We are Real Estate Developers

There was a hiccup as we became aware that the property carried with it a Development Agreement that stipulated that if a pair of twin homes were built on the lot, CC&Rs had to be recorded with the County and the CC&Rs had to carry the requirement that both units had to be owner occupied for a period of 15 years from the time the CC&Rs were recorded. That requirement was the issue that has caused the previous buyers to back out before closing -- and possibly scared other purchasers away in the past. It wasn't a big deal to us, as we considered the purchase because we intend to be owner occupants and we assumed Joan would stay as well. As time went on, however, Joan began expressing misgivings. What if she married again or decided to move elsewhere. She wouldn't have the option of holding onto the property for rental income.

In addition, as a Neighborhood Chair in Provo, I had heard the Zoning Enforcement official say that no where in Provo, were properties required to be "owner occupied". So this development agreement seemed odd. And after that, I heard that, after the crash of the housing market in 2008, banks were unwilling to finance any project that had that sort of language. 

After speaking with many people downtown, to make a long story short, the City Council decided that there was precedent for removing the owner occupancy requirement from the development agreement and I won't have to make a formal request to delete it. They are also calling our building plans insignificant modifications of the existing agreement so we can now go forward with the steps to apply for the building permit.  It does pay to be involved in city government at times!

We are now in the process of subdividing the property between Joan and us. And Steve is writing up the CC&Rs. The floor plans are firming up and it is exciting to think about what it we'll do. I have situated our house to capture as much winter sun in windows as possible for what is called "passive solar gain". We won't place solar panels on the roof but that would be possible in the future.