[Watching The World Burn]

Story 1:

A few years ago a house on a street near ours sold but the seller effectively financed it through a VTB note, but got a reasonable downpayment - I can't remember what it was, but lets say it was minimum 20%. Within a year (maybe two, but I don't think it was that long) the buyers couldn't make the payments anymore so the seller took back the house.

And sold it again. For more money than before. But this time, no VTB! But he definitely made a killing, because he kept the downpayment, was only out of the house for a year or two, and then sold it for more. I think he was overall fairly happy.


Story 2:

A house on our street (but on the waterfront) sold for $2.65M to the best of my knowledge and the buyer's objective was simply to level the house and build a new, larger house with a two+ car garage attached to the house plus a separate detached garage to hold 4-6 cars (two tandem bays and two single bays as I recall from the plans I saw).

The build is going to cost easily another $1.5-2M I figure because I've seen the plans and admittedly, it looks like the house should be quite nice.

However, despite all his money and connections, absolutely nothing has happened on his property for two years now (nor has he torn down the old house yet) because he has severely underestimated the obstinance of the local lake conservation authority which appears to be blocking him at every turn in his quest to build.

I mean, its sort of funny, but I can only imagine he is grinding his teeth on a daily basis just cursing those guys as his property sits empty longer and longer, and some of his money is just tied up in this property that is not going anywhere at the moment. He doesn't even live there, he's living somewhere else at the moment because his plan was always to tear the house down.

As much as I'd like to live on the water, I don't think I ever would - dealing with the conservation authorities is just too much of a headache.