By Living Room Realty, November 13, 2018
Leah dreamt of development. Be it an ADU or a house.
My client Leah wanted to buy a home with property in Vancouver for tax purposes and wanted enough space to build. Development is in Leah’s blood. Her dad is an architect.
We had the willingness, and the team. All we needed was property. We found a property that spoke with Leah near downtown Vancouver. It was a bit of an odd home and priced a little out of line for how quirky the house was. While doing some pre-due diligence, the sellers accepted an offer from someone else.
Heading back to square one, we found a property with a small home that was listed as developable. It was priced even higher than buyer wanted to go. This property was different than the last one she was interested in. Located in an area of higher priced homes and had over a half an acre in size, and development happening across the street. The property was priced too high for average developers. Leah was willing to take a swing and write a low offer.
After a few rounds of back and forth, we came together. During inspections though we learned that the lender Leah was working with couldn’t get the property to appraise based on being an owner occupied home with the value being more in the land. With that and the inspections results, the deal fell apart. After researching more lenders and speaking with several brokers to find the right lender, we found a lender that was willing to work with the property being a bit different than the usual. Additionally we swung for the fences and asked the seller for a big price reduction. To our surprise, the seller agreed.
My client now is the proud owner of a small 50’s home on a HUGE lot, with development potential for around 7 – 8 homes, and she bought the property for $253,000.
So excited for my client to embark on her development as time progresses.
