How do you read Public Auction Foreclosure addresses (plat, lot, etc)?
Private Money Lender · OK · Member since 2010 · 163 posts · 32 votes
So I took a trip to the courthouse today to check out the foreclosure list. Much to my surprise I see the addresses are not your standard:
Billy D Williams
555 La Tosta
blah, BL 55555
They read like this:
Lot 19 Block 1 of the estates of Clear Creek Section 1 of subdivision of 310.141 acres of land located in the Lawrence Long Survey abstract #336 in the DM Goheen Survey abstract 234 in Montgomery, TX as imposed by the map and dedication recorded in Cabinet 1Sheet 40 of the map records of Montgomery County, TX
Needless to say I'm baffled by how to figure out the real addresses here. Could someone tell me how to decipher this code so I can find the treasure of One Eyed Willie please.
Thank you so much..
That's a legal description. "Lot 19 Block 1 of the estates of Clear Creek Section 1 of subdivision of 310.141 acres of land located in..." designates this as a specific lot (Lot 19 Block 1) in a specific subdivision (Clear Creek Section 1 of subdivision of 310.141 acres of land located in...}. Texas, and some other states use a "survey" based way of designating land. Other status use sections. Sections are easier to understand. A section is a chunk of land about one mile by one mile. Not exactly one by one because the earth is curved. But roughly. They're grouped into six by six groups, and each one of the sections in the group gets a number. The group has two numbers "township" and "range". Township and range span across the entire country. A section is about 640 acres.
Some states, like TX, use a "survey" rather than sections. Long ago, someone started doing surveys and dividing up the land into pieces. In your particular example, that someone was "DM Goheen". They surveyed out some chunk and created abstract 234. Later, "Lawrence Long" surveyed inside the DM Goheen survey and created, amongst others, abstract 336. Some time later, someone carved "Clear Creek Section 1" out of abstract 336.
How do you translate into addresses? There's no direct translation. You have to find the "plat map". That map shows these various surveys. When you buy a property, it would be customary for you to get a map or maps showing where your lot was. If you really want to know exactly where the boundaries are, you pay a survey to mark them.
I owned a house south of Houston where the markers were still there. These were pipes driven into the corners of the lots. They had the lot lines scribed into a cap with the lot numbers.
Back in MO, you could track down a "plat book". That was a printed book, usually county by county, that had drawings of all the lots and the name of the owner. When I bought that property in TX, I somewhere tracked down similar maps. Been a long time, and predated the web. IIRC, I found them at the public library.
That's a legal description. "Lot 19 Block 1 of the estates of Clear Creek Section 1 of subdivision of 310.141 acres of land located in..." designates this as a specific lot (Lot 19 Block 1) in a specific subdivision (Clear Creek Section 1 of subdivision of 310.141 acres of land located in...}. Texas, and some other states use a "survey" based way of designating land. Other status use sections. Sections are easier to understand. A section is a chunk of land about one mile by one mile. Not exactly one by one because the earth is curved. But roughly. They're grouped into six by six groups, and each one of the sections in the group gets a number. The group has two numbers "township" and "range". Township and range span across the entire country. A section is about 640 acres.
Some states, like TX, use a "survey" rather than sections. Long ago, someone started doing surveys and dividing up the land into pieces. In your particular example, that someone was "DM Goheen". They surveyed out some chunk and created abstract 234. Later, "Lawrence Long" surveyed inside the DM Goheen survey and created, amongst others, abstract 336. Some time later, someone carved "Clear Creek Section 1" out of abstract 336.
How do you translate into addresses? There's no direct translation. You have to find the "plat map". That map shows these various surveys. When you buy a property, it would be customary for you to get a map or maps showing where your lot was. If you really want to know exactly where the boundaries are, you pay a survey to mark them.
I owned a house south of Houston where the markers were still there. These were pipes driven into the corners of the lots. They had the lot lines scribed into a cap with the lot numbers.
Back in MO, you could track down a "plat book". That was a printed book, usually county by county, that had drawings of all the lots and the name of the owner. When I bought that property in TX, I somewhere tracked down similar maps. Been a long time, and predated the web. IIRC, I found them at the public library.
As always great response Jon and feedback. I appreciate the breakdown.
Most large urban areas will have bidding services that bid for you at auction. They will provide you with a list and would have already translated the legal description to a postal address so you do not have to deal with that headache.
Some counties have online GIS (geographical information systems) that will show a map and let you get to the lot information, or let you enter the legal and track down a map. In the Denver area, its highly variable. Some counties have almost nothing, some have really useful systems. Even the useful ones, though, are obtuse. But if you can puzzle out how they work, they're really useful.
Try googling "montgomery county recorder" and maybe you'll find something useful.
Was there a property ID in the listing? Try the recorder search, if there was:
http://www.mcad-tx.org/html/records.html
Your best bet may be to just call the appraisal district and ask for help:
Warmest Regards,
Michael
The way I go about it in the county I live in in Texas is to get the owners name from the publication then plug it into the tax appraiser's website. This will pull up all addresses owned by that person and give physical address and legal description.
http://www.co.montgomery.tx.us/tax/docs/ttguide.pdf
and scroll down to the tax attorney links. they provided well over 100 listings just for the 2 counties I suggested, but had like every county in Texas. They also provided the real addresses as opposed to the legal addresses.
Now you're catching on to what I mean when I say these systems are obtuse. With enough patience and persistence, you can find lots of information. Just hard to get to that point without tearing your hair out.
Jon,
Are you blaming your appearance on this stuff here?