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I purchased an amazing piece of rural vacant land 12 years ago, with the intent of building a home. Life happened... things changed, and I went in another direction (no regrets). Now that prices are coming back somewhat, I've decided to sell. This will be quite hard to do, as I really love this parcel.
The property sits in a small, secluded valley with about 15 other five acre parcels. Of those, 12 are entirely undeveloped, 2 have had homes on them since before I bought 12 years ago, and now 1 has had a home constructed in the last 3 months.
The problem is, it seems the recent home builder is doing everything he can to prevent anyone in the valley from selling their land. It's my belief he doesn't want neighbors and thinks preventing people from selling will somehow stop development.
Several weeks ago, I placed two For Sale signs in the area, one on the inlet road to the valley and one on my property. At that time, there were 3 other For Sale signs already there advertising other properties in the same little valley.
Having not received any calls at all after two weeks, I became suspicious and went to check on them. Sure enough, all For Sale signs on the inlet road as well as on each of the properties where they had been two weeks ago are gone. Not blown over, lying somewhere near - all have completely vanished without a trace.
Keep in mind, there have been many, many For Sale signs set up and taken down as I've watched land in the area change hands over the years. (I myself bought and sold one of the other parcels during this period). For the past 12 years there had never been a problem with signs.
On the day I went to check on my signage, the new landowner and I had not yet met. Driving into the valley to get to my lot, I pass by his driveway. Before I had even gotten to the point of his drive, he had come out and started running up his drive, wanting to know what I was doing there. It seems he's telling people they're on 'private property' and need to leave. In fact, the road is county owned and there is no private property being crossed anywhere along the route.
It makes me angry to think someone could be so self-centered to disregard the rights of others, impacting their lives, just to try to keep neighbors away and have everything to himself - but I didn't confront him.
I'm not in a situation where I must sell, but I happen to know one of the others in the area are. She needs the money to live on. When I called to tell her what I had discovered, she had no idea her signs were gone. (Many of the land owners in this area live out of state).
Has anyone run into a situation like this? I have some ideas of my own on where to go with this, but I'd like to hear from others... I want to resolve this with as little ugliness as possible.
So 25% of the undeveloped lots are currently for sale? If you don't need the money, I'd probably wait until there's less competition. Hopefully by then your neighbor will realize they don't own the entire valley.
in your long OP, you never described telling him you owned one of the parcels. And that you were selling. And that maybe you asked (passively aggressive if some feel so) - "Have you seen any punks hanging around and stealing all the For Sale signs?"
Clearly, it's wrong IF he was the one who removed the signs. But thus far, your 2 pieces of evidence are 1. that the signs didn't seem to start disappearing until he started building and 2. that he questioned you as if you might be somewhere you didn't belong.
dig a deep wide pit, fill it with concrete, stick the sign post in. Let's see them haul that without a truck or dozer.
You might need to invest in bigger, less portable sign. a mini billboard.
Cordless reciprocating saw (a builder will have a million tools for this job) + 45 seconds = gone.
Or even easier, someone can just rip off the board. Or spray paint it. Point is that if someone doesn't want it there, it won't be there.
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