The Property Pod

Something new in this episode, we welcome Property Pod Bendigo Correspondent Paige to bring the team a viral TikTok controversy! 

Taralyn Romero (@wickedwitch_ofthe_west) purchased a property in Kitridge, a small town near Denver, Colorado expecting a serene and quiet existence near Bear Creek. However, she discovered that the public had been using her land for swimming and access to the creek for the past 35 years.
We explore the dispute between the homeowner and the community and discuss how similar things can happen in our local marketplace.

What is The Property Pod?

A fun and accessible look into Hobart and Tasmanian Property with 4one4 Property Co. Real Estate Agents, Patrick Berry and John McGregor

Aaron Horne
It's an interesting idea, like this idea of you owning a a slice of land and it being used by the community sort of thing, and then ruffling feathers of them by being like, hold on a sec. Like, this is this is mine.

Aaron Horne
Like going above and beyond. Why don't you take the property off?

Aaron Horne
All right, guys. Welcome back to the property pod, your weekly engagement into real estate here in the Hobart marketplace. I am your host, Aaron Horn. And after many technical issues have resolved it this morning, I'm going back into the realm of trying to get air to edit this for me. But I've got the boys at the desk. They've been very patient with me trying to set everything up.

Aaron Horne
So thank you boys. Welcome to the studio. Jody Mack and Patrick Berry.

Patrick Berry
So good. We had nothing more to do with that 45 minutes of waiting.

Aaron Horne
Well, you are doing something while you're waiting. Even waiting in this moment. The show could end at any stage because you're waiting on something and your people won't be able to save it. You're watching another screen that's telling you.

Patrick Berry
Where Miamians are on this.

Aaron Horne
So I love this. Pat showed up to work this morning.

Patrick Berry
And I think it's actually more interesting than sitting here.

Aaron Horne
Pat showed up and he's got one of the security cameras from work. He's got the best plan ever. The NBA and said, I've got to be here between eight and 12. I've got to be at the premises. I'm ready to rock and roll. So he's got the security cameras, set it up. He said nothing. Stuff in the podcast this morning.

Patrick Berry
Said, it's.

Aaron Horne
Probably me. So, look, there's been some technical issues. I'm hoping to resolve them in the future. And as Pat said earlier, I was doing some silly boy business yesterday with some of the stable diffusion and other IOC stuff. So I would stop playing with the toys that I've got in the air space and start doing some real work.

Patrick Berry
But you can't learn the new toys unless you play with them. I'll give you a pass.

Aaron Horne
I love this theory because yes, you've got to play with them to find out a bit more today, I wanted to jump into something that is kind of a new technology that is kind of a tik-tok viral story and the amazing thing the amazing thing is it's coming from our superstar correspondent from Bendigo.

John McGregor
Paige.

Aaron Horne
Page from Bendigo. Baby, I was talking to Bendigo who, if you haven't heard, was on our Christmas episode earlier. No, it wasn't earlier this year, it was at the end of last year.

John McGregor
Paige Could be if you listened in the New Year.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, very true. But yeah, Paige came in and spoke with us. She's a long time a listener. First time caller. As you'll soon find out, she's actually gone to the effort to record us 6 minutes worth of in-depth discussion. It's almost like you're cutting away, you know, like 60 Minutes or A Current Affair. You cut away to the correspondent.

Aaron Horne
We got one. We've got one. Paige is our Pentagon correspondent. I can't.

Patrick Berry
Wait to see how you edit this with the audio We're going to cut to like Rolling Meadows or.

Aaron Horne
Do you just wide, baby, you just wait. My Star Wars edit the other day where we talking about the Star Wars house? Just put some pictures behind it. Gun violence. Tick tock, baby. With the amount of people they want to buy Star Cruises office space is next level.

John McGregor
I have seen a noticeable increase inquiry on that too.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Star Cruises by Bay. All right, so what I'm going to do is going to cut to our beautiful correspondent. And we will. Yeah. What we've got is a story that's gone wild on Tick Tock. We've kind of looked into it a little bit ourselves, but yeah, we'd like to kind of talk to what's happened here.

Aaron Horne
So without any further delay, we cut away to a page from Bendigo.

