Developer for a sub division

[Michael L Sakey]

HI All,

I am reaching out to see if there are any developers in our forums here.

I own a 16.4-acre plot of land with my home being part of that total acreage in Enfield CT. I have met with the zoning department in town a few times to discuss selling off "lots" or the possibility of "subdividing" all the extra land

Their best suggestion would be to discuss these ideas with a developer because the best use of the land would be by adding a street - otherwise, there won't be enough frontage for many lots.

Are there any CT based developers out there?

Thanks in advance!

[Scott Hollister]

@Michael L Sakey

I just finished a 64 acre subdivision in Tolland, only created two lots, one for our dream home and the other as a rental. 

Based on my experience, 7 months from buying to selling, it was a big learning experience. Jay gives you some great advice, I can point to the right local engineer that knows current regulations(This is your best friend when it comes to land deals IMO, as well as local developers). That is the biggest hurdle at first, see what you can get conceptually get out of it, etc. From what I learned and heard from other developers, putting a road in is the biggest pain in the a$$. And from what I did on a small scale, I can tell you it will not be light on your wallet. You will have around 10-20k in soft costs before you can get approvals in place. And even then, putting a road in, bring sewer/water, or septic/well, land clearing, site development, etc. You will be well into the 6 figures. Then construction cost, for stick framing is around $150 a sq ft right now on the economy side.

Cheapest and best case, unless you bring someone on your team that has experience, is to see how much frontage you have on the road now, see how many lots you can get, and build just that. 

Hurdles:

-See what the frontage requirements are, for rear lots and normal building lots. You may be able to get more density. 

-You can subdivide your current house, but the lender may call the mortgage, when you refinance your primary, hopefully you created enough value, where you can refinance most of your capital while owning the land outright. That is what we did, then we plan to use the land as the down payment on the construction to permanent financing. So you may be able to building another house for "free".

-You may have to give away part of the land to open space, there will be the math formula in the recent regulations for enfield. Maybe 10-20% or so of land to open space.

-Check your wetlands on the area. This is the only committee that can derail your project from what I heard/learned.

Best of luck! My best opinion would be to build a few houses, or your dream house, keep the other house as a rental, and split land and sell to developer. Unless you team up with someone. I think if you built decent homes, in the 325-350k range, 4 bed/2 bath, 2500 sq ft or so, they would fly off the shelf. There seems to be a lack of inventory in the first time homebuyer range in central CT, especially new construction in the semi-affordable range. But by that time you will be 1.5 years out, so be prepared to have extra holding costs if the economy is worse or interest rates go up.