{"id":48,"date":"2024-12-28T15:55:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T15:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelsolovay.com\/real-estate\/?p=48"},"modified":"2024-12-29T15:52:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T15:52:59","slug":"real-estate-investing-whats-underneath-the-soil-at-this-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelsolovay.com\/real-estate\/real-estate-investing-whats-underneath-the-soil-at-this-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Estate Investing: What’s Underneath the Soil at This Property?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Estate, Real Profits Podcast, Season 1, Episode 2 Featuring Your Host, Michael Solovay<\/h2>\n

Today\u2019s episode of the Real Estate, Real Profits podcast is all about helping real estate investors and home buyers understand and avoid some of the pitfalls I\u2019ve experienced as, first of all, a real estate investor myself and also as a REALTOR who helps other real estate investors find profitable deals.<\/P>
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In my experience as a REALTOR, “What’s underneath the soil at this property?” ISN’T a frequently-asked question amongst the real estate-investing public.<\/P>
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That’s because relatively few people understand why real estate investors should care what’s under the soil at a property they’re thinking of buying.<\/P>
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So in today’s episode, we’re going to discuss why you should be asking this question. If you aren’t already up to speed about all the different ways that your real estate deals could get derailed due to problems underneath your soil, I invite you to listen, learn and become a savvier real estate investor.<\/P>
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Thanks for listening!<\/P><\/p>\n

