Q–Since last October, we have been searching newspaper classified ads and the Internet for a home that we like and can afford to buy. We looked at the www.Realtor.com Web site, which had a lot of listings, but many of the homes had been sold or the listings had expired.
There were other helpful Web sites, too, but we found it irritating that many listings did not include the street addresses.
When we phoned or e-mailed the listing agents, we often didn’t receive a reply. But one listing we saw had the street address, so we drove by. There was a “sold” sign on the house, but we bought another house about a block away when we saw the “for sale” sign out front.
The Realtor came over right away to show it to us when we phoned her. That house was not listed on the Internet. Do you have a list of favorite Web sites for house hunting?
A–Thank you for your insightful letter about shopping for a home on the Internet. As you discovered, the Internet is a great home-buying resource, in addition to newspaper classified ads and driving the neighborhoods.
No, I don’t have a list of favorite Web sites for home searches. My experience has been that most of these home-listing Web sites contain outdated or incomplete listings, which can be time-wasters.
But the Web sites give a general “flavor” of what homes are for sale in a community.
Q–When we bought our house last year, we were given a subdivision map that shows our lot has a 60-foot street frontage and 100-foot depth. But every time I looked at our front lot, I said to myself, “I don’t think that’s 60 feet.” So I measured it.
To my surprise, I found the frontage is only about 54 feet, so I had a survey done. It shows the side fence is about 6 feet on our side of the correct boundary. When I talked to our neighbor about it, she said the fence was there when she bought her house about three years ago. She won’t agree to split the cost of rebuilding a fence on the property line. Should I take her to small-claims court to get her to pay half the cost?
A–Because the fence is on your property, the fence belongs to you. Unless the CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions) in your subdivision require fences on the property boundaries, I don’t see how you can force your neighbor to pay half the cost of relocating the fence.
The danger for you of not rebuilding the fence in the correct location is that your neighbor could acquire a prescriptive easement for that 6-by-100-foot strip of land. That’s 600 square feet, a significant piece of your property that your neighbor is using.
If I were in your situation, I would tear down the fence. If you want a fence between your properties, build a new fence an inch or two on your side of the boundary.
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Have a question about real estate? You can write to Robert Bruss in care of Tribune Real Estate Features Service, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611. Answers will be provided only through the column.
