All Forum Posts by: Joe Sno

Sorry but city of Tacoma will make you have a separate meter.  They may change the rules eventually due to the new zoning currently taking place but is the reality for now.  See their tip sheet (top of second page):

https://www.tacomapermits.org/...

You should go over all their tip sheets:

https://www.tacomapermits.org/...

Thanks Dave.  I think turning it into a rental and a cash out refi is sound advice.  Perhaps I can get enough money out of the refi to just keep it as a rental and still keep investing. 

I bought a house several years ago on a big lot and subdivided the land.  I sold the house and was left with a buildable lot free and clear.  I am currently having a house built on it now (foundation just got poured so have some time to decide).  I am using about $100k in cash and $250k from my heloc to pay for everything.  The house should sell for about $650k so leave me around $250k to reinvest after real estate fees.

What would be the best way to move forward?  From my understanding, I can't 1031 it unless I rent it out for about a year.  At that point, I still wouldn't be able to pull any money out to pay myself back and pay my heloc off so I would likely reinvest the whole amount to say a million dollar quadplex.   Then from my understanding, I could cash out refi but that would likely cost 3-5%.  Am I better to just pay the long term capitol gains?  From my understanding, 15% on just the profit so $37,500?

Any other strategies are welcome except I don't want to move into it for 2 years.  Thanks in advance.

I used Informed Land Survey for my last short plat.  They are excellent to work with!  They also were the most reasonable price wise when I called around and got estimates.  I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

Another kind of trenchless repair is called pipe bursting.  They actually drag new pipe through the old one with a cable, bursting the old one as it goes in.  It depends on the access to the ends though of whether they can do it or not.

I used Gary Allen from Baseline Engineering for my last one and would definitely use him again.  He's very professional and prompt to get back with you. 

One thing I didn't know, at the very end, you have to pay your taxes up for the year to get the assessor to sign off on it.  Then they don't asses tax on the new parcels until the new tax year. It makes sense.  It was just a little surprise at the end.

I second what Ke said.  Hilltop has cleaned up over the years but still is pretty rough.

I forgot to mention, that in Gmap, you can right click and there is also a measuring tool.  Super handy!

It took the survey/engineer company about 3-4 weeks to get the request and sketches submitted to the city.  My subdivision hasn't been approved yet but it's been about 3 weeks.  Tacoma's website lets you see the status of your permit in regards to each department.  I can see it's about 70% of the way through and hoping to hear something in the next week or so.

So I would count on around 2 months or more once you get started.

I honestly think your best place for feasibility is the city's permit department.  They have always been very helpful when I've gone down there and never had to wait more than an hour to see someone. 

You may also find this helpful if you're looking in Tacoma (sometimes you have to click on the map to get it to come up):

http://www.govme.org/gMap/MGMain.aspx

It's what the city department uses.  You can see the lot your interested by doing an address search and if you open up the surface features, you can add the existing building footprints in to see if there is actually room for another lot in regards to the house.  The existing house must meet setbacks with your new boundary line.  If it's zoned R4, that's 5 feet.  You could, of course, apply for a variance if there is not enough setback but it cost money and there are no guarantees.

One more thing to keep in mind, is the city does not like to zig zag boundary lines.  They prefer a straight line.  So, if the house sits over the new boundary line, let's say, 5 feet and with setback that's a total of 10 feet, you can't make up that 10 feet by going 10 feet the other way in the back yard.  Hope that makes sense.

This will tell you what the property is zoned:  http://www.govme.org/govME/AddApps/Inter/ParcelAnalysis/PAMain.aspx