Why I Love Real Estate: The Adventures of Finding Buried Bodies

[Chris Seveney]

Real estate for me is always filled with new problem-solving opportunities. I do not think this topic has been discussed here on BP so let me throw it out there - lets talk about finding the buried bodies. 

Let me take you back to a project I worked on a few years ago. I was running construction and development for a company that owned a massive piece of land they had developed over the decades. This particular parcel, which had once been part of a small village from a few centuries back, had also become the area where we stockpiled fill from the other projects. For years, they’d used this site to stockpile soil from other projects, in lieu of moving it offsite (cost savings). 

When they decided to sell this parcel, that is when we hit a tiny snag. You see, part of this old village was a grave site. Now, if you’ve never done this type of development before, let me fill you in: you have to identify and (the jurisdiction will) relocate any human remains before proceeding with construction. This usually involves using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to scan for the remains, but there was one small problem—GPR is only effective up to about 15 feet deep. We had 25+ feet of fill on a 3-acre site.

So, what were our options? Move a few thousand truckloads of soil offsite to get down to where GPR could do its job? Sure, if you’ve got a high six-figure budget burning a hole in your pocket. The price tag on this archaeological excavation was enough to make you want to dig your own grave right there.

Eventually, we worked out a solution, which included selling the parcel and providing the buyer with a credit and putting the onus on them. Thankfully the buyer also had another site that required fill so that was a bonus. But sometimes the best solution is pushing the problem on someone else (just make sure you are not hiding any skeletons in the closet or under ground and not notifying them). 

This was a cool project to try and problem solve as its not often you have to try and find the buried bodies. Just remember for every glamorous flip or lucrative rental, there’s a puzzle waiting to be solved, sometimes involving old graves, sometimes involving new regulations, and always requiring creativity and patience.

So, the next time you’re having a bad day—your contractor didn’t show up, a deal fell through, or you just discovered your property has a surprise pool—just remember: at least you’re not trying to figure out where the bodies are buried.

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Alan Asriants:

Never considered this or thought about what to do in this scenario. Did you ever follow up with the buyer to see what they ended doing here?

Our West coast projects we have to hunt for indian burial grounds ( this is CA specific) on one project we found one . And the cost to mitigate was over 1 mil.. so we just had to fence it off and we lost I think3 or 4 lots but did not have to do the work.. lot values at the time ( late 80s) were 125k each but we did not have to run utls which was 30k each ..

So now I am learning about development out east in your neck of the woods and well we have to survey for civil war battlefields.. I dont think we have been impacted yet though.. America is a big place and development is just so highly regional thats the fun part or frustrating part depending on how you look at it.

I just bought a SS facility in the mid west and we were talking yesterday about expansion there is a hill behind us that would take a bunch of excavation.  My client i funded and partnered with then went on to tell me its Clay and Clay in that area is in big demand to be used to line ponds etc as the basic soil in the area is very sandy and wont hold water.. So I told him lets let them mine the clay but leave us level ground and at the least we can gravel it and do out door storage :)