aspx


Most likely the entity's registered agent is an attorney. Call hiim and usually he will relay something to the true owner or at the very least forward an email you can send to the attorney letting him know your interest in the property.

Update:

1. Update on initial site option: I spoke with the owners of two pieces of contiguous land and both owners are willing to sell them. The owner of "Second Thirty Years, Inc." is willing to sell and gave me an initial price. He mentioned that he is 78, no longer lives in OKC and he would be very interested in selling it as he has owned it for 45 years. I would like to prioritize the other property first.

2. On scoping costs: I have called a few metal building distributors and metal building contractors in my area. I am still doing work on this front to try to get a more precise understanding of the building costs, but so far so good. I will reach out to the agent / developer that I didn't care for (see above) again to see if I can get a better idea of the new construction approval process.

3. On offering my landlord: About a year ago I asked the property manager of my current facility to mention to the landlords that I would like to buy some undeveloped / unused land that they also own that is next to my facility. She did and said that they weren't interested. Also, they were always upfront with their intent to move my business out of my current facility once their oil field tenant across the street needs my facility. Oil prices falling apart delayed this, but I still think it is a possibility. I don't fault my landlords. I would just like to have an alternative before I reach out to them with a more direct offer. When I do, I will call them directly. Also, they tend to buy land in neighborhood so I would prefer to keep quiet for now.

Ribeye-Rare

I would like to try 'Commercial Letter of Intent' or your strategy with sending a completed 'Contract for Sale' along with a copy of your earnest money check. I can find examples online, and I have a pretty good relationship with the agent who helped me buy my house in OKC. Do I need to hire an attorney or could I ask my residential agent for examples of these?

Note: I have used "letters of intent" when I did M&A as well as when I purchased my current business (as well as put offers on other businesses), but I am pretty green when it comes to real estate.

Sasappis

Thank you for the advice. I have been working on it. When you say developer/engineer, would contractors be as helpful? While I could handle some cost overruns, I don't really want to make a large mistake if I can prevent it.

Thank you again. I will reach out to the agent / developer that I spoke to already and get more information on costs. I will also ask around to see if I can find another engineer / developer that seems more knowledgeable. I wonder if I could reach out to the city to get some recommendations.

Agbank,

You're making progress.

I realize that you're in Oklahoma, so you'll need an Oklahoma form, but here's an example form from the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC #9-13) "Unimproved Property Contract".

Texas Unimproved Property Contract


I've sent this same form before along with a copy of an earnest money check to make un/semi-solicited offers.


Similarly, here's a form from the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission for commercial land:

Oklahoma Commercial Land Contract


Texas title companies use TREC form 9-13 often, as they also offer closing services and of course, Title Insurance. I always specify my favorite title company when I fill out the form because I want an escrow agent to give everything the appearance of propriety, as opposed to some of the weirdo offers I get regularly in the mail that are just one cut above those letters sent from Nigerian Princes. ;-)

You'll use the Oklahoma equivalent, and I suggest making an appointment with someone at a local title company and letting them know what you're doing, and that you'll want them to handle closing and issue a title policy. I would never do a deal without buying a title policy. Their searches have turned up things that I missed or failed to consider, and saved me major league headaches. Use them.

Obviously, you CAN have a licensed real estate agent prepare an offer for you, but remember that those folks are compensated for their services, usually to the tune of 6%.

If you feel that you need their services, by all means use them. Just know you need to pay them. Agents (like any other profession) come in various qualities -- some are top notch, work their tails off, are a great source of information, and earn their money. Unfortunately, some are just check collectors, who give the whole profession a bad name. My experience has been that the top-notch guys are usually doing the high-dollar deals, and really don't have time (nor should I expect them to) to devote to my small potatoes vacant (and semi-vacant) raw land stuff on the buyers end of an off-market transaction.

So, my feeling is that you can work with the title company if the 'seller' actually bites at your offer. Other than choosing the title company in advance (go and talk to them) you won't need to use their services, yet.

As for using an attorney -- for a raw land transaction like this, I'd say probably not, at least when you're just preparing an offer. But then again, if you're more comfortable doing that, then do that.

You'll notice that the OK form provides quite a few 'escape clauses' in it, including one for environmental risks. For example, say you find out that the former owner is some mad hatter who used to dump 55 gallon drums of mercury on the property. You can cancel. Check that - you'd BETTER cancel!

Now, if you are worried about potential environmental risks, you can pay a local engineering firm (for not much $$) to do a 'Phase 1 Assessment', and they should be able to give you an idea if you're getting into a hornets' nest. Has the property ever been used for anything else? Is it next to someone who might have dumped on it? Is it close to the road where others might have dumped on it? Does it have patches of ground where nothing ever grows?

See the pattern?

You asked about 'Commercial Letters of Intent'. I've got several in paper files that I've collected over the years. They range from the super simple to the super complex. You can probably search for some on the internet. For now, I'd try the 'Contract for Sale' approach.

In closing, I'd say you should go talk to a title company. Take the OK form with you and they'll probably even fill it out for you if they've got the time and you seem like a good guy.

BTW - you went from M&A into trailer repair? Funny, I went from tax law into specialty-vehicle manufacturing. I was much happier, although my mother never did get over it.

Start with an LOI ("Letter of Intent") that includes your purchasing entity, the address(es), size(s) of the property(ies). Also include who will handle the Purchase & Sale Agreement (you), feasibility period, escrow amount, escrow agent (if known), note that you can get your money back at any time during the feasibility (due diligence period) before the money goes hard and the amount of closing time. I would go 60/30 for Feasibility/Closing periods. Also make sure it is non-binding.

Title co should cover liens

Corporationwiki is where I usually start the search for individuals behind an entity