Tips for Buying City-Owned Real Estate

[David Friedman]

Hello BP! I hope everyone is celebrating the holidays with their family and friends!

I am currently interested in purchasing a city-owned property, but before I send the city a letter of interest I would like to see if anyone on BP has experience purchasing property from a city (Or government body) and what tips they may have. This should be a general discussion, but I do have some specific questions I'd like answered as well:

- Is there anything that I must include in my letter of interest? Anything extra that will make them more interested in selling the property to me?

- If there are other interested parties, what will the purchase process look like?

- Should I let them know that I own land bordering their land?

- The land has a building on it that the city was planning to tear down. Should I purchase the property at a discount and offer to demolish the building? How much is the cost to demolish a building? Do I need contractor bids or is there a general rule of thumb price?

I appreciate all of your answers. Keep in mind this is California. The only builders that I know on here are @Jay Hinrichs and @Karen Margrave (I am having a hard time quoting Karen's name)