Raw land, infill lots and teardowns in Forsyth County, Georgia, bought for cash by a builder who builds luxury homes here. Written offer, or our questions, within one business day.
Including Cumming, Big Creek, Midway, Coal Mountain, Matt, Silver City, Lake Lanier.
ReStar data: population 2024, net migration year to July 2025, typical single-family value (Zillow ZHVI) August 2026, household income ACS 2024, single-family permits July 2026.
We buy land for cash across Forsyth County, Georgia: raw acreage, infill lots and teardowns in Cumming, Big Creek, Midway, Coal Mountain and the rest of the county. Send the address or parcel number and you get a written offer, or our questions, within one business day. There is no commission, we cover standard closing costs and we pay for our own survey and soil work. What your land is worth depends mostly on the ZIP it is in and how buildable it is, and both are laid out below.
One difference from most cash land buyers you will find for Forsyth County: they buy vacant land to resell it, often to someone like us. We build on it, so we price your acreage or lot from the home that will stand on it, not from a resale discount.
The highest household income of our eight markets, at a median near $143,800, and values up about 30% in five years. Forsyth sits on the GA-400 corridor north of Atlanta with Lake Lanier along its eastern edge.
Land is worth what the homes built on it can sell for, less what it costs to build them. So the quickest honest read on land value in Forsyth County is the value of the homes around it, ZIP by ZIP. Across the 3 ZIP codes centered in the county, the typical single-family home ranges from $543k in 30028 (Cumming) to $641k in 30041 (Cumming). The fastest-rising over the last year is 30040 (Cumming), at -2.1%.
The last column is a benchmark, not an offer. The National Association of Home Builders' 2024 cost survey found the finished lot averaged 13.7% of a new home's sales price nationally. Apply that share to the typical home in each ZIP and you get a rough ceiling on what a builder budgets for a finished lot there, one that already has road access, utilities and approvals. Raw land sells below it by whatever it costs to get there, which is why a parcel with sewer at the road and a parcel that needs a septic system can draw very different offers in the same ZIP.
| Town | ZIP | Typical home | 1-yr | 5-yr | Finished-lot benchmark (13.7%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumming | 30041 | $641k | -2.3% | +36.2% | $88k |
| Cumming | 30040 | $596k | -2.1% | +37.3% | $82k |
| Cumming | 30028 | $543k | -2.2% | +33.8% | $74k |
ReStar platform data: Zillow Home Value Index, single-family, 2026-08-31. ZIPs assigned to the county by their center point; a ZIP that straddles a county line is listed where most of it sits. Town is the USPS place name.
Acreage in the north of the county toward Coal Mountain, Matt and Silver City, and lots near Lake Lanier where water views carry the value.
Our full buy box is on the sell my land page. It is loose on purpose: send the parcel even if it misses a line, and we will tell you straight if it is a pass.
Two parcels the same size, a mile apart, can be worth very different amounts because of rules that never show up in a listing. These are the ones we check first in Forsyth County.
Forsyth has just one incorporated city, Cumming, and even that is a small part of the county: the Postal Service uses a Cumming address for most of Forsyth. So most land decisions run through the county's own zoning and planning, not a city's, which keeps the rules for a parcel in one place. Lake frontage on Lanier comes with its own federal shoreline rules, which we check separately.
Source: Forsyth County Planning & Community Development
Forsyth County's Board of Commissioners and Planning & Community Development regulate land outside Cumming under the Unified Development Code. In the A1 Agricultural district (Table 15.2) the minimum lot is 1 acre with 125 feet of width and a maximum density of 1 home per acre; in AG-RES the minimum lot is 2 acres with 150 feet of width. Major subdivisions in A1 are allowed only if they use 2-acre minimum lots with one home per lot and homes of at least 2,000 heated square feet.
Source: forsythco.com
CUVA taxes land in good-faith agricultural or timber production at its current-use value in exchange for a 10-year covenant (up to 2,000 acres per owner); Forsyth County sets no minimum acreage, but parcels under 10 acres need extra proof of bona fide production. Breaking the covenant early, which the Forsyth County Board of Assessors says includes selling the land to a developer or to a buyer who does not qualify, or selling without notifying the Board, triggers a penalty of twice the tax savings enjoyed to date plus interest, applied to the entire tract under the original covenant even if only part of it is breached. A buyer can instead sign a continuation covenant and take over the obligation; if a new owner does not file for continuation, the Board sends both the seller and buyer a notice of intent to assess the breach penalty. Who ultimately pays is negotiated in the contract; death of a covenant party and eminent-domain takings are no-penalty breaches.
If your land is taxed at a farm or open-space value, raise it at the start. Who pays any rollback is a term of the contract, and it belongs in the price conversation, not at the closing table.
Source: forsythco.b-cdn.net · epd.georgia.gov
Georgia property is taxed on an assessed value equal to 40% of fair market value (Forsyth County deducts homestead exemptions from the 40% assessed value); CUVA land is instead assessed on its current-use value.
