Should I buy the empty lot next door?
You have to weigh the fear of someone else building right next to you against the reality of overpaying and taking on regular maintenance and clean-up. While the financial costs or potential landlord duties are heavy, passing on the property leaves you with the anxiety of having no idea what the new owners plan to build.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Accepting that living in a city means always having neighborsDid this help you?
- 2Familiarizing yourself with local zoning laws to understand the maximum allowable development density and setbacksDid this help you?
- 3Trying to negotiate the purchase price downDid this help you?
- 4Doing a proper cap analysis to see if the rental income covers the mortgage, taxes, and maintenance.Did this help you?
- 5Investing the money in the S&P 500 or low-cost index funds instead.Did this help you?
- 6Considering the startup and maintenance costs of running an Airbnb.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Just not sure if it’s worth it for the privacy, as that lot would come with regular maintainence and quite a bit of cleaning up.”source ↗
“We had a vacant lot next door for sale and did not purchase it because it was overpriced. It sold, we had no idea what the plans were for it, and were VERY sad it may include someone building on it.”source ↗
“We bought it. We overpaid market price, but it was worth more to us because it was right next door. We DO NOT REGRET IT because we remember the ‘fear’ (kind of strong for what we felt, but still accurate) of having someone come in and build next door.”source ↗
“I'm curious on if I would enjoy being a landlord... More excited to host as we can have family stay on non-hosted days.”source ↗
“Right now, besides the house, no debt. Would it be wise to place an offer on this house or not really? We think it might be cool to own the house behind ours and either rent or have it as a family house and use it as Airbnb or something.”source ↗
“We could rent around $1400 and could probably be around $2000 a month for us with escrow.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 10Should I sell my farmland or keep renting it out?
- 17Should I buy property or keep my money invested?
- 5How to deal with an abandoned house next door
- 8Is a luxury home upgrade worth giving up financial flexibility?
- 2What should I ask for when a neighbor wants property access?
- 15How to tell if a discounted house has major foundation damage