Paige from Bendigo
Hi boys, this is Page from Bendigo, longtime listener, first time caller. I've always wanted to say that I'm coming to you with a tick tock scenario this week. The handle is at Wicked Witch of the West. Tara Romero She's in her early forties and she lives in Denver, Colorado. So I had to look this one up because I didn't actually know where Colorado was on the map in America.

Paige from Bendigo
So for those of us who are great with geography, like me, it's actually pretty much dead back in the middle of America. So the scenario I've been following this for a couple of years now on Tick Tock and I don't want any comments about what I do with my spare time. But Tara Allen in 2021 wanted to move out of the city of Denver, which has a population of around 700,000 people, and found a property about half an hour out called Kittredge, which lives in the Jackson County.

Paige from Bendigo
So the population of Kittredge is around a little under a thousand people. Actually, it's decreased over the last ten years. And I guess when I explain this scenario to you a little bit better, you'll probably understand why. So, Tara, we found a house for sale back in the winter. In 2021. It backed on to a park and onto a creek called Bear Creek.

Paige from Bendigo
From the photos and videos that she's posted, it was super idyllic. It was snowing. The creek looked like the most special piece of bliss. And honestly, I can I can get it. I understand why she bought the property, but fast forward four months and someone comes around and it turns out Harlem, a lucky duck, has up to 50 of the public at any one time using her property as a local swimming hole.

Paige from Bendigo
So I mean, kids swinging off branches, families on banks of the creek digging, people splashing around. And time didn't actually know about the public apparently has used her land to access and submit the creek for the last 35 years. Plot twist. So Tara Lynn wasn't so stark about this, as you can imagine. She reportedly wanted to find a solution with the public, but also consider things like their personal liability considering it was private land.

Paige from Bendigo
So they tried to kind of come to a compromise. They set up chairs for the public to use around the swimming spot. They had a chat with the locals about their rubbish and the things that they were leaving behind and the damage that they were doing by pulling up, you know, small shrubs and digging up banks. Except this wasn't really successful.

Paige from Bendigo
So Tower Island ended up being sized, so the public should be using her land. And Jefferson County was pretty upset by this and thought the removal of these signs and wanted access to the creek reopened. So talent paid $10,000 to get her land surveyed. And it came back and said that she owns the land figure. However, Jefferson County disagreed and stated that over the years the creek had moved and therefore the county actually owns the creek and the access to the creek.

Paige from Bendigo
So bear in mind if you think in like quarters, tablet island, a quarter of the creek that backed onto her property connected to the park and the county owns the other three quarters. So Carolyn made the point that the public could use the other three quarters that the county owns and also had access to. However, that wasn't the coveted beach space that Tara Lynn in the survey was proved to own.

Paige from Bendigo
I hope you're keeping up here. The county decided then to sue Ireland for her land. An interim order was made for the public to use heroin's land again and swim there and the signs needed to be removed. So you can imagine in a small town of a thousand people how awful the scenario would be with all the Karens, you know, the social media posts that Carolyn had random people standing on her land and recording her inside of property, parents encouraging the kids to yell out to Carolyn, things like, This is our land and so forth.

Paige from Bendigo
So this has been going on for two years now. All righty. So let's fast forward to the outcome and I'm sure many, many tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to the county board. A settlement was announced last week on the 3rd of May, which is super exciting. So Thailand chose to settle for $250,000 and the county now owns a sliver of the land that was hers that the public have historically used as the beach.

Paige from Bendigo
There'll also be permanent fencing around her property that will be put in by the county. There will also be an establishment of an alternative loop trial that doesn't cut into her property and actually uses the county owned land. Obviously, an updated survey will also be completed due to the exchange of land and Allen will still have her own access to the creek that backs onto her property, which will now be private.

Paige from Bendigo
So we're really great outcome. So I guess what I found this case and a lot of people on Tik Tok found this case really interesting, is I understand that there's the expectation that you do your own research on what you're buying or a property that you're purchasing, but how do you search for Is my property used by the public as a beach in the summer?

Paige from Bendigo
So I wouldn't be surprised going forward. Now if Tyler pursues the previous owners who did not disclose this in the sale of the property and actively avoided taking certain boxes and sale documentation supposedly to deliberately mislead Sterlin, the whole case is massive and has really reinforced that counties can't just go ahead and claim or take land, but also the importance of disclosure of information information during the sale process.

