If You Want to Know About a Property . . . Let Me Help
The phone message left on voice-mail was from a caller asking about a lot for sale.
I know a lot about lots!
Unfortunately, the caller didn't leave the MLS # and I had no clue what he was interested in.
In returning the call, I was given the MLS # and pulled the listing. It was still ACTIVE and priced at $50,000. A little low-end for my time, but hey whatever I can do to help.
The caller wasn't interested in me doing research.
He just wanted to know if I had been to the lot.
What I offered to help him with -- RESEARCH -- was worth MORE than me having seen, or walked the lot. I was offering him my time, knowledge and experience to RESEARCH the property for him.
The listing agent has NO DUTY to perform the buyer's due diligence. Matter of fact, if they did . . . they could be favoring one party over the other and breaching their fiduciary duties to their clients; the sellers. We all know that's frowned upon.
I wanted to have his email address, so it would be possible for me to follow-up with my findings.
He didn't want to provide me with that. Oh well . . . you can lead a horse to water. Can't make them drink.
This is what you aren't going to know about:
Since I doubt he reads my blogs, this is what I would have been happy to provide him with . . . RESEARCH on that particular lot.
- Although the property is in a great area (an area of higher-end properties, close in to Downtown) that .26 of an acre is a DOG.
- Bow-wow properties tend to linger forever on the market. In this particular case since February 2004 to be exact. It's been on the market / off the market for 10 years with list prices ranging from $160,000 to $48,000.
- Not only is the .26 acre STEEPLY SLOPED, this is a flag lot with some of that property being used as "flag pole" entrance to the property.
- In order to build, there must be an environmental review which the City requires. Hmmmmm . . . what if the proeprty doesn't pass review? And that's review is done AFTER the buyer owns the lot and wants to make improvements to the land.
- Why the environmental review? Because there are enviormental conservation overlays that exist! If the buyers' vision is to build their estate dream house . . . dream on.
- Since there are conservation overlays . . . the buyer of this lot will NEVER be able to take the land OUT of conservatorship. The amount of property tied up is unknown to me, I didn't get that far. A buyer might get away with building a tree house, or one of them 700 sq. ft. minimalist places.
- If the lot DOES pass environmental review, there can be no soil disturbance from Oct - April. So you'd better have you t's crossed and i's dotted for a 5 month build-out on that parcel.
All that information the listing agent doesn't need to provide the unrepresented buyer. It's not up to the listing agent to perform the BUYERS' DUE DILIGENCE.
And he didn't want to give me his email address?!?
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