Why I Went to Hemet Redux

It was a very hot day in Hemet yesterday (August 13^th). It was 104° in the shade. What shade? I couldn't find any. I left a frozen bottle of Gatorade in my car while I was out looking at property and it was HOT when I got back. Not warm, not room temperature, but hot like it had been heated on the stove.

I made the nearly 200 mile round trip up to Hemet from my home in San Diego because AR's own John Occhi had an REO that I thought might make a good candidate for my investment group.

It is a single family residence on a third of an acre. We could rehab the house and do a lot split to build a second house. I looked at it the first time I visited John, but the asking price made it undesirable. Since then the bank had a lower offer that was acceptable to them but the buyer backed out. At this price I could do the deal.

The rehabbed house could be sold for a small profit and the new lot would be "free."

This is a situation that I like. FREE LAND.

Alas, it wasn't to be. By the time I got to Hemet the bank had another offer in at a higher price than I could justify.

Oh well, stuff happens.

John was very resourceful and came up with a handful of commercial properties we could look at. Right down my alley.

We spent several hours in the heat looking at property. There were several that interested me. The listing agents had made representations about the zoning and use of each of the properties but I have learned to verify the actual allowed uses with the city BEFORE considering any purchase.

John and I went to the City of Hemet Planning Department. Actually, planning, zoning, and urban development were all handled by the same person.

We picked up a zoning map and compared it to the proposed General Plan.

There are changes coming to Hemet. A couple of the properties had possibilities going forward, but one property represented as zoned M1 was actually zoned Agricultural. In the proposed General Plan it would be in an area of Manufacturing zoning but it looked like it was going to be taken for a major roadway. You've got to check or you could lose big time.

The day wasn't a total loss however. I did find one house on a large lot that was zoned commercial and had three APNs. I'm running the numbers on this one and verifying current market value. It is definitely in the running.

I will present it to my group tomorrow night. We just might be making an offer.