Paige from Bendigo
I think a lot of legal documentation and clauses within the sale documentation will be updated over in America as a result of this case. But also, I guess, wrapping up, I'm all for a fierce woman who fought for what she believes in so massive congratulate. And to her, it's been a couple of years coming and I can only imagine the amount of stress that she went through.

Paige from Bendigo
But from a real estate perspective, I'm super came to heal thoughts on this one. VOICE All right. That's all for me. I'll be signing off as your friendly neighborhood Tick tock correspondent. I'll talk to you soon.

Aaron Horne
Booyah. So that is Al Fierce, Auburn correspondent from Bendigo. Land down the law on something she's heard on Tik Tok. And yeah, quite interesting the way that it's kind of all come about and all gone down. Could I get you guys to kind of give me your thoughts on, on that and what you would do if the situation was to arise here.

Aaron Horne
Well, I.

Patrick Berry
Think my first concern is she's come to ask free stuff like how many episodes have you listened to? You should know by now, we're not the best people are.

John McGregor
Still, we won't be quitting laws.

Aaron Horne
But I guess it's an interesting idea, like this idea of you owning a a slice of land and it being used by the community sort of thing, and then ruffling feathers of them by being like, hold on a sec. Like, this is this is mine. Like, it.

Patrick Berry
Actually reminds me of a similar scenario that Sebastian, our photographer, was telling me about recently. So we went out to take photos of a block of land out the back of Nene, also Cam and Muga. We were heading out to and Bessie's like, Oh, this is where we go swimming in summer. And it described a very similar thing that the that were jumping off the rock into this waterhole that you can see from the road.

Patrick Berry
Yeah the one of the owners came out and and told them off nearly exact same scenario. Yeah but what in that scenario the owner was on the other side of there, the little rivulet or the little pool telling them off, but the where they were jumping from you could access from the road. Yeah. So it was all fenced off and they were sort of walking down the, the creek side of the fence which was off someone's private property and then jumping into the river off the rock from there.

Patrick Berry
Yeah. Yeah. Now whether or not they are allowed to or not, I'm not sure but pretty much a very similar scenario.

Aaron Horne
Looking, looking into this like the interesting part was in the in the town or in the county, there was actually access to the creek that just didn't pass through her land. But it was just that was the most convenient route and that was the way that you got to this what they called the beach, always.

John McGregor
Known to get there.

Patrick Berry
Yeah, I guess my first thought is why didn't the council just put an artificial beach in around the rest of the body and, you know, make beach all the way around?

Aaron Horne
It's really the other side of it that that kind of blows me out is that it's not like the case built up over time where, you know, the first summer was like, okay, I'll kind of accommodate for this. And, you know, there'll be some chairs put out. And, you know, if you use the place properly, it'll all be fine.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, but then it kind of turned into, you know, like I think the council put Portaloos in, then it turned into like the Portaloos. A No one's empty. I'm so I'm just going to defecate in the creek. I'm going to so I'm not going to treat the land, though. Respectfully, respectfully. I tried the owner and it kind of turned into which, you know, she's been labeled the Wicked Witch of the West in this story, which is, you know, quite brutal as well.

Aaron Horne
And really, she's just gone. This is my land. Is there anything like that that happens here in Tassie, like I guess recently was there that the highway or the southern outlet? I think when I looked it up with an eminent domain or something like that, is that a word that means anything to you too.

Patrick Berry
So you can acquire or council can acquire land for or government can acquire land for greater use? Yes. A good example of that is the Brighton High School they're currently constructing. So they, the owner wanted more money, they got a valuation done and they acquired the land under that for the greater good of the community. Yeah. So yes, you can take land that belongs to somebody else, but I don't think it's as easy as no.

Aaron Horne
And, and I think it's a case where this town is actually standing up and for her rights and being like, you know, this is again, like the if anyone out there, her page of story and wants to look into it for earlier, check out the Wicked Witch of the West through the textbook. But there's podcast and stuff that she's got is a bit like the further you go into, you know, she's being like vilified and attacked online by one mob and full on a mob mentality, just being like, Hey, this lady's moved into our area and she's taking our beach from us.