Source: forsythco.com
Forsyth County has a moratorium on accepting most residential rezoning applications, extended on April 28, 2026 through October 25, 2026 (rezonings to the RES1, MRD and MCD districts are exempt); a buyer planning to rezone land for homes may not be able to file during the moratorium. (forsythco.b-cdn.net)
A separate moratorium, extended May 21, 2026 through November 17, 2026, bars sketch plat and land disturbance permit applications for residentially zoned properties that were rezoned before April 13, 2017, while the County reviews older undeveloped rezonings. (forsythco.b-cdn.net)
Under CUVA, an owner may deed up to 5 acres of covenant land to a family member (within the fourth degree of civil reckoning) to build a home without a penalty; the family member must begin construction within one year and occupy it within two. (forsythco.b-cdn.net)
Forsyth County Environmental Health offers a pre-purchase site evaluation, and septic approval is required before a building permit is issued for a home on septic. (forsythhd.com)
We start from the house we would build and work backward. Take a home that would sell at the county's typical value of $614,000. At the national 13.7% lot share, the finished lot behind it is budgeted at about $84k. If the land already has a paved road, water and sewer or an approved septic site, most of that budget can go to the land. If a driveway has to be cut, power brought in and a septic system engineered, those costs come out first, and so does the time it takes to get approvals. That is the whole reason two owners in the same ZIP can get very different numbers, and why we would rather tell you which line is costing you than just quote a figure.
The full method, with the arithmetic and what happens when build costs move, is in how much is my land worth. If you want to take the unknowns off the table before you sell to anyone, start with is my land buildable.
Tell us where it is. We reply within one business day with a written offer or the questions we need answered, and we cover standard closing costs.
No obligation. We reply within one business day with a written offer or the questions we need answered. We call or email; we do not text.
Georgia is an attorney-closing state. The Supreme Court of Georgia (In re UPL Advisory Opinion 2003-2) held that it is the unauthorized practice of law for anyone other than a Georgia-licensed attorney to close a real estate transaction or to prepare or facilitate the execution of a deed.
| Cost | Selling to us | Listing the land |
|---|---|---|
| Agent commission | None | Negotiated with your agent; land listings often carry a higher percentage than houses |
| Standard closing costs | We cover them | Seller's share per local custom and the contract |
| Deed transfer or recording tax | Follows state custom; set out in the contract | Georgia's real estate transfer tax is $1 for the first $1,000 of value and 10 cents for each additional $100 (about 0.1%), paid to the clerk of superior court before the deed can be recorded, with a PT-61 transfer tax declaration filed (electronically through GSCCCA). The Georgia Department of Revenue says the seller is liable for the tax, though the parties frequently agree in the sales contract that the buyer will pay it. There is no separate county transfer tax on top of it. |
| Survey, soil or perc tests | We pay for our own | Often requested from the seller |
| Farm-use rollback, if any | Negotiated in the contract | Negotiated in the contract |
| Liens, back taxes, mortgage payoff | Paid from your proceeds | Paid from your proceeds |
Sources: transfer tax · closing practice
Where to check the facts yourself, most of it free. These are the same sources we use.
Send the address or parcel number to a buyer who pays cash and does not need a lender: we reply within one business day with a written offer or our questions, and the due-diligence period is written into the contract. Listing can bring more if the parcel is clearly buildable and you have months to wait.
Acreage in the north of the county toward Coal Mountain, Matt and Silver City, and lots near Lake Lanier where water views carry the value.
It depends on the ZIP and on how buildable the parcel is. Typical home values in Forsyth County range from $543k to $641k by ZIP, and at the national 13.7% lot share that implies finished-lot budgets from about $74k to $88k. Raw land sells below a finished lot by the cost of access, utilities and approvals.
No. We make a written offer from public records, maps and land sales, and do the survey, soil and title work ourselves during the due-diligence period, at our cost.
Yes. CUVA taxes land in good-faith agricultural or timber production at its current-use value in exchange for a 10-year covenant (up to 2,000 acres per owner); Forsyth County sets no minimum acreage, but parcels under 10 acres need extra proof of bona fide production. Breaking the covenant early, which the Forsyth County Board of Assessors says includes selling the land to a developer or to a buyer who does not qualify, or selling without notifying the Board, triggers a penalty of twice the tax savings enjoyed to date plus interest, applied to the entire tract under the original covenant even if only part of it is breached. A buyer can instead sign a continuation covenant and take over the obligation; if a new owner does not file for continuation, the Board sends both the seller and buyer a notice of intent to assess the breach penalty. Who ultimately pays is negotiated in the contract; death of a covenant party and eminent-domain takings are no-penalty breaches. Who pays is agreed in the contract, so raise it before you agree a price.
Georgia's real estate transfer tax is $1 for the first $1,000 of value and 10 cents for each additional $100 (about 0.1%), paid to the clerk of superior court before the deed can be recorded, with a PT-61 transfer tax declaration filed (electronically through GSCCCA). The Georgia Department of Revenue says the seller is liable for the tax, though the parties frequently agree in the sales contract that the buyer will pay it. There is no separate county transfer tax on top of it.
Yes to all three. Back taxes and liens are paid from the proceeds at closing, we work with the executor or every heir on title, and a landlocked parcel is priced around the easement work rather than turned down.
Other counties where we buy land: Williamson County, TN · Collin County, TX · Comal County, TX · St. Johns County, FL · Delaware County, OH · Hamilton County, IN · Washington County, UT
Guides for landowners: How to Sell Land: By Owner, With an Agent, or to a Cash Buyer · How Much Is My Land Worth? Three Methods, With Real Math · Is My Land Buildable? A Seller's Checklist Before You Price It · Selling Land to a Developer: How Builders Price It and What to Ask · Selling a Teardown: How to Sell a House for Its Land Value · Selling Inherited Land: Taxes, Title and Your Real Options
