NO GO On Buying White Gables... For Now

The difference between a residential property and a commercial property is exactly 1 unit. A certain amount of units is okay to get an FHA loan if you also live on the property. However, 1 beyond that means you can’t get FHA and you’ll have to get a commercial business loan which requires over 20% down. We don’t have over 75,000 smackers to throw down, so we won’t be buying this place via any conventional means.

However, the university Foundation people are looking into arrangements for a loan through other means– what other kind is possible is hard for me to imagine, but then I’m not a suave and sophisticated financier now, am I? So there is still a chance something may be worked out, but I’d say that chance is slim. Its too bad, too, because this place is ideal in so many ways… We might be able to do a land contract thing, but I doubt the Foundation wants to mess with that, they just want to get rid of the property altogether and quickly.

I’m not overly worried though. For now, we’re doing great as managers and I don’t see us as being likely to get kicked out of the position. We work pretty darned cheap, considering. Also, anyone who DOES have over $70 K to toss out for a down payment is not likely to decide to move here into a tiny 2-bedroom townhouse to live and take over the job. Not to mention– the place barely pays for itself and if it burns down, you can only build a large residential single family home in its place, since the multi-family housing is claused in… and loan companies don’t like that kind of potential loss.

Its this very awkward piece of property for most conventional financial arrangements. Two acres where you can’t develop it any further. Several units in a large dwelling where multiple units aren’t allowed. Basically, what we’re doing now with the not-quite-co-housing thing is pretty much the most you can do with it. Perhaps we could rent grazing land out or grow low-maintenance crops (fruit and/or nut trees, blueberries, Xmas trees, etc.) but that’s about the only thing we haven’t done yet other than a couple of extra livestock like goats or something.

WHO would buy it, really? Someone may, but they’d need someone to care for it and so we’d continue with the sweet deal we have going now. Also, why would they make us stop having gardens and chickens and such? Maybe close the wading pool for lack of insurance or something. But really, I think we’re okay for some time to come.

Now we’re freed to start looking at other properties to maybe do something similar to what we’re doing here, only without the hiccups of a severe land use restriction on a grand-fathered situation. I think we could do pre-fab cabins or cabins from kits on a property with a single house in areas where you can have “vacation housing” or something. Anyway, it’ll be fun to look as we continue to do our thing here.

Am I disappointed? Sure. But not crushed by any means. Nothing is going to change overnight. We have time to figure things out still.