All Forum Posts by: Linda T.

I have a long-term investment property (duplex) about three walkable blocks from an area that was recently upzoned to become mixed used (commercial and residential) with an FAR of anywhere between 2:1 or 4:1 and up to 70 feet in height. Tons of high-paying jobs nearby, low vacancy rate, expensive city. Most of the land use right now is for underused car dealerships, apartment buildings, and SFH.

I'm wondering

1. Since my prop is rentals, would this upzone change benefit me?

2. Given a normal economy (with the expected fluctuations), how long would it take for developers to start buying up the land and starting their projects?

I'm excited for this upzoning and am anxious to see it happen sooner than later.

Thanks for the kind and insightful words, everyone. My logical and rational mind tells me that I do need to let this go and move on.

To answer @Brit F. above, we can't really move right now because a lot of the money we had to invest is tied into the property we ended up buying and doing ground-up on. So, we're sitting tight for a few years until we can take some equity out, then use that equity to invest in the next duplex.

This mistake makes me even more determined to buy land in the area I missed out on. The thing I really do worry about is is property taxes: they're going to be significantly higher because I'm going to be paying at least 210% more for the same thing I would've gotten five years ago, thus more than doubling my tax base.

My coinvestors and I did agree that, if I see something that even seems a tad bit too high, to let them know. Collectively, we might be able to scrounge up enough money if the deal is worth it.

I just need to get my ducks in a row and do right because of this mistake!

I’m writing less about investing and more to get your thoughts about how to get over not making an offer five years ago on what turned out to be a great property.

Story: I'm not an investor, but I accidentally became a house hacker. It happened because we realized we couldn't afford a SFH, so we went the route of a duplex.

Looked in zones that allowed two units, but were still in the mindset that we would renovate what we bought.

Saw House That Got Away (HTGA), priced about $150k higher than our budget, lot was 35% larger. Didn’t even make an offer. Didn’t share the info about the site with our coinvestors (big mistake), since it was already out of the range we all agreed on. Location was quiet and not a lot of development there yet.

Saw another duplex in a less-than-ideal location (by alley and underused commercial, adjacent to big thoroughfare). Was within budget. Put an offer on it, and managed to get a discount from seller. Ended up being roughly $130k less than what the HTGA final price was (final price for HTGA was $20k less asking).

What we bought: Duplex, but turned out renovations weren’t worth it. Was able to get cash out to do ground-up on two units. Live in one, rent one. Rental in one covers construction loan and prop tax. We pay about half of market price for a comparable rental for our unit, which goes to pay the remainder of the mortgage. After land value and construction, appraised for about $400k more than we spent (lot of sweat equity went in). Quality of life is meh, it’s a little loud and there is nuisance from alley+commercial.

HGTA today: Land alone is worth about $1 million more than purchase price. The person who bought it did ground-up too, nearly same project as ours. I learned they plan to rent both. The area is BOOMING, about 10k new high-paying jobs moving in, tons of new and expensive restaurants within walking distance, lots of wealthier people moving in.

What we bought is only 1.5 mile from the HGTA, but seems like a world away. I can’t help but hear the noise from the street and think that it would be so different if we lived in HGTA. I regret not sharing with the coinvestors who turned out to be able to finagle extra income to pay for ground-up two units. If I knew that was the case, we would’ve snatched it up.

Thing is, I need to get over this. Regret doesn’t do anyone good. Even coinvestors told me to get over it. I need help/advice from others who’ve had similar situations. How did you move on?