investors have begun to pounce on bargain deals

Lennar Corp. has sold about 11,000 home sites to a venture mostly owned by the real-estate arm of Morgan Stanley for $525 million, a large land sale that signals that investors have begun to pounce on bargain deals.
Lennar, which will have a 20% ownership stake in the venture, will have the option to buy back certain home sites.
The deal, which closed with little fanfare Friday night, could be a catalyst for other "vulture" investors to swoop in and grab discounted land from other troubled builders. A wide range of investors have been raising money from pension funds and private-equity firms to acquire land.
While no one has yet been able to call the bottom of the housing slump, some land investors have a short-term strategy, hoping to sell house lots back to builders on a piecemeal basis. Other investors are planning to wait out the housing slump and hold the land for several years.
The Lennar deal comes just weeks after the nation's largest builder, D.R. Horton Inc., sold nearly 7,000 acres outside Phoenix for $70 million.
"There is a lot of money out there right now trying to do deals like this," says John Burns, a home-building consultant based in Irvine, Calif., who consulted with Morgan Stanley on the sale. "The problem has been the gap between what the buyers are willing to pay and what the sellers are willing to accept. This sends a strong message that somebody is willing to part with land at a significant loss."
www.843Realtor.com
Let 843Realtor.com assist the small investor in getting some of the New Construction discounts from these Large Builders.