My grandpa is planning on giving me one of his old lots ,
For full disclosure he still has not given it but has announced it in the family and we will attend the lawyer next week .
The lot is located in the most sought after neighborhood in my small town , there is very high demand in a way that any lot practically sells in less than a month in the neighborhood and there is not much anymore.
Now the main issue is that I cannot sell it , my family believes in giving land lots to build personal houses as a family tradition, this specific land lot has been in the family for over 50 years just preserved to be given.
I was thinking of building a 3 stories building apartments and getting the top one for myself while leasing the other two .
For more context:
– Land lot worth around $1M by market value
– lot is 500m^3 (parking for 2 cars exist in addition to it )
– I’m not American / this is not in the us .
– I come from middle class family, so my parents may be able to help but to some extent
– I’m 27 and single (just for context)
Would appreciate some advice how to deal with this and whats the best path to maximize my revenue
Grandpa is giving me valuable family land that I can’t sell. What’s the smartest financial move?
byu/Alternative-Town8381 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Alternative-Town8381
10 Comments
>I’m not American / this is not in the us .
Could you provide more clues, Carmen Sandiego?
If you can’t sell it, will family also wig out if you build an apartment building on it?
Can you afford a massive investment like a multi-apartment construction at age 27??
Do you mean 500 m^2? m^3 is a volume.
Do you have the money to build an apartment building on an undeveloped lot?
Would that satisfy your family tradition since you wouldn’t be building a ‘personal’ single family home?
Very cool 🙂
Your plan is very good. It will pay dividends throughout your life.
All the questions are really local:
Are there zoning laws that allow or prohibit a 3 story building?
Are there codes that make it very expensive or not profitable to do so?
What type of financing is available to fund a partially owner occupied construction like this?
What rent could you likely charge for the other units?
Can you get insurance on the building once built?
Is being a landlord in this place a reasonable thing ?(i.e. you can evict tenants who don’t pay, you are not subject to very strict regulations making it hard to be profitable.)
All those details really shift the value.
If you can build a 3 story building with rental apartments, 1 unit per floor, and you don’t need to put in an elevator, fire escape, and you can take a loan on the land at a reasonable rate to pay for construction, and the cost of construction plus loan rate will mean a payment equal to the rent you can charge, being a landlord is a reasonable plan, and you can get insurance, it is a good plan!
Create parcels and lease out the land, especially if it’s farmable.
If you can somehow finance the build for something like that I would go for it.
You might have to see what the city allows as they might have to zone it differently or restrict to a certain size.
Someone in zoning or planning with your city should be able to assist you with that.
Other than that if they say it’s ok you will need to secure financing to build.
Family traditions end the moment $ are involved. I would expect my children to chase profit instead of sentiment. Sell that property, if your family says anything, ignore them. Pretty easy to be an adult in 2026. If you want to live your life by stone age rules, why ask on reddit what to do?
Sure, go ahead. Just keep in mind that you may not want to live in a multi family home in your 40’s.
Being a landlord is a lot cooler on social media than reality.
And given the cost it sounds like this might be the best location you’ll ever own in.
So if I was set on a multifamily home I’d design it to minimize the costs of converting it to single family later.