Waiting....A "vote" of confidence

So here we are, the contingency period for soil and buildability are over, and we follow up on the variance process. The sellers were supposed to have a meeting on Sept 9 with the hearing officer to get on the agenda for the board meeting. We asked our realtor to follow up the next day and we receive the response that the meeting was postponed to early Oct which means we are not likely to get on the agenda for the board meeting til end of Nov.
Sept 16th we have some free time so we (causally, ha, ha) stop by the property. We didn't contact the agents so we knock on the neighbor's door just to ask if he has any problem with us poking around again. Turns out ComEd has been by to mark some trees so the neighbor has lots to say. Still seems real friendly, like he'd be happy to have a neighbor.
Exciting news on Friday Sept 19th, we see the zoning sign posted at the property, with a hearing date of Oct 14th. We plan to take the day off so we can go to the meeting to see if anyone objects (we doubt it) and hear first hand that the variance has support from the hearing officer thus becoming virtually pre-approved for the board meeting. Hoping it will be a good day, as it will also be our 8th wedding anniversary!

By the way, this is NOT a stock photo, this is the actual sign from the property. We took a photo for keepsake.

In the meantime we crunch more numbers, and are pretty agreeable on a floor plan. We also attend a home/building show and get an appointment set with an architect for the afternoon after the hearing meeting.

Oct 14th comes and we head out to the county government building. As we walk into the conference we expect to see a few other people, as we've seen the agenda and there are a few other items are listed. However, we are a bit surprised the meeting is pretty full, turns out there's a cell phone tower item on the agenda. Unfortunately for those people, that item cannot be discussed as the petitioner did not meet all the criteria, there was an error in their newspaper posting. So exits about 20-25 people and left are us, the listing realtor and seller. And the 2 side neighbors, the one we've met and the other we have not. Now, I am kinda nervous they are there, b/c really why would they be there except to object to our variance. But why? Why would they object? The meeting starts and you are sworn in, if you planning on speaking on the record.
The listing realtor and seller state their request and reason. The reason being is the property has no value to them without the variance b/c the land is zoned residential but cannot obtain a residential building permit due to the shape not meeting the required frontage w/out the variance. It is reconfirmed by the hearing officer that the seller believes the intent is for a single residential family home. She then asks if there are any other parties that wish to speak and I stand. I state that we are potential purchasers and wish to have our support noted and to confirm that yes, we only intend to build a single family home. It seems there is some lingering concern over it becoming a multi-residential property (as the listing agent had previous plans for such). The neighbors express their concern about our future driveway and it's proximity to their properties. The hearing officer basically tells them they have no basis for their concerns, b/c while our driveway will be very skinny, it is still wind enough to meet the ordinance for the width of a 2-lane drive (we only plan on a single lane by the way). The hearing officer states her support and our case is closed. We are advised the case will come before the county board for final approval on November 18. We are one step closer to owning The Triple V!

Do we or don't we?

After leaving the farm property we pulled up the listings that our home realtor had sent us and drove past 3 or 4 of the listings we felt were in line with what we were looking for. With each listing we became more confident that the vacant farm land, and building a new house, was going to be the way to go.
We then headed home for another late night of internet searching and talking about our dream home.  Another couple of days looking at maps, looking at listings, looking at floorplans, looking at financing options, looking at costs and working on budgets.
Another couple of days of reaching out to folks at county and banks and getting our realtor on board to represent us (we thought about the listing agent being a dual agent but decided, based on recommendations, that it was best to have a separate agent) and of course, talking to family and asking Do we or Don't we? AND WE WERE FINALLY READY TO MAKE AN OFFER.

This was also about the same time we found out that though the land was zone residential it did not meet the county ordinance for frontage road for residential properties. Essentially with one of my calls to county the zoning representative looking at the lot via the PIN made mention that it seemed the frontage was not very wide. Which was true, b/c as you will recall the lot is flag shaped. He then says it needs to be 100' to meet the ordinance and we review the listing and GIS mapping and sure enough it's only 46'. He says that the ordinance can be overcome with a variance approval, which requires posting signage and having legal representation appeal the zoning board and then getting the votes from the county board in order to basically not meet the ordinance. Keeping in mind the time and cost associated with this and that we would never get a permit to build our residential home unless variance is approved.
Thus our offer including a contingency that the seller obtain the variance from the county, so when we are ready to build it's one less hurdle. Of course we were upset b/c we felt misled. Afterall they had listed the property as residential build to suit.  Had I not been badgering the folks at county about potential problems with the property we were looking to buy this issue never would have been realized until we were already the owners. This was a big sticking point b/c if the variance isn't approved then we would be stuck with the land, but never able to build our home on it.
Our contract also had a contingency for us (the buyer) to complete a soil septic suitability and building feasibility tests. That is, can we put a septic system on the land and can we get a home built with a standard spread footing foundation. We received a counter offer, which we further countered and were ACCEPTED. Date July 27th 2014. Our attorney modifications came in on 8/1 and on 8/25 we requested an extension for our side of the contingencies. The variance contingency has an expiration of Dec 31, 2014. We knew we were in for a long haul with the county.