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Beasley homeowners learning yards are smaller than what they expected
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with the homeowners who learned after signing on the dotted line that their yards are smaller than they expected.
BEASLEY, Texas - Beasley is a small town a little more than an hour south of Houston. New subdivisions are popping up and there are already some unhappy homeowners.
"I have a sign that says acreage on it," said new homeowner Nina Lerma. "When I bought my home, this was actually sitting on the corner of my lot."
Lerma and several other homeowners in Sunfield Estates thought they bought an acre of land, only to discover they did not.
"But I’m paying taxes on it," she said.
The developer behind Sunfield Estates is First America Homes. Their website states you can be a homeowner for as little as $899 a month.
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"We were very adamant about having an acre," said new homeowner DeAnna Davis. "We wanted to build a shop."
Davis says couldn’t understand why some yards were falling short of being an acre.
"So I went and requested my appraisal report and sure enough it shows lot 51, one acre," she said.
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But that’s not what the survey document in her closing paperwork states, it says she had three-fourths of an acre.
"Once it was discovered by other homeowners in the community, hey my survey is not matching one acre, the response was, no, your acre starts in the middle of the road," Davis said.
The answer was no, Davis says when she asked Fort Bend County if her property included part of the road.
They don’t actually own an acre of land, but they are paying taxes as if they did.
"It comes out to roughly $400 a year on a 30-year loan, that’s $12,000," Davis said.
"That’s misleading people and that’s just so wrong," said Lerma.
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"As it sits right now, my appraisal is worthless, it’s not accurate," said Davis. "If I go to sell this home, I’m not going to be able to do that without due diligence of telling someone you don’t own an acre, this is not an acre property."
We called First America Homes for a response, but we’ve yet to hear anything back.
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