Business decision worth 300.000 dollars or more?

[ivmarkov1992@gma]

Hi Friends,

I need your advice.
I'm from Croatia, and I manage our small Family owned hotel on the island of Murter. If you want to learn more, look here: www.hotelmurter.com

Our hotel is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Murter, a small island and sea. Fantastic view and the first thing people do when they come here is taking a picture of the view.

Here is the problem. There is a piece of land in front of the hotel that is not ours. The owner came the other day, and he wants to build a big building or sell the land. Either way, someone will build a big building, UNLESS we buy the land. To buy the land, we need somewhere between 300.000 to 400.000 dollars.

So if we buy, we save the view. If we don't buy, we lose the view, and we have a construction site in front of our noses.

I don't know what to do. If we buy, we will spend a lot of money, and I have to get the money, I don't have it.

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ivan

 

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[Odysseus M Jones]

Hi Friends,

I need your advice.
I'm from Croatia, and I manage our small Family owned hotel on the island of Murter. If you want to learn more, look here: www.hotelmurter.com

Our hotel is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Murter, a small island and sea. Fantastic view and the first thing people do when they come here is taking a picture of the view.

Here is the problem. There is a piece of land in front of the hotel that is not ours. The owner came the other day, and he wants to build a big building or sell the land. Either way, someone will build a big building, UNLESS we buy the land. To buy the land, we need somewhere between 300.000 to 400.000 dollars.

So if we buy, we save the view. If we don't buy, we lose the view, and we have a construction site in front of our noses.

I don't know what to do. If we buy, we will spend a lot of money, and I have to get the money, I don't have it.

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ivan

@Antifragile

 

[WestCoast]

Sounds like it could be an opportunity to sell him your land.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Sounds like it could be an opportunity to sell him your land.

Might not be worth much after the other guy builds a pig farm in front of OP's hotel

 

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[Antifragile]

Hi Friends,

I need your advice.
I'm from Croatia, and I manage our small Family owned hotel on the island of Murter. If you want to learn more, look here: www.hotelmurter.com

Our hotel is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Murter, a small island and sea. Fantastic view and the first thing people do when they come here is taking a picture of the view.

Here is the problem. There is a piece of land in front of the hotel that is not ours. The owner came the other day, and he wants to build a big building or sell the land. Either way, someone will build a big building, UNLESS we buy the land. To buy the land, we need somewhere between 300.000 to 400.000 dollars.

So if we buy, we save the view. If we don't buy, we lose the view, and we have a construction site in front of our noses.

I don't know what to do. If we buy, we will spend a lot of money, and I have to get the money, I don't have it.

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ivan

Hi Ivan,

I am a real estate developer and typically would be most helpful in this situation. Problem is, I am from Canada and your situation is in Croatia. I do not know how property zoning works there, so you'll have to verify what I am about to tell you.

1. Call your city's planning department. Ask them to explain to you the zoning of the property in front of your hotel.
2. In Canada, if the zoning does not allow for a tall building (hotel, multi-family residential or office) you can try to re-zone it. But if you do, it should be consistent with the Official Community Plan (OCP). OCP is a document that guides how the municipality wants to see development done and where. If you then want to deviate from the OCP and need to amend it, you have to do public hearing, consultations and convince councillors to vote in your favour. It is not an easy task. Find out what it means for this land in front of your hotel.
3. Obstructing your hotel views would mean a devaluation of your property. You'll be able to collect less from your visitors etc. This means that if you objected to a development in a public hearing setting, you'd probably be successful. As no one should be able to do anything to your property that would reduce its value or use. Views are a big one, even in single family residential lots, let alone a hotel!

In short, do more research on zoning and what's permitted to be done on the lot in front of your hotel before you decide what to do.

Hope this helps.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Hi Ivan,

I am a real estate developer and typically would be most helpful in this situation. Problem is, I am from Canada and your situation is in Croatia. I do not know how property zoning works there, so you'll have to verify what I am about to tell you.

