Land flipping: how to find, check, value and resell vacant land from county records
- Free research
- The county parcel map and tax roll
- Flood zone
- FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center
- Federal lot sale law
- From 25 lots in a subdivision
- Parcel app
- LandGlide, $9.99 a month
A land flip, from the county map to the resale
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Pick one county and learn its records
Open the county’s parcel viewer and its tax roll. Together they give the owner, the mailing address, the acreage and the tax status of every parcel. Owners who live far away and parcels behind on tax are the usual starting lists. The tax deed and tax lien guide covers parcels already headed to a tax sale.
What you come away withA list of parcels and owners, from public records.
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Check what the land can be used for
Ask the county or city planning office for the zoning and whether the parcel can be built on or split. Confirm it touches a road you can legally use, and ask which utilities reach it. Look the address up on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center, the official public source for flood hazard maps under the National Flood Insurance Program.
What you come away withWhat a buyer could do with the parcel, and what they could not.
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Value it from sold parcels like it
Find vacant parcels nearby that sold recently, of similar size, zoning and access, and compare their price per acre. Where your state keeps sale prices out of public records, an agent’s sold data or a title company can help. Land has no repairs to price, so the comps carry the whole valuation.
What you come away withA resale price you can defend, and the offer it allows.
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Make an offer and run title
Send the owner a written offer and, if they accept, a purchase agreement. Open escrow with a title company and have it search title before you close: back taxes, liens, a lis pendens or a missing heir can all sit on a vacant lot nobody has looked at in years.
What you come away withA parcel you can buy with clear title.
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Resell it, for cash or on terms
List it, sell it to a builder or neighbour, or finance the buyer yourself. The federal loan originator rules in 12 CFR 1026.36 that limit seller financing of homes apply to credit secured by a dwelling, and bare land has none. Other federal and state rules can still apply, so have an attorney draft the note.
What you come away withA sale, or a note that pays you monthly.
Where land flipping goes wrong
Nothing pays you while you hold it. A vacant lot earns no rent, and the property tax is due every year. A parcel that sells slowly eats the margin you bought it with.
Maps do not show everything. A parcel you never visit can hide dumping, a neighbour’s fence on your side of the line, or a road that exists only on paper. Visit, or pay someone local to.
Splitting land brings rules. If you divide a parcel into lots to sell, the county decides whether you may, and the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act does not apply to a subdivision of fewer than 25 lots. Its registration and disclosure requirements do not apply to fewer than 100 lots that are not otherwise exempt (15 U.S.C. 1702).
The federal rules we read
- Fewer than 25 lots
- Outside the Interstate Land Sales Act
- Fewer than 100 lots
- No federal registration or disclosure filing
- Loan originator rules
- Written for credit secured by a dwelling
15 U.S.C. 1702(a) and (b) and 12 CFR 1026.36(b), on Cornell LII, read November 2026.
The paid shortcut, priced
A parcel app puts the county records on one map, which helps most when you stand on the land. Prices from each pricing page, read November 2026.
| Tool | What it costs | What it gives you | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
 Land |
$9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year | After a 7-day free trial. Parcel lines with owner, mailing address, acreage, sale price and transfer date, 157 million parcels in over 3,200 counties | See LandGlide pricing |
 Propwire |
Free | Search and download up to 10,000 properties a month, with no card | Try Propwire free |
Paid links. If you subscribe through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our ranking order.
The county’s own parcel viewer is free. A paid app saves you learning a different viewer in every county you buy in.
Neither tool values the land for you. The price still comes from sold parcels like the one you are buying.
Land flipping: questions people ask
Is land flipping profitable?
It can be, when you buy below what similar parcels sell for and the gap covers closing costs, the tax while you hold it and your time. We have no figures on typical returns, and no one can promise one.
Is land flipping illegal?
No. Buying land and reselling it is legal. Rules apply to how you do it: federal law covers selling lots from subdivisions of 25 or more, some states regulate marketing a property you only have under contract, and seller financing has its own rules.
How to get started in land flipping?
Pick one county, learn its parcel viewer and tax roll, pull a list of parcels whose owners live elsewhere or are behind on tax, value a few from sold parcels nearby, and make offers below that value.
What is the 70% rule in flipping?
A house flipping rule of thumb: pay at most 70% of the after-repair value, minus repairs. Land has no repairs to price, so price it from sold parcels like it instead. The wholesale deal calculator applies the house version.
How we put this together
- 15 U.S.C. 1702 (Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act exemptions) and 12 CFR 1026.36(b), on Cornell LII, read November 2026
- FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center and LandGlide’s pricing page, read November 2026
- The pages that rank for “land flipping” in the US, read November 2026
We did not read any state’s land sale law or any county’s subdivision rules, and we have not flipped a parcel. Nothing here is legal or investment advice.