OUT OF THE BOX

News Spotting
by Lois Laine

Have I Got a Land Deal for You: Buyers Beware
I've been listening for weeks to an ad on the LA radio stations for great land deals in nearby Fish Lake Valley, Nevada. Now, I realize that part of the country on the other side of the White Mountains is a gorgeous spot, and yes, it's definitely a rural atmosphere. I know since I've visited that part of Nevada many times, including the pin-dot spot of Oasis, which is actually in Mono County (under Supervisor Hap Hazard's jurisdiction).... However, it troubles me when people advertise that this acreage for sale is just a little over an hour away from Mammoth. Yep, on a good day, in winter, when there's no blocked passes, and you don't have to drive around the horn through Death Valley or up and over Montgomery Pass, NV, or through the Narrows of Westgard Pass (outside of Big Pine)--Mammoth might be at least an hour and a half to two hours away--if you haul a%$ to get there. But during a nasty winter storm, there isn't a pray in you-know-where that you'll get to Mammoth in under three to four hours. So when these land dealers tell Southern Californians that you can have your ranch and ski in Mammoth--just a hop away--I say, "Buyers Beware." This sound bite reminds me of a land deal I wrote about in college. In the 1880s, land speculators from the San Gabriel Valley (in Southern California) concocted this ad to write back east to the newspapers and tell prospective buyers that there was a place called, "Chicago Park," on the banks of the San Gabriel River. Well, these ads also featured drawn pictures of fancy river boats floating up and down the gorgeous, year-round flowing San Gabriel River. People bought the ad, and many put up their life savings only to discover that the land they came across the country to visit, was in fact, non-existent rubble. There wasn't anything resembling a river boat-and these people were literally "up a creek without a paddle." Check out every piece of land that is offered, and then go and check with your prospective neighbors to find out if in fact there is a chance you'll be skiing during a bad day in winter. So what if the ad claims that people from Vegas are coming to escape the city--and so what if you can actually ride your bike from your property. If you're buying into something that sounds to good to be true, you probably are....