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I did ask our realtor about it, but she just looked at county records, which lists it as .48 acres. She's been great helping us find houses and showing them to us, as we are relocating from PA to TX, so I didn't want to argue with her.
Most counties have an "Auditor/Assessor" structure and a "Recorder's" office. The Recorder's office should have full legal description for the deed of the property you are interested in, as well as some form of hard copy plat map showing parcel numbers and dimensions. If she 'looked at county records' I'm reading that as she simply went to county website. Most county property websites have big caveats on the 'accuracy' of the data reflected in them.
I would advise you to call the county offices yourself first to understand where you should be able to get the full legal description and hard copy plat map. Then direct the agent to get the appropriate information for you and fax it / email it to you for confirmation. (Note: the agent should be required to get the deed anyway as part of the purchase paperwork).
For what is likely your biggest $$ purchase - a few minutes and extra dollars (if necessary) to verify is a wise thing to do.
Wmsn4Life, you wanna buy my plane ticket? Or did you miss my comment above about relocating from PA?
Respectfully, there is no need to get snippy with someone only trying to help.
Now, onto the issue at hand. Discrepancies in lot sizes are not uncommon, and recording errors are not uncommon. This is an easy problem to fix.
1. Go to the assessors office. If they will not answer the phone, than have your agent go there. If your agent won't go there, you need a new agent.
2. Ask the seller for a copy of their survey. It will clearly show you the legal description and boundaries of the property.
3. If for some reason, the sellers do not have a survey, or have significantly altered the home to the point that a new survey would be need, ask the sellers to provide a new survey within 5 days of contract execution. Make the contract contingent upon this. This will coincide with your option or due diligence period. A survey is only around $400, and typically the seller will pay to replace it if they don't have one.
If you viewed the house in person and was happy with the place, including the lot, then would you really back out of the sale upon discovering that the lot was actually a quarter acre rather than a half acre? You presumably walked around the house, examined the lot and was satisfied? Was the lot not clearly demarcated with fencing and/or landscaping? I suppose if there was a sizable adjoining empty piece of land that you and the realtor assumed was part of the house's lot I can see where the confusion would come from.
While I would want the accurate lot size updated for potential tax purposes, in many areas it's going to have a negligible impact on the value of the house, especially if the extra quarter acre can't be subdivided under local zoning regulations. You should talk to your realtor about what impact the officially smaller lot size has on the house's value before jumping to any conclusions about withdrawing or renegotiating your offer.
The county tax assessor's office has it at the .25 acre. My husband saw the property in person, not myself. I only have pictures, video and maps to look at. The kids and I won't see the property in person until the day we move in. Our realtor is aware of the discrepancy and is going to contact the selling agent to check on it further.
Carrs
Even if the lot ends up being .24, the real question is do you want to buy the place? If you do, then buy it and straighten all the records out later.
Bad advice I'm afraid! You could find that plants, fences, trees, swimming pools, buildings are on land that you don't actually own, after you think you actually own it!
Make a contingency of the purchase (if you decide you are seriously interested) that the property be surveyed and that the buyer, seller and county assessor agree on the result of the survey.
I was in a very similar situation a few years back -- a property I made an offer on turned out to have an old road easement as part of the acreage. The septic system and driveway were too close to the easement and not legal. I could have gone to the county and petitioned to have the easement deeded over to me, but with no certainty how that process would turn out, I canceled the sale. It was one of the best decisions I've made.
In Texas your agent is required by law to use the TREC promulgated form. Our form deals specifically with surveys. Our tax assessors office and the recording place do not keep copies of surveys here. ONLY buyers/sellers. We file much less than other states in this regard. We have legal descriptions, but they are metes & bounds, which are very difficult to read, even harder to draw and get accurate area from....I can do it, but most people dont bother with it.
The answer in TEXAS is a survey. Nothing else matters. It is standard practice here to get a survey with every purchase, unless the seller has a relatively new one...I still require that a new survey be "re-certified" by the company who conducted it. This is usually a fraction of the price of a new one.
Our standard offer contract on page 2, 6C - talks about the Survey. Require the seller to provide a survey 6C(1), then give yourself multiple days 6D(ii) (I usually put 10) to object to defects or discrepancies that the survey or title report may disclose....If the survey shows less than the listing, then you can use that to renegotiate the offer price. I would tell the listing agent that I am offering X amount based upon the lot being XXX size. If it is smaller than XXX my offer will be less. I would say that upfront so they know. A 1/2 acre difference on a lot is huge for a neighborhood.
Even if the lot ends up being .24, the real question is do you want to buy the place? If you do, then buy it and straighten all the records out later.
I think one of their main concerns is that the sellers have priced it like a larger lot than it may, in fact, be.
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get it surveryed
