A solution for bad lot size data....

[Hal Roach]

3% is too much to play a listing agent, who cant determine a city lot size or simply uses "1900" for all older houses. Obviously, the problem started at the top.

[Giesela]

Originally Posted by WouldLoveTo

I hate when a city lot is listed as acres. It's clearly not but it clutters my searching. Simple proof reading of the date prior to hitting the submit button would be nice.

Thanks for that link BTW!

Or just eyeballing the lot and if it seems off ask the owner whether there was some sort of split or if the neighbor encroached with a fence or do they have the original plat book or....you know, look at the number the county gives and eyeball whether it looks right or not and then, make sure its right in your listing. OMG so hard.

[Mrs. Skeffington]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Or just eyeballing the lot and if it seems off ask the owner whether there was some sort of split or if the neighbor encroached with a fence or do they have the original plat book or....you know, look at the number the county gives and eyeball whether it looks right or not and then, make sure its right in your listing. OMG so hard.

We had a situation where we bought a large plot of vacant property adjoining our own at a tax sale. It was part of the larger property and house catacorner to us. There had been a house on the vacant property 80 years ago that had burned down. The adjoining neighbors had bought the land to expand their property, but had never prepared a new deed combining the two properties. Thus, the vacant property and their house (with a small yard) went up separately at tax sale. We had a survey done right after we bought it, and a new deed prepared combining the new land with our house and property. The pins and pink ribbons marked it clearly. I proceeded to plant vegetable and flower gardens, all over the new property and put lawn chairs, a chaise lounge, and tables down there for a nice little retreat. The biggest vegetable garden was in a prominent sunny spot.

The vacant house was purchased at tax sale as well by a contractor who was going to flip it. He never finished the job (ran out of money, I heard). It sat vacant for seven or eight years. Then it was purchased at foreclosure and work was resumed.

One day, the new owner visited the new house and angrily confronted my next door neighbor, demanding to know "Why is that vegetable garden on my property!!!" Neighbor told him it wasn't his property, it was ours, and we'd bought it years ago. The new owner obviously hadn't done his homework (or I'm thinking, looked at old property records) when he bought it. He thought he was getting that parcel of land and woods with his house, and was he angry! DH and I weren't there, but neighbor told us all about it. Then I caught the woman working for the new owner at my "retreat", trying to take my chaise lounge (I had taken the cushions off the chaise and lawn chairs because of rain). I asked her what she was doing, and she said she thought they'd been "abandoned"...I guess because they were so far away from the house? But they were arranged...I don't know what the h*** she was thinking.

The new owner had planned on renting it out to students, but that hasn't worked out.

Two years later, and the house is again up for sale, and my garden is still there and will continue to be there. I hope the realtor informs interested parties about the property boundaries.

[Hal Roach]

My estimate of fifty feet across using the tool was within .12%. It is 49.94 feet. Meanwhile, the area listed by the Realtor was 89% more than actual. Go ahead and be dismissive, up to you. I am going in at 3500 less. Nice foreclosure came on the market while they were dragging their feet.