103 Guild Rd, 11 Acres of Future Passive Recreation Space under CPA funding, it’s recent real estate appraisal hundreds of thousands below ask, may make this proposal dead in the water.

103 Guild Road, an 11 Acre south side parcel, abutting CSX rail property, Ashland and Sherborn, was proposed by the city to be purchased with CPA funds. Unfortunately the appraisal came back and the asking price is way over the real value.

If you have ever tried to purchase a property with a mortgage, you know that if what you offered is higher than the bank feels the property is worth, an appraisal, then you either need to get the seller to lower the price, or you need to come up with more cash in the down payment, or you can forget about it. It is kinda like that in this case. If the land doesn’t appraise, it is unlikely that the public will support the purchase.

The full appraisal is hundreds of pages. We are just including the important ones.

In the city’s appraisal of the property for tax purposes, the city has been taxing the landowners on $275,000 in value. The seller has been trying to unload the property for years, in 2018 listing the land for $1,300,000 and incrementally lowering it to $900,000 in 2019. In 2020 they lowered the property to $500,000, where the ask has remained the same, removing an reposting the listing a few times.

The MLS listing states “Large lot of land available. Would would great as a single residence or small residential development. Zoned general residence and manufacturing so may need to go through zoning to build on manufacturing zoned property. Wetlands on the property. Utilities on the street. Additional land in Sherborn and Ashland which abuts this property is included. Ashland property is Wetlands. Sherborn property is landlocked.”

Can the city purchase just the parcels in Framingham? Can they own and pay taxes to other municipalities? What is the liklihood of the landowner splitting off the framingham portion, when the other parcels in other municipalities are unusable land, wetlands, and landlocked? In our estimation – the city will find it difficult to be able to purchase this parcel.

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