I feel wine country real estate operates just a little different than the rest of the Bay Area.

If you are attempting to simply work the renovations in over time, you run the risk of the rehab budget conflicting with your operating budget.

In other words, it was legal at one time the zoning changed and it can continue to operate until the non-conformity is lost.  

Following up on Michael's comment, your lease should state that tenants are not allowed to operate any business on the property.

Because I operate a business my goals would be to maximise rents immediately.

There are several ways to achieve this though, and you can  check out this article to learn more.The fourth pillar is somewhat similar - you want to separate your operations from your assets.

Risk level is insignificant when you properly operate your business as others have mentioned.

But not us operators.. other wise every hard money lender would do this.. and we are not all clueless like some thing we are  LOL 

@Christa S Rickard I'm sure you could operate at 21% but it suggests that you are on auto-pilot...letting the roof rot of the place with insufficient reserves...I'd like to take a look at the actual property performance if you're inclined to send it over...

(I operate a restaurant) Anyone else start this way?