This episode covers complications emerging one day after the Tennessee auction miracle, where the winning bidder discovered a potential acreage discrepancy in the legal description versus platted survey—23.7 acres versus the advertised 25.2 acres. The civil engineer buyer delayed signing while title research resolved the issue.
Key Takeaways:
- Never Count Funds Until Account Receipt Even after auction hammer falls, contracts remain unsigned, title issues emerge, and final prices may adjust—maintain conservative expectations throughout closing.
- Backup Bidders Provide Critical Insurance The second-place bidder at $116K remained ready to purchase, eliminating downside risk even if primary buyer walked.
- Title Abstractions Require Expert Review A 1.5-acre exception buried in legal descriptions took the primary title abstractor to resolve, demonstrating why thorough title work cannot be rushed.
Multiple exit scenarios remained viable—full price at $117K, prorated adjustment to $110K, or backup buyer activation—all representing profitable outcomes versus the anticipated $50K loss.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to Get Serious. So I have a couple updates on the auction that we had just concluded in Tennessee. I know that was the longest podcast episode 158, if you want the full rundown on the still stunning result, probably the craziest professional experience and situation I’ve ever been a part of in 10 plus years.
of operating as an entrepreneur, can get that full breakdown in yesterday’s pod again, episode 158. Also gonna be writing about that for the newsletter. ⁓ But because that one was so long, I’ll keep this one a bit shorter to return the favor, even things out. ⁓ know, naturally even waking up a day later after, you know.
basically staring down a 50K loss with less than three minutes remaining in an auction and turning it into a 20K profit, know, 70K swing ⁓ is just an absolute wild experience. And until the money is in our account, I still really can’t believe that it’s real. So I was following up with the auctioneer today, you know, just making sure, hey, you know, this buyer is legit.
Let’s get the funds into escrow here, get things moving along. And so the auctioneer called me back and said, yep, I’ve been in touch with the buyer, smart guy, civil engineer. However, there is a snag and the buyer has not yet signed the contract. I’m like, oh my gosh, what could possibly happen here? Was this really too good to be true?
and what’s our recourse. And so the auctioneer explained ⁓ that the buyer was doing a much deeper dive into the previous deeds for the subject property. And it seems like there was a exception buried deep in the legal description that seemed to
have a discrepancy between what the platted survey acreage was in relation to what was part of the legal description. So, you know, the platted survey, the tax records seem to indicate the total parcel. Well, it’s really three separate tax IDs, but the total, you know, three is roughly 25.2 acres. ⁓ But when looking at the legal description and the exception that is noted,
Within the previous deeds, it seems to be about one and a half acres short. So close to like 20, 23.7 ish acres. So our auctioneer was trying to dive through all of this today, spending hours on it, but it’s just, it’s unclear what is the actual truth here. And then the primary
Indeed, abstractor at the title company who can resolve this issue is out on Friday, so she won’t be back in the office until this coming Monday. The auctioneer is saying, hey, like I’m 98 percent certain this is a non-issue and we’ll be able to resolve this on Monday. Like, I’m not sweating this at all. But if it is actually the case that the acreage is a bit short.
And even if it was a bit short, seems that one and a half acres is much deeper into the property. Like it’s not even going to be usable or buildable anyway. But yeah, nevertheless, it’s, um, you know, it could be considered short and you know, the, uh, know, technically the brokerage, they advertise what could be an incorrect acreage on the auction. you know, there’s a loophole there, but you know, the buyer was indicating, like I
still really want this property. You just want to get this clarified before I sign anything. So we’ll have this resolved on Monday. And then there’s a handful of options here. It’s either, okay, this issue is cleared up. There’s no issue with the acreage. Buyer can still move forward as planned and he wants to with the current settled price at 117K.
uh, you know, excluding that 10 % buyers premium. Um, uh, or even if there is an acreage to scrap and see, it could still move forward at the, um, same price. That would be ideal. Um, or we could potentially pro rate the, uh, price per acre that he closed at minus that one and a half, um, acres that might have an exception behind it. So
that would roughly equate to like 110K and some change. I mean, if that was the case and we had to go down that route, I mean, still, it’s still profitable for like, it would still be near miraculous exit to not be losing a ton of money on this deal. So we wouldn’t have an issue there. Plus the auctioneer had already been in touch with the
⁓ other bidder who was involved in the bidding war with this, current buyer. And so they had bid up to 116 K before tapping out at that 117 K bid. And they said, Hey, yeah, we’re, all set to go. If this guy drops for whatever reason, we want the property. So there’s technically a backup buyer, you know, whether we would have to pro rate them. don’t know. Again, it depends on figuring out this exception, but
It doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the case. It’s just, you know, trying to uncover everything prior to moving forward here. So there’s really no issue just because, you know, there’s two buyers who willing to go. It’s just whether it’s, you know, settled on that final price or not, depending on what the title looks like. But, you know,
we’re still going to be moving forward. really bigger concern would have been like, man, this bidder, knows, were we able to get in touch with him through the brokerage? No, he’s communicative. Everything’s all set. ⁓ And, you know, clearly did his work reviewing ⁓ this property. It wasn’t just, you know, fiddling around on an online auction clicking buttons. That’s always kind of the concern, right? It’s like, how legit are these people?
⁓ trying to move forward, even though there are a lot of teeth involved in these auctions where, if you don’t perform and put up the funds, you’re liable to really significant legal risk. So just wanted to share a couple updates here where it’s like, okay, not everything is fully settled out as soon as the auction is done. Yeah, there can still be a couple remaining things. People still need to sign contracts. They need to put the funds in. It needs to close out through title. ⁓
So again, I’ve learned through the years in this business, you don’t Count count any of your chickens until the funds are into your account. So You know Not feeling as nervous as I was a couple date like again the auctioneers like it is a non-issue but nevertheless this bidder who had
won the auction, still has not signed the contract technically. There might be slight updates with the final price here, even if it was, again, no big deal. We will sort it out over the next business day. But just wanted to provide you a little bit more insight because the story for this is not quite over. It’s still the wildest story ever.
within my professional career. with that in mind, SeriousLand.Capital for any of your funding needs, zero cost review of your land deals at Land Daily Diligence Facebook group. had an excellent session, tons of deals yesterday on June 12th. If you want to check the replay out there, some comments throughout it as well. And then landpricer.ai, engineers still pushing hard on our final sprint to get that all released to you here shortly.
most reliable and pricing tool on the market. With that in mind, subscribe and share. Hope you enjoy the weekend. Take care, everybody. Bye.
