Why the lot next door
may not be worth the same
By Justin Kelly
NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson
Two lots on the same road can price apart, and the reasons are usually not visible from the road. Here is what a buyer reads off the ground before an offer, and why a neighbor's number is a poor guide to your own.
At a glance
- What fits on a lot is decided by its width, its depth and the town's setbacks, and that is checked before anything else about the ground
- Sewer service areas are drawn lot by lot in a county plan, so one side of a street can be inside one and the other side outside it
- Where there is no sewer the soil sizes the system, and it has to be tested on that lot rather than on the street
Guide
Owners often price a lot off what the one next door brought. It is the most natural comparison to reach for, and it is the one most likely to be wrong. What a lot is worth turns on what can be built on it, and that answer is read off the ground rather than off the street the ground sits on.
The first thing looked at is the shape of the lot itself. Width, depth and the town's setbacks decide together which house plans fit, and that is checked before anything else. On an acre or more in a township like Elk or Pittsgrove most plans fit comfortably. On a narrow lot in Deptford or Glassboro the choice narrows quickly, and a plan that will not fit is not a plan a buyer can price.
Then there is the question of sewer, and this is the one that surprises people. Sewer service areas are not drawn along roads. They are delineated lot by lot in a county wastewater management plan, so two properties facing each other across a street can sit on opposite sides of that line. Being inside one changes what the ground can carry; being outside it sends the question to the soil instead.
Where there is no sewer, the soil decides the house. The system is sized by how that ground drains, and the state rules require the testing to happen at the site of the proposed disposal field, not somewhere nearby. That is why the answer belongs to your lot specifically. Our own land form recognises three states and no more: public water and sewer, public water with septic, or a well and septic.
Last, what the town has already granted travels with the land. A lot that carries a subdivision approval on file is evaluated with that approval included, and one without it has that worked out during the buyer's review. That is often the largest single difference between two pieces of ground that look identical from the road.
None of this is a formula. Two lots that match on every point above can still price apart on access, frontage, an easement, or what a buyer already has under contract nearby. What it does mean is that the number on the lot next door was answering a different question than yours.
Every lot is different; this is what usually moves the number, not a valuation of any specific property. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson. More at South Jersey New Construction.
Our take
Two lots on one road can carry different answers on every one of these, which is why a neighbor's number is a poor guide to your own. If you own a lot in South Jersey, we can walk through which of these apply to yours.
