Multipy homes-one deed

[heliman2]

Hi,

I am looking at a townhome complex that is for sale, is there any way of buying a mulit unit building one unit at a time if the entire building is on one deed?

Example: A complex which has 10 attached townhomes under one deed, buy one a month for 10 months. This keeps the purchases in the residential financing market and breaks the downpayment requirements down to a level where there are more potential investors that can afford the investment.

Impossible???????

 

[Thomas Beyer]

What you have is a building, not 10 townhouses.

Each property has two lives: the physical one (i.e. the 10 townhouses you see) .. and the legal one (the title).

In order to get 10 townhouses, you have to do a condo conversion or sub-division, depending on the layout of the land or depending on what your intent is. A condo conversion is done by a Survey firm, such as Hagen Surveys in Edmonton. They will come out, measure each unit, draw up a blue print and shepard it through the city for (usually mandatory) approval (assuming it is Alberta .. in BC you are likely out of luck as many cities have done a moratorium on conversions such as Vancouver). This process takes about 2 months and will cost about $200-$500/unit.

Yu also need approval from the lenders or any caveat holder on title, as now that same entry will appear on all 10. This may or may not be a problem.

Then you can sell or buy one at a time, assuming the caveat holders are OK with it. i.e. if you have a mortgage on all 10 townhouses because it used to be a buidling, then the ENTIRE mortgage has to be discharged once you sell one townhouse, or you have to get a new, much more expensive mortgage that allows partial discharge.