You know the meeting. Someone throws out a land price, someone else says it feels high, and the room drifts into comps, anecdotes, and gut checks. The only answer that matters is what the deal can support at your required return, and getting there by hand takes time you rarely have. The problem is not the idea. It is the mechanics. You have to underwrite value, build a cost stack, test multiple programs, and then back into the residual. Do that twice and you burn an afternoon. Do it five times and you stop doing it. Development ~15 min to run Build Land Residual Analysis Vic prompt Use Vic to build a land residual analysis for a 4.5-acre site zoned for either 180-unit multifamily or 220,000 sf industrial, targeting a 7.0 percent yield-on-cost. Purpose Replaces a 120-minute manual exercise with a 15-minute model that shows the highest land bid consistent with required returns. Inputs Property Type Optional Candidate Programs Optional Cost Assumptions Optional Rent And Expense Assumptions Optional Exit Cap Rate Optional Target Return Optional Market Optional Outputs An Excel workbook containing supportable total development cost, non-land cost stack, residual land value by program, HBU ranking, and sensitivity grid to return and cap rate. Time saved Replaces a 120-minute manual exercise with a 15-minute model. How it works Run a single instruction: "Use Vic to build a land residual analysis for a 4.5-acre site zoned for either 180-unit multifamily or 220,000 sf industrial, targeting a 7.0 percent yield-on-cost." Share what you have. Candidate programs, cost assumptions, rent and expense assumptions, an exit cap rate, and your target return. If some fields are thin, Vic still builds the model and makes the structure clear so you can refine inputs without rebuilding the file. Vic underwrites stabilized value for each program, then solves for the total development cost that meets your target yield-on-cost or required profit. It then lays out a sources and uses style cost stack and subtracts all non land costs to arrive at a residual land value. The output is an Excel workbook you can send around. It includes supportable total development cost, the non land cost stack, residual land value by program, a highest and best use ranking, and a sensitivity grid that moves the answer with your return and exit cap. The practical benefit is clarity in the one number that gets political. Fix the return and let the math set the bid. When two programs compete, the higher residual shows which use can pay more for the same dirt under your assumptions. If the spread is tight, the sensitivity grid shows how fragile that call is when cap rates or return targets move. This also helps teams stay aligned. Acquisitions can frame an offer off the residual, development can see the implied cost discipline, and investment can pressure test the return without asking for a new model each time. The Excel output follows a standard structure, so updates are edits, not rebuilds. One small but important point: land value stays a residual, not an input you bend the model around. It sounds obvious, but this is where many quick takes go wrong. When the target return is fixed, the only honest land price is what remains after every other cost is accounted for. Use it when you are screening sites, when zoning allows multiple paths, or when a broker pushes for a number and you need a defensible response the same day. Fifteen minutes later you have a workbook that shows your maximum bid and how sensitive it is. That is enough to move a conversation from opinion to math.