The online county real estate records should have that info. Those are separate from tax assessments, at least here in Virginia. Full Contract Sales Price is a matter of public record, unaffected by down payment or mortgage amount. In my county it takes a while for that stuff to be posted to the online system (although that may have gotten better since I moved in), but you can always go down in person and ask for the information. Lots of folks do that. It's where speculators and developers find out what's going on (especially with estates.) If you happen to mention to the folks in Land Records you're trying to get an idea of the value of your place, word will get around...when you're ready. It's free advertising Here's an example of property sales from my county's real estate website: The bottom 2 records were when the property was first recorded in the system when Perkins passed away and the property was inherited by the Christmas family. That's why there are no Sales Prices. Liberty Homes bought it in 2016 for the land, tore down the old house, put a new house on it, and sold it to Ross in 2019. That's why the big jump in sales price.
Lots of counties around here also use Timmons GIS that's a satellite view of the county with property references and boundaries overlaid on to it. You can pull up land record info (Plat Record#, #acres, owner...but not assessments or sales data) for any lot in the county. When I first moved here, I used it to see who the folks in my neighborhood were and then could look up properties by their name to see what other parcels they owned. Some of the families have been here since before the Civil War. It's kind of interesting to look at.
This comparable property has land, a 7 ac pond, and a doublewide mobile home mfg'd in 2004. Someone bought it in 1992 and put up a poultry house. Then sold it in 1997 for amount X which was 25 times what they bought it for! Next it was owned by the bank. Sold by the bank in 2003 for X/2. Another poultry house went up. Sold in 2005 for 2X. Then transferred to an LLC. Calling something an LLC provides liability and a business tax loophole, doesn't it? Both poultry houses would be outdated for today's competitive chicken farming business. Long story short I think it got way overpriced in the process. It seems to take at least 6 months (nothing past 2022) to update these kinds of records. When I have time I will go snoop on my neighbors. LOL
As you know, and LLC is one the many forms of a corporation. The property was probably bought by an investor. My place here in Virginia was bought by an LLC out of Tennessee. "LLC" = Limited Liability Corporation. But Limited ≠ None. I did. And I snooped on other people I met. At first I was just curious as to where in the county they lived. But when I looked up some of their names and saw a whole bunch of properties listed, my motives got all twisted up. The interesting thing for me in looking up the owners of vacant, "land-locked" parcels adjacent to me was I found connections to some of the folks buried in the cemetery on my property. If I had not been laid off when I was, I would have been looking to snatch up another 50 acres or so.
I don't know anything about LLC's except you probably need a lawyer to set it up. And there must be some advantage that normal people, who just go about their business, would not get. If I could have bought out the closest neighbor in the country (only 2 acres and a mobile home) I would have, at most any cost, and might have considered moving out there then. One day he announced to me, out of the blue, "I will never sell this property!" ( I never asked him if he would ) Go figure.
People are weird. Other animals are more straight-forward...'cept possums maybe. And coyotes sure are deceitful. But other than that... Regarding LLCs...they are just one form of corporation, like Walmart or Amazon or Piggly Wiggly. LLCs are smaller than those and are not publicly traded. If you or I went into any type of business we would incorporate so as to firewall off our personal assets from the business (limit our liability.) If we painted houses or sold sandwiches or did landscaping, we would incorporate so that any mishap (real or contrived illness, damage, poor performance, etc) would generally be between the customer and the corporation (LLC), and not between the customer and us personally. If it were not for the liability shield provided by the corporation, we could personally be liable...all of our assets & properties (including homes, cars, savings) would be at risk. Even people with hobby incomes protect their homes and savings by incorporating. Actually, the term "Limited Liability Corporation" is redundant, because all corporation types provide this liability shield. That's the advantage that individuals engaging in commerce do not have, and that's the main reason for forming an LLC. The subordinate reason would be to have a business identity/ownership that does not reside with an individual (Walmart lives on even after Sam Walton has died.) In this way, if our landscaping business took off, we could sell it and the ownership change would be transparent to our customers...or the business would survive our demise, because the corporation is an autonomous entity. You might recall the debate around corporations legally being people...at least for some purposes. Their being autonomous entities is part of that debate.
