Friday, late.

Brownsville, just pulled in here maybe 25 minutes ago.  It's been raining so much the street is flooded coming in here.  I'm talking over a foot and a half deep of flooding, probably closer to 2 feet.  The first step on my tractor was submerged in water.  It was kind of a let down to find an empty trailer in here, more so knowing the driver coming in behind me? No empty, he'll get the detention pay, I'll be driving back starting mid morning.  

I was a bit surprised coming down here - cause' it's Friday - that there wasn't a ton of traffic coming down to the beach.  I guess the rain scared them all away.  Fine by me, and tomorrow driving back at least it will be Saturday, I won't be dealing with any rush hour traffic junk in Houston.

So yesterday, I started asking about this survey for the property.  We can't wait until the second of never for these people to produce it, if they can't, they need to pay for a new one. My realtor had been giving them time to produce it, but it's been what, over two weeks now?   The contract says if they don't produce a survey, a new one will be ordered at  their expense.

Further exacerbating the situation, the lender informed me today that the appraisal is being held up because there is no complete survey.  I did not know that the appraisal would be contingent upon the survey, I thought the two things were separate.  No one told me about the survey needing to be done to complete the appraisal, that was news to me.

Again, I'm new to this.  I don't have intrinsic knowledge of how these land deals work.  I do have a pretty good understanding now tho. Anyway, my realtor ordered a new survey today.  It will be completed the week of the 19th of this month.  The cost? $1,800.  I had no idea it was going to cost so much and I'm going to need a fresh survey to show the property lines with vlarity, especially to the neighbors out front.  

What they do with their property is of no concern to me.  There is a bit of junk piled up - on my property - and there is a large propane tank - on my property - and there is a garage, which appears to also be partially - on my property. When the surveyors come and start driving stakes into the ground out there with the pink ribbons and they see them doing it well into what they apparently consider their land, there may be some fussing going on.  I dunno, I don't intend on making them tear down the garage, I guess, as long as they aren't going to start any trouble.

That's all I really want, peace with the neighbors, but bearing in mind that any portion of that land over there that is mine? Highly likely to be used for some RV Park purpose.  Or more than one purpose, more likely.  The situation may require the need to put in some sort of fencing to block the views of their setup and have something like a dog park or the setpic system installed there.  

Regardless, I am very happy that there is, indeed, going to be a new survey, the entire property lines will be freshly evaluated and I will be looking at all the corners and along fence lines and such to see if what presently exists is accurate.  The entire west side is pretty clearly marked, I'm just curious to see if what the surveyors come up with is right there, right along that line. 

After an extreme amount of bouncing the SBA loan idea around in my head, I have decided it would be in my best interests to at least check into it and see if I could, indeed, get a large loan, what they repayment terms are and for how long.  It's a question I'll have to have answered for me to have any peace about whether I should or should not have gone that route, I'd never know unless I checked into it.  Checking into it does not necessarily equate into going that route, tho if it's possible, the temptation will surely be there.

Have the entire park built in one, fell swoop, get it over with - but also be stuck with probably a pretty pricey monthly payment.  A loan calculator for SBA loans gave me back $1,750 per month payments at 20 years, 5.5 percent interest.  10% down minimum amount they require for down payment, some require 20% or even more.  $250,000 would cover the entire project plus give some operation capital to start out with.  

Piece mealing it - going to still probably cost more than what I will be able to get out of my 401k.  I'd probably need another 25k or so to get things rolling.  I do qualify for a personal loan of that amount, but the interest rate is high and the payments are similar to the SBA loan, excepting for 5 years instead of 20.  It is going to be a tough decision, I do believe, of how to go about this. My friends say just do it as you can afford it.  Yes, I'd like to go that route but I still need to be able to get at least some lots up and running to do it that way.  10 minimum, 20 preferably.  

Well it's getting late. Just wanted to publish that fact that a new survey - what I wanted all along anyway - has been ordered and in about 2 weeks it will be completed.

G'nite.