Posted by Jim FL on November 11, 2002 at 17:04:31:
Cricket,
What about talking to a local attorney about splitting the units?
They should be able to advise whether this can be done or not, and two titles being created from one.
However, the mortgage on the place now would need to be dealt with.
It is not real clear how that issue will be handled.
What about placing the property into a land trust.
Then lease option each half of the unit out, and when the T/B’ers want to exercise, carry paper and sell them 50% ownership of the trust.
Then sell the other half to the other T/B’ers when they are ready.
You can collect cash flow.
Just make sure your docs are done by a local competent attorney specializing in real estate, and that the agreements spell out who is responsible for what.
A rather easy way to split the units up with the hassles of rezoning I would think.
But, talk to an attorney, I am not one and this is not legal advice, just my creative mind wandering.
Good luck, and make sure everything is done right, no matter what path you choose.
We’re looking at a duplex in S. Everett. It is owned by two families, who went in and qualified for a loan together. So we have a brand new duplex (side-by-side, fully separated), with two families, and two couples on both the title and the mortgage.
We have signed a P&S to take the entire duplex subject to original mortgage at 6.875%(P&S is subject to partner’s approval of course!), with plans to L/O out each side separately. We think that if we do that, when one side finally finances, we can refinance the remaining side into our own name at a much better LTV.
We’re pretty confident of the subject2 purchase and being able to L/O the halves at a positive cash-flow. Our questions are concerning the title:
Is this how title to a duplex is normally set up? One title encompassing both halves?
Since there is only one title, what would be involved in splitting the title for the two halves?
I guess we’re really wondering if having a single title is going to be a problem, and if there is anything we can to about it.
Usually it is one tax lot and one title, one loan. Unless it is a condominium set-up.
Usually you cannot split it into two lots. You say there are separate units, so it might be splittable. The place to check that is at the zoning department of the city, or county. They will tell you if it is possible to split.
What problems are you talking about? There is one loan now. You either put on a new loan or keep on the old loan. You won’t be putting separate loans on the two units.
Thanks, the one lot/title/loan was what I’d pretty much been finding from other inquiries today. Along with the advice to check with the local zoning department.
We had thought to l/o each unit off seperately. But the probability of BOTH units (l/o’d to separate t/b’s) wanting to exercise their option at the same time is pretty remote. So we were trying to figure out what we could do about the mortgage when ONE side wanted to exercise. We plan on keeping the current mortgage until then. Then we’d have to do something about paying off the current mortgage and refinancing the single side into our name until the 2nd side exercises.
But with what I’m seeing in Snohomish county about short platting (which is what I believe we’d need to do in order to split the title), we’re looking at L/O’ing the entire duplex to an extended family.