All Forum Posts by: Chris Thomas

All,

To follow up on this, and in case anyone else ever runs into this issue, it has been resolved. In short, the original "survey" was a Mortgage Location Survey. This is was a new concept to me, as we (Thank God) don't have these in Texas. Per @Clint Shelley's point, this is useless to actually define the boundaries.

To resolve the issue, I tracked down the company that did the original survey. They were quite helpful and explained that the house had 2 boundaries. One that was where the old pins were (encroaching), and one that was based on '50 from the other side of the street (not encroaching). I got them to re-do the survey (at the sellers expense). In doing so, it cleared up the boundary issue and stated clearly that the house was not encroaching. Problem solved. Closed on the house last Friday.

Thanks again to the BP community for the help and insight.

Chris Thomas

All, thanks for the quick responses here. I am, yet again, impressed with the breadth of knowledge in this community.

@Clint Shelley, to answer your question and provide more detail:

- The closing date is next Friday (5/15) and we are completing all the final steps.

- I just got a copy of the survey Thursday night. The survey was not done for this transaction. They sent me the survey created for the last sale of the house (December of 2015). Here are the survey notes. #2 might support @Scott Mac's point.

1. This report is based on corners found in place.

2. This is not a boundary survey and conflicting monuments were found to establish the location of [street name] right of way location.

- I noticed the encroachment, as did my realtor. We pointed this out to the title company and they said the survey is "fine" and that "there is no encroachment of the house going over the property line". Unless I'm blind, this is is not the case.

- The (buyer's) realtor has been extremely helpful, and is working with the city on options. Per the discussion here, it looks like I need some type of verification (in writing) that this will not be an issue in the future.

- The lender won't lend until we get a better answer from the title company, which I completely understand.

That's the story. Thanks again for the insight. Feel free to let me know if I've missed anything here.

Thanks,

Chris

BiggerPockets experts,

I am in the process of purchasing a property, and the survey has revealed that the structure extends about 5 feet past the property line. The property encroached upon is owned by the city. The house is 100+ years old and was likely built before the road system was established. The title company is clueless on how to resolve the issue, so I thought I would reach out to a larger audience.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Talk to a good property manager, get an idea of the rent (and vacancy rate), and figure out if you can cash flow. The rent vs. buy numbers are a bit out of whack in Austin, but if you have enough equity in your house, you might be OK. Austin is a great place to own property for the long-term, so if you can make it work, renting would be ideal. My 2 cents.

Good story, and great part of town. Nice work.

This is great info. Thanks for sharing your experience. El Paso is definitely an interesting market.

10% cap only applies if it is your primary residence (homestead). Most larger cities in Texas have firms that will fight it fore you, and take a percentage of what they save you.

If you do it on your own, do your homework on what works in Tarrant county. Comps work well, but also any downsides to the property (drainage issues, crime, high traffic.

Hey David, I'd look closer at the property tax rate. All in, the rate in EP is closer to 3%. One of the highest in Texas.

Picking this thread back up. Anyone have any insights here?

I know a few lenders in El Paso that might do loans like this (somewhere between hard and soft money w/ decent rates). PM me if you want the contact info.