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My husband and I are hoping to buy some land around Kimberley, BC upon which to build our dream home.
Pickings are slim for vacant land, but then we found a development with the perfect lot: .4 of an acre, all services in place, in town, magnificent mountain views, great price.
HOWEVER (you knew that was coming lol). The development is over 8 years old. After selling two measly lots back at the beginning, the developer went belly up when the real estate market crashed and the ensuing years have been a mess of lawsuits (now settled) and court ordered wheeling and dealing. One of the original parties is now back in business and trying once again to sell the lots. Nobody is touching them.
Which comes to us. We could buy and build, but if the rest of the lots don't sell we might have some serious problems down the road if we ever need to sell our place. Or, we could get an amazing deal and when the market picks up (maybe because we bought and others saw that someone else had the confidence to buy??), the development will, you know, develop, and our lot will become a desired property.
What say you?
Here's the view from the entrance to the development.
All real estate is local. Impossible those not there to answer you.
That said, I learned to only buy in at the end of development when all the facts and figures are known. Might cost more but if a sound place, it will prosper.
How big is the development? (How many lots). The two that sold, are they developed or never built? Is the development near “town” or in the middle of nowhere? How long do you expect to live there before selling? Are you getting a great deal on the lot to compensate for the risk? So many factors to consider. Have you talked to a local realtor about this?
My feelings about a house way out in the beautiful mountains is that I would be happier to not be able to see any neighbors. So I wouldn't be sad if none of the other lots sold. In fact if the lots aren't selling, I might try to get a bargain on the lots to either side and in back of me to keep neighbors away.
Then I would plant a couple of rows of blue spruce on the outer property lines for screening.
The important thing to me is what infrastructure is shared by the lot owners. Water? Sewer? Roads? If those are all public, then if I liked the lot for that price I would buy it. But, you don't want to have just a couple of lot owners responsible for paving the road or keeping the community well going.
I have seen this work where a developer "overshoots" an area by overpricing or a recession hits and he goes belly up...remaining lots sit empty for a while. The the market recovers or new developers price it reasonably and new buyers get the same lots for a fraction of the first buyers.
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