1. Call your city's planning department. Ask them to explain to you the zoning of the property in front of your hotel.
2. In Canada, if the zoning does not allow for a tall building (hotel, multi-family residential or office) you can try to re-zone it. But if you do, it should be consistent with the Official Community Plan (OCP). OCP is a document that guides how the municipality wants to see development done and where. If you then want to deviate from the OCP and need to amend it, you have to do public hearing, consultations and convince councillors to vote in your favour. It is not an easy task. Find out what it means for this land in front of your hotel.
3. Obstructing your hotel views would mean a devaluation of your property. You'll be able to collect less from your visitors etc. This means that if you objected to a development in a public hearing setting, you'd probably be successful. As no one should be able to do anything to your property that would reduce its value or use. Views are a big one, even in single family residential lots, let alone a hotel!

In short, do more research on zoning and what's permitted to be done on the lot in front of your hotel before you decide what to do.

Hope this helps.

And if they allow another hotel to block his view, he turns his hotel into a pig farm and buys the lot at fire sale prices when the hotel goes out of business.

I'm from Hong Kong, I know all about blocking seaviews.

They'll even reclaim land from the sea just to get the seaview

 

[Hong_Kong]

Hi Friends,

I need your advice.
I'm from Croatia, and I manage our small Family owned hotel on the island of Murter. If you want to learn more, look here: www.hotelmurter.com

Our hotel is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Murter, a small island and sea. Fantastic view and the first thing people do when they come here is taking a picture of the view.

Here is the problem. There is a piece of land in front of the hotel that is not ours. The owner came the other day, and he wants to build a big building or sell the land. Either way, someone will build a big building, UNLESS we buy the land. To buy the land, we need somewhere between 300.000 to 400.000 dollars.

So if we buy, we save the view. If we don't buy, we lose the view, and we have a construction site in front of our noses.

I don't know what to do. If we buy, we will spend a lot of money, and I have to get the money, I don't have it.

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ivan

Sounds like a great way to grow your existing biz. Nice website by the way, and I've heard a lot of great things about visiting your country for vacation.

How would you finance the deal? Cash or:

1. Ask banks if you can finance the land purchase. Either use the existing land as collateral, or a separate loan for the new land. Where I am located people buy land cash, take 50% back out, then use this money to get more construction loans to build the site. Sometimes you can take out multiple rounds of loans as you build more of the final site.

2. Crowd funding. There are many crowd funding sites, many have real estate deals where individual investors can invest starting at low amounts. I've seen deals such as this funded for higher amounts utilizing crowd funding. You could make a campaign showing your current hotel, put the goal at $350K and talk about the expansion plans. Give those investors a % stake of the company in exchange for their investment.

3. My preferred option although the hardest to negotiate would be to negotiate directly with the seller to obtain a seller's note for the land. He holds the mortgage with the property as collateral, you develop and run the hotel and pay back the note over time with interest. Whenever you can buy something with seller's finance (biz, land, rental, etc. ) do it.

4. Pre-sell condos or villas on the land, and sell these (with deposits) before building. That way you are financing the project with other people's cash.

 

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[ivmarkov1992@gma]

Sounds like it could be an opportunity to sell him your land.

Thanks for your advice, but I'm more interested in buying land than selling, to expand my business.

 

[ivmarkov1992@gma]

Hi Ivan,

I am a real estate developer and typically would be most helpful in this situation. Problem is, I am from Canada and your situation is in Croatia. I do not know how property zoning works there, so you'll have to verify what I am about to tell you.

1. Call your city's planning department. Ask them to explain to you the zoning of the property in front of your hotel.
2. In Canada, if the zoning does not allow for a tall building (hotel, multi-family residential or office) you can try to re-zone it. But if you do, it should be consistent with the Official Community Plan (OCP). OCP is a document that guides how the municipality wants to see development done and where. If you then want to deviate from the OCP and need to amend it, you have to do public hearing, consultations and convince councillors to vote in your favour. It is not an easy task. Find out what it means for this land in front of your hotel.
3. Obstructing your hotel views would mean a devaluation of your property. You'll be able to collect less from your visitors etc. This means that if you objected to a development in a public hearing setting, you'd probably be successful. As no one should be able to do anything to your property that would reduce its value or use. Views are a big one, even in single family residential lots, let alone a hotel!

In short, do more research on zoning and what's permitted to be done on the lot in front of your hotel before you decide what to do.

Hope this helps.

