All Forum Posts by: Bryant Brislin

Also, sometimes it's good to check with the fire department to see if they would have any issues with the site.  If the lots are pretty infill and standard, then hopefully not an issue, but if they are on any windy hillside streets, or if it's a flag-shaped lot tucked in among other parcels, sometimes it's good to make sure that the fire department wouldn't require anything special.  There are multi-disciplined consultants who do a more comprehensive review of all potential constraints, but I think they charge 5-10k approx, so may not be worth it on a smaller project.  A good civil engineer and architect can often point out issues, but sometimes they are a bit silo'd in their view, and overlook things like environmental.  Electric can also be an issue in California, but it sounds like that you've checked on that...but sometimes just because a lot is infill with poles everywhere doesn't mean that the electric company wouldn't require a long amount of time to process electrical plans on their end and sometimes they end up having to replace a pole or add a transformer, etc due to additional load demand. 

Environmental, even for small sized lots can be something that gets overlooked.  So you might want to ask the Planning Department if they think a mitigated neg dec would be adequate for what you're looking at.  If there are any protected trees/plants/species, sometimes that's an issue as far as not that you can't necessarily not develop just because they are there, but there could be a cost involved with mitigating the impact from the project.  Are the lots flat or hillside?

I'm happy to network with you.

@Russell Brazil you're right, I read that question the other way around, as far as I thought he was looking for distress in the form of which builders are offering major concessions.  

Use the power of "lingering", meaning let them know you are interested, spend time with them and then leave if you can't get the numbers you want, and say you'll be in touch.  You may need to revisit and do this two, three, four times...your face will be scorched onto the salepersons' brains and when corporate gives them an edict to sell a certain amount by a certain time, or offers them a bonus to hit a certain goal, even if it means being generous with the hold-out (every community has one or a few), you'll get that call offering a concession. They mostly count on the buyers who are making decisions strictly based on emotion (the wife falls in love with the kitchen, etc) or based on impending logistics (the current lease is up, the pregnant couple who needs something bigger, etc). So they will concede here and there to hit targets, i.e. 1 sale per week if often the desired absorption rate. 

If there is no debt on the property, then you can form an LLC where you are both members with allotted percentages of ownership and a side agreement that details further what the obligations are for each side. It may be worth spending 5k-10k on a transactional real estate attorney for this.

On a national level, it was Lennar, but I heard they are going to stop that. If anything, survey/call multiple open communities and find out. 

I haven't really seen that work (but maybe it could, I don't know that market) but I've seen groups do manufactured housing (modern day, very nice mobile home parks) and seem to do well for the rural areas. 

Besides everything written above, the Departments of Real State for the specific state they are in usually require it. For smaller projects, sometimes you can get away with a "Maintenance Association" which is a bit less onerous than an HOA.

If you need a little bit of help on an a la carte basis, I might be help.  I've been a land broker for sixteen years and was a subdivision title officer for seven years before that.