Thanks, John. I didn't know any of that. If I speculate anymore about it, I might get into trouble. So I'll talk about birds now.
Did you see my post in another thread? After 2 years, a barred owl has returned!!!! She's (I think) is out there right now, sitting on a branch, staring at the ground like a shamed dog, waiting for her next meal to amble by. I would assume she's one of the 3 owlets that were there in 2021. I'm wondering if there are any young-uns that are gonna show up. In 2021 they were on that tree in mid-June.
Yes I saw it. If it's bigger than the owl(s) in 2021, I bet it is one of their babies. You probably fed them too well. It's fun to follow them to the next generation if you can. I've never seen the offspring of the 2nd bluebird nest this year (not good). But the one from the 1st nest is still around. It has become a little terror.
When I used to have a lot of feeders out, it was interesting to see how quickly most of them overcame any fear of humans they may have had once I pulled out the bag of seed. I never tried filling up my hand with seed and seeing if I could have coaxed them to eat out of it, but I can think of a couple of species that absolutely would have (looking at you, tufted titmouse) and a few that would not (the small woodpeckers.)
Here the brown-headed nuthatches are the least afraid of me. Speaking of tufted titmice, an update on the juvenile with the wry neck ... He finally worked the kink out of his neck. Took since I last mentioned him here. But he is still not quite right. Most titmice here operate at 78 rpms. They slide into the feeder, slam on the brakes, grab a seed, and take off in a cloud of seeds. Picture Road Runner. This little guy cruises at 33 1/3. A loner. Seems happy to just do his own thing. Pecking away at sunflower seeds. Stands around thinking a lot. Wonder if I'll be able to recognize him if he's still around next year. I'm curious to know how this works out when it comes to breeding season. For some reason, I think it's a male, but males and females are almost indistinguishable. Will some female titmouse admire his special qualities? I doubt it. . . . ABCDEFG (July 9, 2023)
Yeh, titmice usually grab 'n go. If your slow one hangs around until the last dance, he may find a friend. Regarding distinguishing sex: they often need to be standing side-by-side for me to tell. I got that issue with the barred owls: females are bigger than/darker than males. So you gotta put 2 birds side-by-side and guarantee me that they are of opposite sex before I can make the call with any degree of confidence. Same applies to crow/ravens/blackbirds for me...it's not a discrete description, it's a comparative one.
Saved a tree to live another day (Repeat) The state owns the property adjoining the back yard. They planted a row of Leyland Cyprus back there but haven't kept the kudzu off of them. If the trees die the view is a parking lot (and the birds will not be happy either). I've kept the trees behind my property free of kudzu, but it constantly creeps in from the sides. Last time I cut vines was about a month ago. Obviously missed some. (picture from Friday) It's in a difficult place on the other side of a chain link fence on a very steep bank. The parking lot is a gathering place for policemen taking breaks---even on weekends. I doubt they would mind, but they might try to tell me I'm too old to be doing that. And if I tried it again and they caught me, I might end up in jail. So I sneaked down there again Sunday evening on the spur of the moment. Cut a 2" thick kudzu vine I somehow missed and quickly got out. Picture this morning of wilting vines
Little things are not going smoothly, but none of this matters because I love this new cordless lawn mower. As long as you can walk the distance you can mow. It's that easy. After the chinch bug attack on the St. Augustine last year, this is how the back yard looks. (not my picture) These things grow faster and taller than grass. Lot's more mowing necessary this year to keep the back yard from looking like a hay field. Every mower I've ever had misses a few of the stems of these things. The riding mower at the farm is particularly bad. This mower gets them all. The bugs got the front yard 2 years ago. It has now fully recovered, and the mower does well on that too. It looks better than it ever did. Hopefully the back yard will recover also in a couple more years.