Two Houses/One Lot Condo Split

[John Newland]

I have a seller who purchased a property that has two buildings on one lot. He wants to divide the current lot into two separate lots with each building having it's own lot and sell each property individually.

The only way the city will allow him to split the properties is to make them into condos. There will be two tax keys and the "lot" will actually be a limited common element appurtenant to each building rather than having an actual separate lot for each building.

His intent is to sell these properties to investors interested in holding them as rental properties. The buildings themselves need updating and upgrading and he is looking to sell them as is, i.e. these are not your typical condos (one building is a mixed use property with an old unused tavern that has living quarters upstairs and the other is a two bedroom bungalow.)

I am trying to determine the best course to market these properties. The best case scenario would be a buyer coming in and purchasing the property as it currently sits, currently only one lot, one tax key, and two buildings. As a group of savvy investors, what do you think we are going to be up againt if this seller decides to do split as condos? Will the buy and hold crowd be turned off at this kind of set up?