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I hope someone can help me with this, because I am at a lost. I am currently buying a home in the centereach, LI area and I just noticed a lot of surrounding homes were sold last year at ridiculous prices (8k-18k) on zillow.com. According to public records, these were all sold to the town of brookhaven, but they were all classed as "vacant land". My real estate agent could not find any information about these sales, so he is not sure what they are about either. I am afraid there is something I don't know (maybe they are building a nuclear waste site there in the future??) The town wouldn't give me any information. I drove by the area and there seem to be people living in those houses. Should I be concern?
I hope someone can help me with this, because I am at a lost. I am currently buying a home in the centereach, LI area and I just noticed a lot of surrounding homes were sold last year at ridiculous prices (8k-18k) on zillow.com. According to public records, these were all sold to the town of brookhaven, but they were all classed as "vacant land". My real estate agent could not find any information about these sales, so he is not sure what they are about either. I am afraid there is something I don't know (maybe they are building a nuclear waste site there in the future??) The town wouldn't give me any information. I drove by the area and there seem to be people living in those houses. Should I be concern?
I would suggest you ask your agent to dig deeper and do more research.
Thanks for the reply. My agent already called the town and they wouldn't give him any info. There were some listings around the area which are listed at market prices. He thinks they could be tax liens against those houses, and the seller's agent told me that it could be that some of them added/removed some names on their deeds and the town recorded them as sale. Could these be possibilities?
Thanks for the reply. My agent already called the town and they wouldn't give him any info. There were some listings around the area which are listed at market prices. He thinks they could be tax liens against those houses, and the seller's agent told me that it could be that some of them added/removed some names on their deeds and the town recorded them as sale. Could these be possibilities?
They could possibly be "sales" to family members or similar situations. By keeping the price so low, they would avoid paying much for transfer tax (payable whenever a property changes hands). BTW, it's not the Town that records the transactions, it's the County. If you or your agent were to go to Riverhead, you might be able to get more information. Without additional details, all I can do is speculate...
I would suggest a new agent if he/she doesn't know where to get the information from.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MidnightOwl
I hope someone can help me with this, because I am at a lost. I am currently buying a home in the centereach, LI area and I just noticed a lot of surrounding homes were sold last year at ridiculous prices (8k-18k) on zillow.com. According to public records, these were all sold to the town of brookhaven, but they were all classed as "vacant land". My real estate agent could not find any information about these sales, so he is not sure what they are about either. I am afraid there is something I don't know (maybe they are building a nuclear waste site there in the future??) The town wouldn't give me any information. I drove by the area and there seem to be people living in those houses. Should I be concern?
FYI, Section 8 refers to a federal subsidy for low income renters. It is not a classification of home for sale type, such as "You can buy this Section 8 home for only $199 a month!" Any dwelling can be rented to Section 8 tenants if the landlord agrees to it. Section 8 has nothing to do with selling property.
I hope someone can help me with this, because I am at a lost. I am currently buying a home in the centereach, LI area and I just noticed a lot of surrounding homes were sold last year at ridiculous prices (8k-18k) on zillow.com. According to public records, these were all sold to the town of brookhaven, but they were all classed as "vacant land". My real estate agent could not find any information about these sales, so he is not sure what they are about either. I am afraid there is something I don't know (maybe they are building a nuclear waste site there in the future??) The town wouldn't give me any information. I drove by the area and there seem to be people living in those houses. Should I be concern?
Why don't you talk to the people in the neighborhood? I am sure they will be able to tell you what the deal is.
Hey, thanks everyone that replied. I followed Elke's advice and went to the Riverhead office to check them out. It turned out the town purchased small pieces of these properties for a road widening project. So that all make sense now. Now my question is, will that affect the property taxes or the home value? The house I am buying is right next to the corner house where the streets intersect.
Hey, thanks everyone that replied. I followed Elke's advice and went to the Riverhead office to check them out. It turned out the town purchased small pieces of these properties for a road widening project. So that all make sense now. Now my question is, will that affect the property taxes or the home value? The house I am buying is right next to the corner house where the streets intersect.
Glad you got the actual information, even though you had to do it yourself...
A lot depends on how this road widening project affects the area. Generally, Towns don't widen roads unless traffic patterns call for it, which could indicate current poor traffic flow; if the project didn't start yet, detours, etc. could become part of your everyday life for some time. Are or will the streets be double yellow line? If so, in a residential area that is considered detrimental. However, that may already be reflected in the current assessment - again, without knowing the location/more details, all this is conjecture but it is something for you to take into consideration.
You might want to talk to the current residents (owners only!) and find out from them how the Town went about acquiring the land (if the homeowners feel they were adequately compensated). Also, you might want to go to the Town and find out what the scope of this road widening project is and/or if they're finished acquiring properties for this or additional projects in that area; if not, you might be subject to the same situation as these neighbors. The information you obtain might help you in making a final decision.
Good luck!
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