Woman Accidentally Buys Entire Neighborhood Of 85 Homes Instead Of One Because Of Typo

Mistyping can often lead to a red face and a quick correction, yet imagine a scenario where a typo turns you into the unexpected owner of 85 houses.

Sounds pretty wild, right? 

Credit: Toll Brothers

Well, bear with me here because that's exactly what happened.

This whole mix-up took place in 2022. Picture this: a woman decides she's going to buy herself a new house in a neighborhood that's got a total of 85 properties up for grabs.

The woman, whose identity remains under wraps, dropped a cool $594,481, thinking she was just getting a single house in Sparks, just a bit northeast of Reno, Nevada.

The moment of revelation came when she was going through her paperwork with the Washoe County assessor.

That's when she found out she’d ended up with a whole lot more than she initially thought she was signing up for.

Credit: NewsNation

The paperwork clearly stated that she owned 'lots one through 85… and Common Areas A and B'.

Talk about an unexpected windfall!

Cori Burke, who plays a key role as the chief deputy assessor for Washoe County, shared that this whole confusion likely stemmed from a typo.

It seems the mistake happened while filling out forms with 'a full-service title company' located in Las Vegas.

Burke delved into it a bit, saying it looked like the title company might've accidentally 'copied and pasted a legal description from another Toll Brothers transfer when preparing (the homebuyer's) deed for recordation'.

Thanks to this small oversight, the woman found herself the owner of property estimated to be worth around $50 million, instead of the $594,000 she thought she was spending.

Credit: NewsNation

Burke pointed out that it was 'pretty clear' a blunder had occurred. He mentioned:

"Our assessment services division reached out to [the company] right away so they could begin working on correcting the chain of title for the 86 properties transferred in error." 

While you might think such a scenario is rare, Burke let on that mix-ups like this can happen more often than you’d think, mainly because copying and pasting is so straightforward.

"This particular case is just a little more interesting because of the number of lots involved," she said. 

"It is cut-and-dry for us, but we only see the recorded documents, not what the title company goes through to get clear title."

"I think someone could try to make things difficult. However, the title company also has the offer and acceptance for the purchase on file so the intent is pretty clear." 

Burke concluded by saying the mess was tidied up two weeks after it happened. That's when 'true and rightful ownership was restored' with new documentation.

"The assessor's office has updated the ownership on all associated parcels," Burke added.