Hi there, thanks for your help. Yesterday I was talking with the people from the municipality and there is nothing I can do that would stop him from building. I also talked to my friend, an architect, and he told me that there are laws on what you can do and what can't you do, BUT in Croatia people are always in the grey zone, especially if they are well connected to people in the power. I talked to my lawyer, he told me that there is not much I can do. I can report him for everything that is against the law and that is it.

 

[ivmarkov1992@gma]

Sounds like a great way to grow your existing biz. Nice website by the way, and I've heard a lot of great things about visiting your country for vacation.

How would you finance the deal? Cash or:

1. Ask banks if you can finance the land purchase. Either use the existing land as collateral, or a separate loan for the new land. Where I am located people buy land cash, take 50% back out, then use this money to get more construction loans to build the site. Sometimes you can take out multiple rounds of loans as you build more of the final site.

2. Crowd funding. There are many crowd funding sites, many have real estate deals where individual investors can invest starting at low amounts. I've seen deals such as this funded for higher amounts utilizing crowd funding. You could make a campaign showing your current hotel, put the goal at $350K and talk about the expansion plans. Give those investors a % stake of the company in exchange for their investment.

3. My preferred option although the hardest to negotiate would be to negotiate directly with the seller to obtain a seller's note for the land. He holds the mortgage with the property as collateral, you develop and run the hotel and pay back the note over time with interest. Whenever you can buy something with seller's finance (biz, land, rental, etc. ) do it.

4. Pre-sell condos or villas on the land, and sell these (with deposits) before building. That way you are financing the project with other people's cash.

Hi there,

1. tomorrow I will go to the bank and see what they have to say.
2. I will check this out.
3. Good idea, I will have that in mind.
4. I was thinking about that also.

thanks

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

Hi Friends,

I need your advice.
I'm from Croatia, and I manage our small Family owned hotel on the island of Murter. If you want to learn more, look here: www.hotelmurter.com

Our hotel is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Murter, a small island and sea. Fantastic view and the first thing people do when they come here is taking a picture of the view.

Here is the problem. There is a piece of land in front of the hotel that is not ours. The owner came the other day, and he wants to build a big building or sell the land. Either way, someone will build a big building, UNLESS we buy the land. To buy the land, we need somewhere between 300.000 to 400.000 dollars.

So if we buy, we save the view. If we don't buy, we lose the view, and we have a construction site in front of our noses.

I don't know what to do. If we buy, we will spend a lot of money, and I have to get the money, I don't have it.

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ivan

off topic, but wow I would love to stay at your hotel!

There are financing options and who knows, maybe you can come up with a plan that makes you even more money.

There is of course the political route of blocking it, which seems to work all over the world...hate it, but it is super effective.

 

[ivmarkov1992@gma]

off topic, but wow I would love to stay at your hotel!

There are financing options and who knows, maybe you can come up with a plan that makes you even more money.

There is of course the political route of blocking it, which seems to work all over the world...hate it, but it is super effective.

Thanks, and you are most welcome Send us an email and say that you spoke to Ivan.
I have a lot of plans in my head for the expansion of my business. I'm thinking about glamping.

Yes, the political route is most effective, but I'm not comfortable with that, so I will avoid it.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Thanks, and you are most welcome Send us an email and say that you spoke to Ivan.
I have a lot of plans in my head for the expansion of my business. I'm thinking about glamping.

Yes, the political route is most effective, but I'm not comfortable with that, so I will avoid it.

Honestly man, when your back is against the wall, you've gotta do what you've gotta do!!!

 

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[Antifragile]

Hi there, thanks for your help. Yesterday I was talking with the people from the municipality and there is nothing I can do that would stop him from building. I also talked to my friend, an architect, and he told me that there are laws on what you can do and what can't you do, BUT in Croatia people are always in the grey zone, especially if they are well connected to people in the power. I talked to my lawyer, he told me that there is not much I can do. I can report him for everything that is against the law and that is it.

Update us. What happened since this thread? Now you started a new one asking about financing…

 

[ivmarkov1992@gma]

Update us. What happened since this thread? Now you started a new one asking about financing…

What happened is that owner officially listed the land for sale...He offered the land to me first and gave me a month to decide, after that anyone can buy it.