Turning WI agriculture into resort

[Krystin Krebs]

Hi All! We are purchasing an agriculture property (it's a forest) in Wisconsin using seller financing. We will likely need a construction loan, and plan to add 10 tiny homes using shipping containers to the property. We plan to make them self sufficient so we will not be tying into the utilities.

My question is, if you have had experience doing this, and if so, what was the experience like? Do we need permits to add these self sufficient units to the property? Do we need to get the lot rezoned?

We will be removing just enough of the forest to put these container homes in place, but plan to keep as much of the forest as possible. We will also use the forest for lumbar and to grow shitaki mushrooms. We will likely be adding a green house as well as a restaurant and shop in the future, but for now we are focusing on the tiny homes.

Anyone with experience doing anything similar to this, advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Nik Moushon]

@Krystin Krebs

If you are serious about this, the first thing you need to do is go find an architect that know your local zoning code and the building codes for tiny homes or the use of containers. This will cost money up front but if you are not willing to pay a small amount to ensure that you know what you can or can not do then you need to just back out now. Development of any kind costs lots of cash up front. There is no way around it. 

Since I've been in architecture for over 10 years now I'll throw a couple reality checks at you:

• In the vast majority of zoning, tiny home are not aloud. By vast, I mean like 99% of the US.
• Containers are not ideal for anything, imo. By the time you build interior walls so you can add insulation to them, put wood down for a built-up floor, you have basically built a traditional wood framed building. All you did is paid a premium for metal cladding and a big *** crane. 
• Odds are, if you are doing any kind of development, you will need some kind of utilities, if not all of them. This varies on the jurisdiction but just do not count on the fact that you wont have to pay for any of those to be brought in. If you are doing commercial buildings (restaurants and shops are commercial) odds are they will require it.
• The zoning is going to be your biggest problem. If its a forest, odds are, commercial buildings are not going to be a loud or at least are very limited (think agriculture buildings). 
• You need to put together a very detailed pro-forma of all the expenses that are required. Both those that are going to be covered in the construction loan and those that you need to pay for with cash.
• You will have trouble getting a construction loan on this. You're new to developing, you dont own the land free and clear, you dont have any architectural drawings (yet) and it sounds like you dont have a lot of cash for the required collateral. You will need at least 25% of the construction cost in either cash or collateral. 

Not trying to burst your bubble here but development is a completely different beast than the rest of REI. There is a reason 90% of REI dont touch ground up developments. Though the rewards are higher, its very high risk and very capital intensive. You can very easily lose everything and you could do everything right. Just be very careful before you get yourself in too deep and be prepared that you could spend a lot of money before you are able to find out that you cant do anything you wanted to do. Thats just the development game. Best of luck.