Overcoming A Lack Of Age/experience
I'm having some trouble. I bought a 1.5 acre retail lot in a rapidly growing East Texas town about 2 years ago. The residential development market has been booming in the area over those 2 years. Commercial buiding in the area has started to pick up recently but I've not been able to capitalize on this upswing. The land was zoned for retail use years ago in expectation of growth but all of the retail lots in town have houses on them. Besides being the largest piece of retail land in town, my land provides the access point for another 5-7 acres of landlocked, undeveloped property. My problem is that I'm not from this area and the area developers don't seem to be taking me seriously since I'm not a local big-wig. (Much of the residential development involved land owned or financed by the mayor and other local political figures.) How do I get these developers attention? I can't even get them to talk to me long enough to explain my ideas for the property. Help? Please?
What exactly do you want to do with the property? Are you trying to sell, develop a partnership and build a shopping mall, or something of the like? What you want to do will determine your approach. If all the contractors in town are doing business with political figures, then it may be tough. If you know what you are offering and what the profit is for the developer, then you will know where you stand. Maybe a private investor may be interested as well, but please let us know what you want to do with this property and then maybe someone can help.
Currently I'm considering having the property rezoned for residential-5500sq. ft. lots. The shape of the land lends itself well to this purpose and most of the area neighbors are agreeable to the idea. Most of the residential development in town has been in the $250,000 - $300,000 home price range. After watching many of these houses being re-sold by the new owners, suddenly realizing that they couldn't afford them, I feel like a development using smaller lots and less expensive houses would bring in lots of buyers. 3bed / 2bath in this area sells for around $150,000+. Potential on my land is for 8 - 9 lots, depending on road design, plus the acreage that is accessible through my property. Most of the local developers don't play well with others and prefer to purchase the land from owners to develop as they please. I'm fine with this, I even prefer the idea, since I have job offers in West Texas that would require me to sell this property to free up for a move. I don't have to sell, I'd just like to. Seems like a developer might at least talk to a guy when he owns the largest retail lot in town which happenst to be the access point for a large area of undeveloped residential property that is just sitting empty. I just want to get a foot in the door so I can sit down and show the developers what I have and what becomes available to them through my land.
[ Edited by JIsham on Date 02/17/2004 ][ Edited by JIsham on Date 02/17/2004 ]
If you haven't spoken with the owner of the landlocked property, why don't you find out what that owner wants to do with his/her property? Before that, I would confirm the current zoning of the landlocked property. Going the rezoning route, particularly for higher density, sounds like it would be next to impossible. If the municipality has a master plan or comprehensive plan--whatever the title--a document that shows from a land planning point of view the land uses that the municipality wants to achieve, see where your property is listed. commercial, residential, other, commercial/residential subcategory.
Developers aren't going to be interested in your property unless they feel they need it. That's why I suggest contacting the landlocked property owner.[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 02/17/2004 ]
Thanks for the insight. I've already contacted the landlocked owner and tried to purchase his land from him a couple of years ago. He told me he would sell it but only to a developer if someone began to develop the other land, mine, first. His land is zoned for sf 8000 sq ft lots. while mine is zoned for retail use.