The housing market collapse came as no surprise to Susan Shroder. A land broker for residential developers and builders, Shroder said she saw the market starting to act illogically 16 months ago.

Acreage was fetching record prices and deals were abnormally large, measured in hundreds of lots. Subdivisions were approved in unlikely locations.

Sean Drakes/Special (ENLARGE)

Susan Shroder reviews plats in her office. 'I feel for these builders and developers' who are going under, she said.

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Shroder, whose father and grandfather were builders and developers, wondered who was going to buy all those homes. "It just didn't make sense to me," she said.

Now it's clear the demand wasn't there. Lenders are taking back lots from overextended builders and developers, and puzzling over what to do with the unwanted land.

In better times Shroder's 7-year-old company made deals through personal contact with landowners, builders and developers. Sales were made without any advertising.

But that strategy has changed. Now Shroder is trying to build relationships with a new group — the lenders stuck with land.

Q: If nobody's buying land now, how are you hanging on?

A: We've had one closing, which was, fortunately, enough to keep us going for the year. We've been putting a lot into prospecting with the banks and investors, with the hope that our skill set will help them make wise decisions.

Q: Are the banks trying to turn over the property they get back or are they waiting, hoping the market will strengthen?

A: There are very few banks that are saying, 'Please unload these properties.' They can hold their assets for a couple of years, and in some cases even longer. Up until very recently, the banks really believed that this was just going to turn around. They're learning a lot about the market right now and about this industry.

Q: Are you seeing a lot of builders and developers go out of business?

A: A lot are going out of business. They're discounting the houses they have up now, dramatically. I've seen up to $100,000 off a home price. And then you've got foreclosures that are being thrown into this equation.

I feel for these builders and developers. There are a lot of really good people who for the most part made good decisions. There were [also] some not-so-good decisions, but mainly the ones I worked with, they gave a lot back to the community. They're not going to be able to do that anymore.

Q: As a land expert, what's your take on how we got to this point?

A: We had a lot of other markets that were feeding our market that fizzled out. The influx of people from other areas like New York, New Jersey, Florida, California — that ceased. In Gwinnett County a large number of the builders were selling to people from other states. Land prices got out of whack. Landowners, even up until a few months ago, were wanting to overprice their property. Development costs went up. Construction costs went up. But the income for the buyer did not go up. There are only a certain number of people who are going to buy $500,000 homes and up.

Q: No one saw the good times were going to end?

A: I didn't see any land sellers give up what they wanted for their property. It didn't have any logic to it. It's what people wanted. There is a lot of land on the outskirts that probably never should have been developed.

I did see some builders and developers cut back. Some were very careful and cautious, particularly those who had been through a bad market in the past.

Q: Land buying changed in 2003. What happened?

A: People started buying in bulk. There'd be competitive offerings on the lots from different builders and that sort of created this fuel for the fire where the only way to get a good site would be to purchase and close on all of them at the same time. It was falsely inflated in many cases, the value of the lots.

I'll give you an example in the Grayson area. In 2000-2001, acreage was being sold for maybe $20,000 an acre. Later I sold some land there at $47,000 an acre. I swore and believed with every inch of me that was as high as the market was going to bear.

Some people across the street had been speaking with a local real estate agent who advised them their land was worth $105,000 an acre. They asked me if I could help sell their land. I felt it was a waste of time and that it was wrong. I didn't know anybody who would buy it for that amount.

Sure enough, they sold it for $105,000 an acre. We all got a little greedy.

Q: How did you get in this business?

A: I had a developer who asked if I would help sell some lots. I helped him with a subdivision in the Hamilton Mill area in north Gwinnett. I saw a pattern of me calling people who'd say, 'No, that's not what I'm interested in, but I am interested in this if you can find it.' I just started building my own database. I saw a big hole nobody was filling.

Q: Is Atlanta still popular with land investors?

A: Atlanta really is a good strong market. I drove into Atlanta in 1983 with my real estate license; I didn't have anything else. I remember driving in on Interstate 75 and looking at all those buildings and thinking 'Wow, look at all those jobs. I'm going to do something here.'

Atlanta's still like that. If somebody wants to work and wants to succeed, they're very likely to be able to do that here.