Renting a commercially zoned property as a residence

[Shane Brown]

There is a small two bedroom home for sale next for to a duplex I own. The thing about the property is that it's zoned for commerical. It's on a busy street and surrounded by residential properties. The current owner told me he tried to have the city rezone it for residential but they refused.

If I buy it I would like to rent it to residential tenants. In order to get around the commerical zoning, I am considering a scenario where my tenants on the property would be 'assistant property managers' and would notify my of any needs on that property and/or my duplex next door, in exchange for a minimal "discount" in rent. I would like to know if this would meet the requirements of commerical zoning.

Also if I do end up buying it, I would very much like to get it changed to be zoned for residential use. I imagine that it would take a fair amount of leg work at City Hall to make that happen. What is everyone's opinion on that? Is there a high or low success rate at changing the zoning of a property?