Grimsby and Richmond Hill Gwillimbury

[Pfm1011]

All junk, don't waste your time

Richmond hill is all small and unusable lots. Town is just cleaning up the assessment rolls

Grimsby is yet another creative subdivision in farm country that can never be built on

Gwillimbury..Just junk

[speedfreeksteve]

Whereabouts is that one in E. Gwillimbury and what is it?

[Pfm1011]

03442-0020   Is a landlocked strip about 60 feet wide buried 1000 feet back from Hwy 48 


03445-0059   20537 HWY 48     is 25 acres at the NE corner of Hwy 48 and queensville side rd. Its across the rd from what looks like a junk yard with a pile of executions against it . The land looks essentially unbuildable (peat) as the neighbour to the north found out in 1982  ( man I love google)http://www.web2.mnr.gov.on.ca/mnr/omlc/Chris%20Boncheff.htm   looks like save yourself 50k

03425-0014    Is a quarter acre triangle fronting onto Hwy 11 at holland landing rd at the back of a warehouse, no access to 11

[David]

Hi PFM1011

- Thanks for saving me alot of leg work, What can you tell me about the Richmond hill lots, do you have any specifics, are any of them worth checking out?

Thanks -

David.

[ladymcse]

First off, this site is awsome.

The Grimsby properties, as I understand they are not accessible by a road, which as i understand it, means that you can't build on them. I'm new to this game so I could be wrong. Why would they have a street address if they are not accessible by a street? it's left me greatly confused.

I just want to get a few acres in this area where we can build a small house and barn. It drives me nuts that this area is being split apart into one acre lots.

If I was to purchase several of them together, could I not build and run my own driveway down to the nearest road?

[Frank]

First off, this site is awsome.

The Grimsby properties, as I understand they are not accessible by a road, which as i understand it, means that you can't build on them. I'm new to this game so I could be wrong. Why would they have a street address if they are not accessible by a street? it's left me greatly confused.

I just want to get a few acres in this area where we can build a small house and barn. It drives me nuts that this area is being split apart into one acre lots.

If I was to purchase several of them together, could I not build and run my own driveway down to the nearest road?

As the add says, you can't build on any of these lots.  Some have street frontage, some do not.  However, none of them were formed legally under the planning act.  They were likely done by way of a bequest, where an R plan gets put on the property and then the pieces are willed away when the owner passes.  However, the Province put the breaks on this  years ago, and most municipalities put barriers in place to prevent development.  I'd look elsewhere for your few acres.   If you want more details, then give the town planner a call.  If you find out that they can be developed, tell no one (except me of course).

[Pfm1011]

If I was to purchase several of them together, could I not build and run my own driveway down to the nearest road?

Ladymcse  . There is several things you have to look at when looking at land. In order to build you will need A: minimum lot frontage on a developed street, B: Minimum lot size C: proper zoning.  Additionally you have to check the flood plains and environmental conditions.   For example the land in Gwillumbury is 25 acres and huge frontage but appears to be swamp so completely useless. (as the man who paid 250K for it in 1990 found out)

 Buying several of these and combining them will be substantially more expensive then just buying land on the MLS. Secondly I don't believe any of these are on opened roads and therefore have no frontage.  Unopened road allowances are not actual  roads and therefore would not count as frontage and therefore you cant build without spending insane amounts of money and time.  Gone are the days when you could build on a backlot by simply having deeded access across the front lands.

On top of all of the above, the tax sale world is loaded with contaminated properties so even if all the above is met, you then have to check the history of the land to make sure that the soil is not a toxic site.

It drives me nuts that this area is being split apart into one acre lots

These "testamentary device" lots show up all over the place and were created by greedy idiots trying to beat the system in the late eighties. Very few , if any are useful and are usually too expensive to combine and make usuable. In addition the towns have put insane zoning requirements on the specific lots in order to make them unbuildable. Niagara Falls has a ton of them but to build you have to combine two or three and it will cost between 60 to 90 K to end up with a buildable lot . You can buy  10 acres or more in the area which is good to go for about the same.  The pathetic part is that if these idiots would have not tried to scam they would have made alot of money by just working with the towns.

When looking at any taxsale land , Always start with the assumption it is junk land and the owner walked away for a reason. Don't start off thinking it is great deal and then hope it isn't junk. A vast majority of these deals have problems and the fun is to dig till you find the problem..If you cant find the problem  then you may have found a piece to bid on..... As a ball park only one out of 10 pieces that isn't redeemed has any value.

If you find a piece has a problem, let everyone know... If you find a piece that is worth money ...shut your mouth and try to beat us at the tender.

If you have a question just ask  but be careful not to "tip your hand" as every question asked leads to tons of people looking at the land in question. Additionally whatever answer you get on here, double check as   A:  I may be wrong or B: I may be lying to steal the deal from you by giving bad advise to scare you off.

[Dave2]

ladymcse:

Further to the excellent previous post one rule of thumb I use is that I will not usually do after a tax sale unless it is within an hour driving time of my home.  Before I bid I want to see it if I can find it.  This quickly removes a lot of candidates and allows me to save on a legal investigation if it is not worth it.   

A couple we investigated last winter we had to go in on X country skiis, including a rural one that even the local planning department had mislocated.  On the other hand in these cases really cuts down on the competition.

I lost that one because after what we saw we priced in the cost of a lot of fill and we lost it but may have saved ourselves some headaches if we won it.

Dave2