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Woman makes a small error in her house paperwork — and now she's the owner of 85 homes

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, owned an entire neighborhood estimated to cost millions of dollars at the cost of one house.

BY TIYASA BISWAS

PUBLISHED 3 DAYS AGO

A builder explaining the plan to a female home owner. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Ariel Skelley)

While real estate remains one of the most expensive businesses in today’s time, one woman from Nevada became the owner of 85 homes overnight. Not a billionaire as you may have presumed, she paid the amount of only one home, valued at $594,481, and had ownership of properties worth $50 million. The secret? A typo in the legal documents of her home purchase, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. The anonymous homeowner had decided to buy a single-family house in Sparks, northeast of Reno, Nevada. However, upon filing paperwork with the Washoe County Assessor, data revealed that the woman had 84 additional house lots under her name in Toll Brothers’ Stonebrook development in Spanish Springs.

Detail of real estate agent's hands handing over keys. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Drs Producoes)

The alarming discovery had the assessors worried for their clients, as many of the houses had already been built and sold. Moreover, this could have become a complicated legal battle had the homeowner not complied with their requests for correction. Cori Burke, chief deputy assessor for Washoe County, spoke about the copy-paste error on the woman’s official paperwork and urged Westminster Title to fix the error promptly. “It appears Westminster Title out of Las Vegas may have copied and pasted a legal description from another Toll Brothers transfer when preparing the homebuyer’s deed for recordation,” Burke said in an official statement.

A young man hands on calculator to check and summarize the expenses of the home loan mortgage for the refinance plan. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Witthaya Prasongsin)

Of the 85 properties, there were two common spaces in addition to 80+ house lots transferred to her by mistake. Further speaking of the erroneous transaction, the chief deputy assessor explained, “Because it was pretty clear a mistake was made, our assessment services division reached out to Westminster Title right away so they could begin working on correcting the chain of title for the 86 properties transferred in error.” The assessor’s office relies on the legal description provided in the recording of the homeowner’s purchase for information on such transactions instead of the parcel number. Therefore, the error in the documentation filed on July 25, 2022, stated that the woman had ownership of “lots 1 through 85…and Common Areas A and B.”

Aerial view of newly built detached housing. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Richard Newstead)

While inconsistencies in legal descriptions are said to be “fairly often” due to copy-and-paste errors, this case was particularly “more interesting” because of the great number of house lots involved. Hence, the need to correct the mistake at the earliest was a priority for the assessor as soon as it came to their notice. The transfer back to Toll Brothers would require the concerned homeowner to rewrite the title to the firm in the official documents, following which new property owners may follow through with the normal process of purchase. Burke noted, “It is cut-and-dry for us, but we only see the recorded documents, not what the title company goes through to get a clear title," per Daily Mail.

Family with toddler in discussion with real estate agent while looking home for sale during open house. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Thomas Barwick)

Nevertheless, he also considered the fact that the homeowner could make things “difficult” for the company. But since they also have the “offer” and acceptance for the purchase on record, it would be easy to rule it out in court and restore things to order. While the anonymous woman was steps away from becoming a millionaire with her real estate treasure, the unaffordability of homes in most of the US has left citizens concerned. After examining the median home prices of 575 counties, researchers found that 99% of those were not feasible for an average American income of about $71,214 annually, according to real estate data provider ATTOM.