Land Surveyor Weblog, Knoxville TN

I’m constantly amazed at the risks people take installing improvements near boundary lines. They spend thousands of dollars on fences or landscaping features with no clear knowledge of their property limits. Oftentimes things do not work out well. What is the cost to build this wall (pictured below)? How much to tear it down and build it again? The survey would have been cheaper, believe me.

On might think that the more affluent the neighborhood, the less likely things of this sort are to occur. Not true. We see boundary problems consistently across all income spectra. People everywhere take chances they should not. Another reason one should not buy property anywhere without a survey. You may well be inheriting the headaches and the accompanying liability of another. The famous line from Hill Street Blues comes to mind. “Let’s be careful out there.”

Yet another government program to ’solve’ the mortgage crisis pays homeowners to foreclose. This is unbelievable. Via the New York Times:

The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.

To bring the various parties to the table — the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property — the government intends to spread its cash around.

Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance.”

“Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.” [My emphasis]

To correct one glaring misnomer, the government has no cash to “spread around.” That is your money and my money they are “spreading around.”

“Property taxes” in a nutshell mean that you don’t really own your real estate — you just rent it from the government.

Property owners are taking action across the country as tax bills continue rising, even as home values have tumbled. Nationally, median prices of existing homes fell 22.3% from 2006 to 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors. But local tax formulas and assessment cycles usually don’t reflect rapid price declines. Indeed, a recent survey by the National League of Cities found 25% of cities raised property tax rates in fiscal year 2009 to offset falling tax revenues.

In Michigan, so many owners protested their assessments last year that the state’s highest tax court has 24,000 cases awaiting hearings. Wall Street Journal

By Sen. Jim DeMint

You’d think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they’re planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West.

A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres from Montana to New Mexico, halting job- creating activities like ranching, forestry, mining and energy development. Worse, this land grab would dry up tax revenue that’s essential for funding schools, firehouses and community centers.

President Obama could enact the plans in this memo with just the stroke of a pen, without any input from the communities affected by it. …

The 21-page document, marked “Internal Draft-NOT FOR RELEASE,” names 14 different lands Mr. Obama could completely close for development by unilaterally designating them as “monuments” under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Read more at The Washington Times

PLS performed an ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey for I-640 Plaza, located at Interstate 640 and Western Avenue.

PLS provided the resubdivision plat and base topographic survey for design and development of Merchant’s Corner. Architect: Byrd & Cooper.

The government has gone after this gentleman 11 times in his lifetime.

Owned by the Bank

Gateway at Aldridge in Murfreesboro looks like any other new apartment complex. It has a workout room, free Wi-Fi and cozy fireplaces.

What’s not so obvious is that a bank owns it.

Like other apartments that have fallen into foreclosure in the Nashville area, Gateway is a reminder of a troubling and still growing problem for bankers — commercial real estate loans that have turned sour and could weigh on the economy for years.

The financial crisis over the past two years has brought consecutive waves of unpaid housing loans and a residential real estate slowdown. A third wave of misery — commercial real estate problems — has yet to peak in Tennessee or even nationally. The Tennessean

PLS performed the base boundary, topographic survey, and resubdivision to facilitate design for NAPA Auto Parts at Clinton Highway & Inskip Road. New intersection signalization was required. The survey included all work necessary to redesign the intersection per TDOT specifications.

PLS performed a boundary survey, topographic and as-built survey for design, and final as-built survey of completed construction for Shannondale Retirement Center, Knoxville, corner of Middlebrook Pike and Vanosdale Road. Our record plat from the courthouse is pictured.

Shannondale Retirement Center

Shannondale Complex