Lord of the Castle

I didn’t sleep well again. I have to make a decision on this house in the next 3 days!

Both the first neighbor and the Public Works engineer said that I needed to talk to the neighbor who owns 10 of the 30 acres.

I tried to visit him yesterday but got tired of waiting for him to come home. So, tonight, I picked my wife up from Costco and we paid him a visit.

Both he and his wife were very approachable. He immediately invited us in as if he was expecting us.

It turns out that he was expecting us! Neighbor #1 had told him of our visit with him on Sunday!

Ah, yes! To quote Celine Dion, “it’s all coming back to me now.” Small towns…neighbors that actually talk to each other…

Anyway, he was only to willing to tell us the WHOLE story! Complete with blueprints, plot plans of the development immediately to the east of him, etc., etc.

The bottom line…this isn’t the place for us.

Problem #1-The house on the corner is owned by an investment company. Neighbor #1 is actually hoping that the investment company won’t find out about the developer’s interest until he actually makes an offer on the property! How likely is that? Answer: NOT VERY!

Problem #2-The $100K per acre figure that has been thrown around is if the property is developed commercially. How likely is that? Answer: NOT VERY!

Problem #3-The price for an acre of residential property is $50K. 2.5 x $50,000 = $125,000. That would mean that I would lose over $100,000 if I sold the property! I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but that don’t sound like a good deal to me!

Problem #4-The two main streets will be torn up for years and then, when they are completed, I would be living on something equivalent to a NASCAR track!

Problem #5-2.5 acres is a lot of grass to mow every week!

Problem #6-I don’t even like the house!

STRIKE THREE! YOU’RE OUT!!!

Since my father in law is willing to be our lender, we decided to call a Realtor to help us find our new house. After my visit to City Hall, I am leaning toward saying “No” to the 2.5 acre property.

I told her that we are looking for a Foreclosure or a Short Sale. We want a “steal of a deal”.

We’ll see what happens.

I couldn’t sleep last night. My mind just kept evaluating and re-evaluating whether 2.5 acre house is the one for us.

I decided to go to City Hall to ascertain (right click and look it up!) the feasability (see previous parenthetical comment!) of this property being developed commercially. That was a good decision!

One of the the city’s planners informed me that the entire area around the house is zoned “ultra low density residential” or one house per acre in the city’s Master Plan. It will be quite a fight to get that changed. Even if the fight is successful, it isn’t going to happen in the next few years. Strike one!

Then, I spoke with a young engineer from Public Works. The street that the house sits on is going to change from a two lane country road to a 4 lane throughway with a median. The project is planned to start in 2013. Strike two!

I e-mailed the owner of the house to find out their bottom line price. She gave it to me and said that she would need an answer by this Friday!

It turns out that they are going to hire a property manager at the end of September to rent the house out if it doesn’t sell.

I really like the thought of buying a property and selling it at a good profit in a few years. There is only one problem with buying a house right now…

I don’t have a job…

therefore, we cannot qualify for a loan…

so I called my father-in-law to tell him about the property and it’s possibilities. He was excited about it! Enough to loan us the money and take monthly payments!

This think might actually happen!

After church, I decided to visit the neighbor of the house we are considering.

The house is far from our “dream home.” It would need to be completely updated and the back deck needs more than a little repair.

However, the house sits on 2.5 lovely acres.

The last time I spoke with the neighbor, he said that a developer was interested in buying the 30 acres adjacent to the house. If there is a possibility that we could turn a profit by living in the house for a few years, then this might be a great opportunity.

The neighbor again confirmed this and added that both residential and commercial developers were looking at it. If the land is sold to a commercial developer, I am told that the land value would double!

Hmmm, very interesting!