Looking to Network in Seattle

[Ramzi Muhtadie]

The below is relevant to you for the following themes (all on one property :)

Seattle, MIL, Split Lot, House Hack, Remodel

Hey everyone!

I recently bought a home in North Ballard, Seattle.  The property is rather unique with 10k+ lot size (zoning is SF 5000) with a 2,500 sq ft home in the middle of the property. 

I bought the home for a few reasons: 

-up and coming neighborhood

-opportunity to house hack the basement

-opportunity to build a MIL to rent out. 

The challenges with the home for the original opportunity were:

-required a full gut job to be the standards I wanted

-3 big trees will need to be removed to build the MIL on the side of the house that makes more sense

Fast forward to today and things are pretty interesting:

- I have mostly completed the gut job at a slightly higher price tag than originally thought (shocker), but in-line with the contractor quote.  And in the process have found an awesome contractor who will be my go-to guy for everything in the future (including my eventual tree removal)

- I have also learned that the home behind me is owned by the son of the women who previously owned the house I bought and also sits on 10k sq ft with two beat up old homes that would be clear tear downs.

So...  I came up with this idea to try and put an offer for the neighbor's property, and redraw the lines of the combined 20k square feet into 4 conforming SF5000 properties.  Since my house sits in the middle of the property, I would just push it back 5000 and split the lots on the right and left of it.  May be hard to visualize, but it is feasible.  

Obviously the above models great, even if you factor in a big premium to get the neighbor to take the offer, a year of holding cost before construction can even begin on 3 additional homes, and plenty of expenses associated with engineering, sewer, permits etc. etc... My goal here would be to likely buy the property, split, sell one plat for liquidity, and develop two new rentals.  

I am posting becuase I want to take the important step of really understanding the between the lines stuff of the split.  I have reviewed the requirements from King County site, but I want to know the true difficulty given current market conditions and politics in the city.  

If this post generates interest, I'll lay down model assumptions and returns for those interested.  I was originally planning to do some property buys and rents in a more traditional manner, but this thing would generate about significantly more return and I have the cash to support the investment if I can get fully comfortable with the city approval process, but don't have the relationships.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

R