Re: Visits?

[Michael Perry <mperry@efn.org>]

Bill Currier wrote:
> 
> You really should have been in this area during the boom years.  At that
> time time not only was it not possible to visit a site, but many
> developments were running lotteries.  At one point in my tract, there
> were over 100 people competing for each house completed and people were
> paying up to $100,000 over the nominal asking price.  By the time I 

Yeah, I've heard about those booms before, but not quite that big.

A cousin of mine ran into that type of boom. He *finally* found a lot by
buying a piece of land, then subdividing it himself (the builders all
had the development lots sewn up, which is why there was a shortage of
houses). He had arrangements to bring in a crew from outside town, but
ended up making a deal with one of the better builders in the area. For
and exchange of land-rights, he was able to have his house built to his
specs. When done, the builder had first call on the lots, and my cousin
collected his investment back when the houses sold.

It took him a LOT of work to subdivide (and he ended up "selling" two
lots to local zoning officials in exchange for favors) but the nice part
was that the lot values were high enough that he ended up with a 2700 sq
foot house nearly paid for about what the lot would have cost him... and
had leverage to make sure his house was built right.