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Is your seller wanting to sell his land and home apart from each other?? Read on!!

By
Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Tomlinson

Hi all!!!  I am so happy that many of you have enjoyed my posts to help new licensees...Thank you all for the kind words...  I have learned another lesson that I want to share with y'all...

 

If you have a client who has acreage to sell, and a home and wants to list them separately be advised of several things that can go wrong...

  1. When you close on the acreage, you will inevitably have someone who would have bought the house if it had more acreage...List the home with the option of as much or as little acreage as the buyer wants..after the home closes, with new legal descriptions then list what is left over of the land.  Life will be a lot easier (believe me)
  2. When you sell the home first, you can insure that any access roads needed to get to the house, shop, pastures etc are on the property with no easements necessary...If you list the land afterwards, depending where it is located, in many cases there is access from another road..or another road can be easily made to access it...
  3. If the property owner insists on listing them both because of financial need, and already has the legals drawn up on each property, make sure that the boundaries are livable for both parties...make sure that the deck of the house is not on the land that is being sold separate from the house..Make your home owner has a surveyor come out and stake off the two lots, just to make sure that all is well...It's really hard to sell a home when the land has been purchased and a week later the new owner of the land informs the homeowner that half of the house is on his land!!!
  4. Another rut that we as agents fall in to is thinking that what the title company tells us is the gospel truth..Go out yourself and walk the boundaries.  They are human, if there is an error on the legals, they will not always catch it...Again, if new legals were drawn up with the purchase of the home..things are fresh)...

There are a lot of people out there who would like to take advantang of a situation if they can...If you find someone who wants the land and is extremely anxious to buy it quick--it is worth it to double check everything...The new owner of the land can make life hard for everyone if he is out to do so!!

 

 

Comments (3)

Elizabeth Ruvo
Watson Realty Corp. - Ormond Beach, FL
BA, CRB

Good point, Shari.  I had a similar experience where the owner wanted to sell the extra lot next door to his house.  In this area each parcel of land was assessed for water and sewer lines put in the street.  However, if an individual owned more than one lot but promised never to build on the second lot they were assessed only once.  This put a deed restiction on the property allowing only one house.  No one seemed to know about this (including me) or they forget about it - until the title search.  The seller had to pay the second assessment with penalties and interest before he could sell the lot!

Jun 09, 2007 11:49 AM
Rich Jacobson
Fathom Realty West Sound - Poulsbo, WA
Your Kitsap County WA Real Estate Broker
Well, well, well....it's about time! I missed your face!
Jun 09, 2007 04:51 PM
Shari George
Coldwell Banker Tomlinson - Lewiston, ID

Thanks Rich!!  I have been spending a lot of time with my newest "lesson"..LOL...

 

Jun 10, 2007 04:47 AM