“My First Real Estate Experience”

My first real estate purchase was 3.75 acres, which I purchased at 18. At the time I had no clue about zoning or much else about what it takes to subdivide this parcel into 3 lots, which is what I was going to do. 

I had the property surveyed and cut out the first lot and sold it, no harm and no foul. A couple of months later, I divided the remaining parcel into two lots and sold off one of the lots. At no time did I figure out that the entire 3.75 parcel needed to go through subdivision or even needed to be perc tested. I ended up selling the second lot and eventually selling the third lot. 

About 3 years later I got a call from the zoning enforcement officer who started asking me about how I sold these lots without doing all that I was supposed to do. I must really have sounded stupid, as I told him, I was not aware that I needed to do all the stuff he was talking about.

I think he felt sorry for me, so he coached me through the process. I got permission from each owner to do the perc test and then bring the already sold 3 lots through the zoning process. The zoning board could have really created lots of problems for me, but they must I have decided that this idiot needed some help. They approved the subdivision, which was the fastest subdivision of all time. 

Pleading innocence or stupidity is no excuse, but in this situation, it helped. Over the years this town has approved many subdivisions for me, many were on the board, when I first came before them and each time they must have laughed.