Triplex with commercial zoning a good thing?

[Jamie Blair]

Hi all, I tracked down and called up the owner of triplex for sale near me. On MLS it's listed as commercial. The property has been on the market for 40 days and I was thinking that perhaps the zoning was one reason why it hadn't sold yet. When speaking with my mortgage broker, she informed me that to buy a commercial property I would need an environmental assessment (6k), and a commercial property assessment (2.5k) and then a 35% down payment on top of that. For all these reasons, I saw this is a big downside to the property, but the owner seemed genuinely happy and thought it was a great asset that the property was listed as commercial. "you could do anything you want with it!" What are your thoughts on this? Do you see commercial zoning as a bonus?

For those of you who are curious, I learned that he hasn't sold the triplex yet because he owns a large commercial building (1.5M) next door and wants to sell the 2 properties as a package deal. He's received offers on the triplex but not on the commercial building so he's declined them all. Maybe he'll eventually cave :p