Buying land from a School District
From: Thomas Lofft (tloffthotmail.com)
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2017 12:21:09 -0700 (PDT)
On Apr 21, 2017 4:09 AM, <leenaree [at] xmission.com> wrote:

Regardless of whether it is a school district or any other entity,

key land/site acquisition factors are:

What are the Buyer's options for alternate sites for its purpose? This is a 
consideration for both the Buyer and alternate Sellers. If there are multiple 
options for the Buyer to consider, Sellers have to be open to not being a first 
choice alternative and negotiate accordingly, being prepared to make 
negotiating concessions on price, terms, financing, time to get to settlement, 
and conceding other Buyer contingencies.

What are the Seller's options for getting better prospects to buy the property? 
 If a property has been on the market for a long time, probably the price is 
too high for its potential use or there are multiple hurdles for getting 
governmental or appraisal, or environmental clearances, and lender underwriting 
approval for a particular potential use.

Worst Case: Buyer wants to acquire a property that is not on the market, even 
though to the Buyer it may appear to be surplus to the Owner's needs. Buyer has 
to induce the Owner first, to want to sell the property; 2nd, to want to accept 
the Buyer's pricing, terms and conditions.

Critical: for the Buyer to be sure it knows absolutely everything about the 
zoning, subdivision, development, utility and environmental regulations. The 
more hurdles there are to be cleared, the less value the property has to most 
prospects. Most real estate brokers do not know this information and are 
unwilling to do the work to find out. Many owners do not know all the 
constraints that may exist that create unknown development expenses for the 
prospects.

In the specific case, be sure to know the adjacent property owners' holdings, 
zoning, and future possibilities. Yes, you can find out, that's what 'Due 
Diligence' is all about. Compiling as much possible information about the 
property, the constraints, the adjacencies and the market factors now and for 
the foreseeable future, making a determination about the related aspects of the 
property, adjacent properties, and all the principals involved.

What can you offer a School District (or any other Owner) in particular: making 
a commitment to not only solve the Buyer's needs, but also offer to work to 
resolve some of the Owner's critical needs, like providing an easement in 
perpetuity through the property for future access or utility extensions to 
Seller's residual property; providing payments over a period of years to meet 
current and future capital budget requirements; contribute concurrent 
improvements to enhance grading, drainage, view protection; provide noise, 
lighting and traffic controls, or other measures to minimize potential future 
negative impacts; treat the property as a Heritage Site, giving name 
recognition as appropriate to a designated party or entity. This means 
investigating the Owner's vision and mission statement, reviewing its annual 
reports for strengths and weaknesses, sitting through multiple meeting to 
observe demeanors of individuals to determine their personal strengths and 
weaknesses.

Best of luck with your search and negotiations.

Tom Lofft





How can it be used




  Hello!

  I don't know if other school districts do it  a similar way, but the
Everett School District in Washington owns parcels designated either for
future construction of schools, possible exchange with the city for park
use, or joint use with organizations that support an educational mission.

  Our start-up cohousing group has as part of its mission statement to
offer instruction and hands-on opportunities in growing and preserving
food, as well as dyeing, cheesemaking and other  "forgotten" crafts.

  Have any of you successfully negotiated purchasing a parcel from a school
district?  What advice can you offer in terms of how to explain cohousing,
and the benefits of having cohousing as a neighbor to a school?

  Thanks!

  Eileen McCabe

  Tammany Commons

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