Buyers frequently make assumptions about what they can do with a property, and those assumptions are often not correct. One reason I like to stick close to my clients during showings isn't to pump them with sales hype, but rather to listen to their running dialogue to catch assumptions. My most common utterances during showings aren't "fabulous kitchen" and "killer view", but rather, "Not true", "Not quite", and "Yes, but".
Country property is alien to most city buyers. They don't have the knowledge to necessarily understand what they can or can't do with a property. It can be confusing because they see something that's been done at one house (finishing off a basement, for example) and just assume that it can be done at another house. In many cases, it can. But in some cases it can't. Take that basement. In House A, the basement had a means of egress to the outside, which is necessary in most townships to get a permit to finish a basement. (Or that basement was finished prior to the current egress rules.) The basement in House B may appear similar and very finishable, but lacks an egress to the outside, so wouldn't qualify for finishing into living space under current permit rules.
Here are the 10 most common assumptions I encounter.
1. You can build a second home on the property. The house you're looking at has twenty acres, so there's plenty of room to build a second house for your parents, right? Not. Most townships now only permit one house per single tax parcel, whether that parcel is 1 acre or 100 acres. To build a second house, you'd need to subdivide off a parcel for that house, and each parcel would need to meet township subdivision requirements. A guest house is often permitted, but it can't be a full home with a kitchen.
2. When you buy land, you can camp on it. Maybe in Montana, but not here. Townships frown on using land for camping or to park a travel trailer or to erect a temporary or seasonal structure like a yurt. There are some parcels zoned 'recreational' where these uses are grandfathered in, but they're pretty rare, and most townships now prohibit recreational/camping use on property that hasn't had that as a previous use.
3. You can put up one of those cute mini prefabs you saw in Dwell and have a cheap little getaway in the country. This is a "you probably can, but" issue. First, any prefab home, whether it's a 400 sq. ft. minihome or 4,000 sq. ft. modern multi-box, has to meet NY state building codes. The NY building code is one of the toughest in the nation, particularly regarding insulation and snow load. Many of the hip modern prefabs are designed for warmer, less snowy climes and can't be erected here. Also, you need to factor in infrastructure costs for well, septic and utilities, which can run $30,000 or more.
4. You can always subdivide a large acreage parcel. Generally yes, but not always. Most townships require minimum road frontage (and acreage size) for subdivided parcels. A 10 acre parcel with 400 frontage feet on the road might be easily subdividable, while a 100 acre parcel with only 100 frontage feet might not. Likewise, parcels with only right of way access (rather than direct road frontage) might not be subdividable at all. There are a number of other factors that can also come into play.
5. You can just put in a pond. Good ponds require springs. Runoff ponds (without a spring feed) tend to dry up in late summer. So never assume that because there's a nice open area below the house that you can just excavate out a good pond.
(Continue to assumptions 6 to 10.)
6. No garage? You can put one up. This is generally only an issue with smaller lots (in town or in lake communites or areas.) For example, along the western shorline areas of Swinging Bridge lake, you see a lot of garages abutting the road. So it's not unreasonable to assume that if you buy a house without a garage, you can put one up, too. But those garages on the road are grandfathered in, built before current setback when you see something at one house that you can do it at another.
7. You can add a bedroom or two to make the house work for you. Often you can, but it's not a slam dunk. Often adding bedrooms requires the expansion of the septic system. (Septics are sized for number of bedrooms, not number of bathrooms.) On smaller lots, particularly lakefront, there may not be sufficient room to expand a septic within current setback and well-septic separation requirements. (There are ways to skin this cat, but they can be costly.) There may also be building setback requirements you need to consider.
8. You can buy raw land with a regular mortgage. Land loans have very different terms than conventional home mortgages, and only select banks offer them. Loans on unimproved land typically require 40% down (compared to 20% for a conventional home loan), and have interest rates about 3% higher than home loans.
9. High speed internet is universally available. Sure, in the city. But not in the country. Buyers often don't even think about internet connectivity, because both cable and dsl are universally available in the city. Here, options can vary from property to property. Just because one house has cable, you can't assume that another house even a ha;f mile away also has it.
10. You can build a deck, patio or boathouse on your lakefront. This depends on the lake. At some lakes, you own the actual lakefront and can do what you want with it. At other lakes, you own the actual lakefront, but there are covenant restrictions on what you can do with it. And at some other lakes, you don't own the actual lake frontage (this is particularly true on the reservoirs), and there are do's and don'ts as to what you can do within that frontage strip. Every lake is different, and even on a single lake, you can't always assume that what your neighbor has done can be done on your property.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. I could add another half dozen, from swimming pools to property lines to blowing out walls and ceilings. It's totally understandable that buyers often make these assumptions. The ins and outs of property here can be complicated, and even good Realtors don't know all the rules about everything. That's why it's so important for buyers to be very explicit about their thoughts and plans. If we know what you're thinking, and we don't have the answer, we can get it — or direct you to a resource to get it. But if we don't know what you're thinking, we can't.
The mark of a good Realtor here is that they always have one ear tuned to pick up assumptions. It may well be a very casual comment you make in passing. A big problem is when buyers make assumption comments to each other, out of earshot of their Realtor, so it can blossom into a truism in their minds, without the opportunity to be confirmed or challenged.
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