Transcript and Show Notes for Today’s Episode of the Real Estate, Real Profits Podcast:<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m Mike Solovay, your host at the Real Estate, Real Profits podcast. Aside from being a REALTOR and real estate investor, I’m also a tech startup founder; I founded the 4BIZapp platform for real estate professionals. I started this podcast because I want to connect with home sellers, home buyers, and other like-minded real estate professionals, investors and entrepreneurs. Thanks for listening!<\/P>
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In my experience so far, basically every real estate transaction I\u2019ve been involved with has been a learning experience. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s deals that I\u2019ve done as an investor or deals that I\u2019ve done as a REALTOR helping other investors to buy or sell properties.
\nAs you\u2019re no doubt already painfully aware, nobody knows everything. <\/P>
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So it shouldn\u2019t really surprise us that in almost every case, the players involved in a real estate deal will have knowledge gaps.<\/P>
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In other words, there are always going to be things you don\u2019t know \u2013 and in many cases, you don\u2019t even know that you don\u2019t know them.
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Sometimes these knowledge gaps happen because the world isn\u2019t standing still. Every day that goes by, things are changing. In particular, governments are changing the rules right out from under us.<\/P>
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And neighborhoods change. You might think you know a particular neighborhood really, really well. But if you\u2019ve been away from that neighborhood for a few years, it might have changed in ways that you weren\u2019t expecting.<\/P>
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And each real estate transaction is multi-faceted.<\/P>
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So when it comes to buying or selling real estate, the things you don\u2019t know are the things that are likeliest to create problems for you. You can lose a massive amount of money over the things you don\u2019t know. <\/P>
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I\u2019m positive that all of us here are smart, savvy people who can be counted on to ask intelligent questions going into any real estate transaction. <\/P>
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But I\u2019m here to tell you that, especially if you\u2019re new to real estate investing, there will be questions you don\u2019t even think of asking, because there\u2019s at least one facet of the deal that you don\u2019t understand. <\/P>
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So if these issues never occur to you to start with, you won\u2019t be asking questions about them. Make sense?<\/P>
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And even if you\u2019re not completely new to real estate investing, these things can come up.<\/P>
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So my goal for today\u2019s podcast is to help you understand some of the things that might take you by surprise when you\u2019re doing real estate deals. And, I also want to empower you with some questions you\u2019ll want to consider asking yourself and the other players involved in your deals.<\/P>
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This is actually going to be a series, because when my wife and I were brainstorming the questions to cover in this episode, we found that there were too many of them to talk about in one session.<\/P>
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So today\u2019s Question is, What\u2019s Under the Soil at This Property?<\/P>
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This seems like a weird question to be asking, doesn\u2019t it?<\/P>
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What\u2019s under the soil at any property?<\/P>
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Those of you who are home gardeners no doubt have answers to this question. You dig into the lawn with your shovel or your hoe, and you\u2019re going to mostly find dirt. If you\u2019re lucky, and you have healthy soil, you\u2019ll hopefully find some earthworms down there. You\u2019ll probably find some other bugs, too, and some loose rocks \u2013 things like that.<\/P>
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So those are the things you\u2019d expect to find under there.<\/P>
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But there is a danger in assuming that that\u2019s exactly what you\u2019ll find if you dig into the lawn of every property. Because there can be all kinds of things down there that you probably weren\u2019t expecting. So let\u2019s talk about several cases where you\u2019d be in trouble if you were to assume that a property you\u2019re interested in buying has nothing but soil, bugs and earthworms below the surface.<\/P>
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The first situation you\u2019ll want to consider is the possibility that there could be massive blocks of rock directly underneath the soil. <\/P>
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If this is the case with a lot you\u2019re thinking of buying for the purpose of building on, you want to know this upfront before you start building on it \u2013 because you\u2019ll need to correctly draw up the plans and budget accurately for the all aspects of the construction process.
\nFor example, if you were hoping to build a home with a basement, it won\u2019t be a simple matter to make that happen on a rocky lot. In that case, you might prefer to choose a different lot that doesn\u2019t have rock.<\/P>
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Rock can have some advantages. If you\u2019re located in an area that\u2019s prone to fires, floods or other natural disasters, you might find it advantageous to build your home on top of rock because of the added stability that rock offers. Structures built on rock have some advantages when they are subjected to natural disasters such as floods, landslides and earthquakes, because the rock isn\u2019t likely to shift or erode the way soil would. <\/P>
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But if you have to drill or blast through rock to dig your well, drop in your septic tank or build a fence, it\u2019s going to cost significantly more than you\u2019d expect it to. And you need to understand that before you buy that lot. <\/P>
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The water table is another issue to consider. <\/P>
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In some locations, the water table is really high. You dig into the soil, and before you get down very far, you\u2019ll find water. <\/P>
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This can happen in coastal areas and areas where it rains often, or in snowy areas after the snow melts, or in cases where the property is near a sizable body of water. This is a common pitfall to beware of if you\u2019re building in Florida, Oregon and many other places.<\/P>
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This is another situation you absolutely want to know about, and plan for, before you build, because with a high water table, you\u2019ll need to approach your construction project in a different way than you would approach it otherwise. <\/P>
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The property\u2019s previous history is one more issue to consider. Properties that have previously been used as gas stations or factory sites can have a broad variety of unhealthy pollutants and contaminants still lurking in the soil. <\/P>
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The Environmental Protection Agency maintains a list of badly contaminated sites called \u201cSuperfund sites,\u201d and you\u2019ll definitely want to check to make sure if there are any of these in close proximity to a property you\u2019re interested in buying.<\/P>
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Some of the contaminants you might encounter in the soil at these sites are lead, asbestos, dioxin and radiation, according to the EPA.<\/P>
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So if you suspect that the soil at a property is contaminated, you could consider having the soil tested by a lab.<\/P>
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So those are just a few of the reasons you\u2019ll want to investigate what\u2019s under the soil at any properties you\u2019re thinking of buying. I hope this information empowers you to make wise decisions about the lots you\u2019ll buy for building purposes.<\/P>
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So that\u2019s it for today\u2019s episode of the Real Estate, Real Profits podcast, but if you want more solid, real-world information about selling homes, buying homes, real estate trends, investing in real estate or succeeding as a real estate sales professional, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. You can click or tap here to find the signup form right here at my website, michaelsolovay.com.<\/a><\/strong><\/P><\/p>\n

Thanks for listening! I really appreciate your interest.<\/P><\/p>\n

References and Further Reading<\/h2>\n

If you want more information about the issues I discussed in this episode, you’ll want to check out the following links:<\/P><\/p>\n