I own a vacant rental house which borders a vacant lot of nice grass with a little cement driveway. This lot can be purchased for $250 + $50/yr tax only by a) me, b) the other neighboring landlord who used to own it and let it go back to the city or c) the guy across the street who could have bought it at any time but never has.
Negatives to buying:
1) My future tenant would have to keep the grass cut or I'd be fined (currently the 12 year old kid living in the rental house next to it is cutting the lot. He thinks it's theirs and he plays over there. I could buy it and not tell them I bought it and he'd keep cutting it, but then I'm responsible for a 12 year old with a lawn mower on my land)
2) It has about 4 healthy trees that I'd be responsible for cutting down if they were to start dying ($2k each)
Positives to buying:
1) Slight increase of future tenant's happiness IF they want the extra lot (would not really increase house's value) or
2) I could try to sell lot to restaurant
See map below. The waitresses walk out of the restaurant and serve food to people in their cars. There are 18 parking spots. Sometimes it is 100% full so people park on the street. Waitresses do cross the road, if necessary, but I suppose they really aren't supposed to. If the restaurant owned the lot, they could get it rezoned and pave it, more than doubling their parking. But then the waitresses would need to cross the side street (slight danger) or else they'd need to build a bridge of legal height (14 feet maybe?). The restaurant does surprisingly good business, but I'm not sure they'd even see value in the lot, let alone want to deal with the city or spend $25,000 to pave it. I guess they wouldn't need to pave it, they could just have a sign that says, "Extra Parking," but both of those seem like they'd be against city regulations. I even thought the restaurant owner that could VERBALLY tell people to park there, which customers would remember, and the restaurant could technically use the land as-is (and the city would be none the wiser unless if they actually caught waitresses walking over there and I know the inspector and he doesn't give a sh*t UNTIL someone complains).
It seems like a long shot, actually, but I'm wondering if you guys wouldn't see something I don't. I could approach the owner of the restaurant, but that might set of a chain of them petitioning to buy it themselves for $250. Then I'd regret not buying it...but I don't know if I want to own it anyway. Any clever ideas?
Negatives to buying:
1) My future tenant would have to keep the grass cut or I'd be fined (currently the 12 year old kid living in the rental house next to it is cutting the lot. He thinks it's theirs and he plays over there. I could buy it and not tell them I bought it and he'd keep cutting it, but then I'm responsible for a 12 year old with a lawn mower on my land)
2) It has about 4 healthy trees that I'd be responsible for cutting down if they were to start dying ($2k each)
Positives to buying:
1) Slight increase of future tenant's happiness IF they want the extra lot (would not really increase house's value) or
2) I could try to sell lot to restaurant
See map below. The waitresses walk out of the restaurant and serve food to people in their cars. There are 18 parking spots. Sometimes it is 100% full so people park on the street. Waitresses do cross the road, if necessary, but I suppose they really aren't supposed to. If the restaurant owned the lot, they could get it rezoned and pave it, more than doubling their parking. But then the waitresses would need to cross the side street (slight danger) or else they'd need to build a bridge of legal height (14 feet maybe?). The restaurant does surprisingly good business, but I'm not sure they'd even see value in the lot, let alone want to deal with the city or spend $25,000 to pave it. I guess they wouldn't need to pave it, they could just have a sign that says, "Extra Parking," but both of those seem like they'd be against city regulations. I even thought the restaurant owner that could VERBALLY tell people to park there, which customers would remember, and the restaurant could technically use the land as-is (and the city would be none the wiser unless if they actually caught waitresses walking over there and I know the inspector and he doesn't give a sh*t UNTIL someone complains).
It seems like a long shot, actually, but I'm wondering if you guys wouldn't see something I don't. I could approach the owner of the restaurant, but that might set of a chain of them petitioning to buy it themselves for $250. Then I'd regret not buying it...but I don't know if I want to own it anyway. Any clever ideas?
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