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I'm interested in buying a unit in a 3 unit house. I was under the impression that you can buy a percentage of a house, say 33%. The landlord tells me that under sf laws it's not possible. Otherwise he wouldh've done it a long time ago. He said the house would have to be converted to condos first. He implied a difficult process for what i want. I don't understand the obstacles yet. Maybe someone here can enlighten me or point me in the right direction.
About the house. 3 story, 3 unit building, rent controlled. The units are separated by floor and each has 3/4 bedrooms. All utilities are separate except for water. So wouldn't a conversion to condos be easy? I just want the apartment i'm currently living in. So the 33% would mean the unit i'm in and shared use of backyard, garage and basement area. What's the problem?
What you are talking about is a TIC - tenants in common. There is a way to do this, but you need a really good lawyer to handle all the complications in drawing up the contact. Financing TICs are also complex. I'll pm you the information on one of the best in the city. Not cheap, but your really want all the details spelled out. It took me two years to untangle a badly written TIC.
Gee. Expensive and complex is prohibitive. I'm assuming that it's this difficult because it's in sf. Is there an alternative to TIC besides purchasing the entire building?
I have a friend in San Francisco that bought into a TIC in a nice Edwardian 3 unit (floor) near Russian Hill and it is my understanding that many buildings apply through a lottery to allow a conversion to condos, (which obviously is a much more traditional outside of NYC way of dividing up a multi unit to make easier to finance and market) and only a few "win" every year. His building won but one of the other owners was a complete pill and basically sabotaged the successful conversion. My friend is now stuck with a horrible shared owner in a building that he can barely market his share to try to get out of it.
I'm sure others know far more about this than I but do your due diligence with this one.
Typically, when the ownership is Tenants in Common, the TIC ownership is not a specific portion of the property but, rather, a percentage ownership of the entire property.
Gee. Expensive and complex is prohibitive. I'm assuming that it's this difficult because it's in sf. Is there an alternative to TIC besides purchasing the entire building?
Nope. Sorry.
TIC is your only route. Just hire a lawyer, get everyone to the table, and draft the TIC agreement. The getting everyone to agree on a binding agreement is likely the most cumbersome part.
Yes, you can also go condo conversion.... but here's the thing: you must first purchase the unit as a TIC before you can convert to condo. So... either way, you have to do a TIC.
There are lots of rules and restriction regarding condo conversion, but it sounds like that's not your motivation so I'll skip it.
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