Neighbors Land, Zoning and Learning

[Kyle Cabral]

Hi All,

I have a general question and would love anyone's advice on land investing and whom is familiar in zoning requirements.  If anyone from Massachusetts wants to chime in, that would be great too : )

How did anyone here get familiar with land investing, zoning requirements, what to do, how to do it, and what order to do it.  For example, the more and more I research, read, go through case studies the more I realize that the land world is a complete monstrosity.  I might be over thinking it but can someone simplify what they would do in terms of how you would safely go about the following case. (Something I'm looking into right now)

Case: Well priced peace of undevelopable land that does not hit the minimum requirement for a single family use of 6,000 sqft or multi-family use of 8,000 sqft ft per zoning bylaws.

Here are my thoughts and how I would go about it, can someone confirm or let me know how they would do it?

1. Approach abutting land owner and offer to purchase a piece of his land for a certain price to make my 3,500 sqft lot to the minimum of 6,000 sqft.

Question: What are the technicalities of this? How does one "buy" a small piece of land off a neighbor.  I'm assuming you would get a plan drawn out from a surveyor and have them resubmit both parcels to the city for approval?

Additional Question: I do this PRIOR to purchasing the property, right? 

2. What are some potential hurdles you see with this?

I hope this is not a loaded question, just trying to steer my overconfused mind in a simple straight forward direction.

Thanks,

Kyle