Patrick Berry
Yeah, it's it's give me South Park vibes like health I know episode probably.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Look, next week it'll probably be on South Park but if I.

Patrick Berry
Can just picture Eric Cartman, just like yelling at.

John McGregor
One of you, the one that got me.

Patrick Berry
Well, I just can't them. That's all I'm saying. I can say.

Aaron Horne
That.

John McGregor
She all I could when the only person that ever is going to really care is the one that gets is the potential to get sued. Yeah. And so if none of the the people mine because they're not getting injured yet and the cancer doesn't mind too much yet because no one's complaining and they're on her land anyway. But the second that someone does actually seriously injured themselves and look in someone to sue, well she's the one that's effectively what would they they would turn around and say, well, you're granting access to all these people without any signs of, Yeah.

John McGregor
So you're you're.

Aaron Horne
On the level.

Patrick Berry
And look in America they sue over shoelace ban on life life.

Aaron Horne
So I think since since then it's basically kind of all wrapped up and she settled for the 250 K for this little slice of the land so that people could access through the area, which I think she joked about saying like she got like beach value prices for them getting the beach back. So she's pretty happy with that.

Aaron Horne
But then she said, don't worry, guys, there's still season two coming. So the next side of it was the people that sold salt in the winter. Like deliberately.

Patrick Berry
Avoid.

Aaron Horne
It. Well, yeah. So like the claim is that they deliberately sold in the winter to avoid anybody knowing. So it's that idea of then disclosure of information. So I just wanted to cover that before we finish up. When you guys are selling a property, I think there's an area where it says, Do you know what's on the contract?

Patrick Berry
That's yeah, So we have to obviously if we told something about a property, we need to disclose it. Yeah. And there is obviously onus on an owner to let us know about any issues there where of course it gets difficult because if someone chooses not to tell us and we're not aware of it, then you know.

Aaron Horne
Well, yeah, look, you can only know what you can know. But yes, I think what the the plan or I think town plan is to perhaps sue the owners for damages over kind of the misleading of information to be like, yeah, no, it's a beautiful, idyllic little place. Nobody comes around here.

John McGregor
That would be interesting if they said this is your private exclusive creek that no one touches, which was obviously absolute bullshit. Well, so you don't.

Aaron Horne
Just before you go from there, who is the lady from real estate who came in and spoke with?

Patrick Berry
Oh, title insurance.

Aaron Horne
No, no, no, no, no. Lady.

John McGregor
The American. Oh, Tara. Tara.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, Yeah, Tara. Tara. Yes, I knew. I knew it was. Well, yeah. So I remember her talking about the disclosure, like the information. The wording had to be so clear. It be so interesting to dive into the wording of that. Yeah. So.

John McGregor
And because it's, I mean, maybe she might have read into a lifestyle that was not sold well or were they selling her a lifestyle that wasn't quite what was being sold, You know?

Aaron Horne
Yeah, it's so hard to know. But I do believe, like there the case continues. And then just further on from the Bear Creek land dispute, I believe that Tara and kind of using this Tik Tok platform and other platforms, it's creating her own podcast called Dirt Wars, which should be coming out soon. So if you're interested in the story, like Page Wars and like the thousands of millions of people that have been watching on Tik Tok, yeah, Dirt wars is coming soon.

Aaron Horne
So that's another place where I think Tara Line will kind of take it on as a chance to follow up on other stories like this and look into how it's happening.

Patrick Berry
How is she actually seen, I guess, in the community these days as well? Yeah. I'm curious by this like now that it's all settled and everyone's got their beach.

Aaron Horne
Back, Oh, is.

Patrick Berry
She still the Wicked Witch of the corner store of a thousand people and, you know, not be.

Aaron Horne
Know vilified and yeah, I don't know. Actually, the last kind of video I saw was them at a town hall meeting. And imagine, you know, like a thousand people versus one kind of this.

John McGregor
Oh, yeah. Be scary. Yeah.

Aaron Horne
Scary and and yeah people kind of.

Patrick Berry
But then that's yeah. It's also unfair to think that no one could understand why she was frustrated ever again.

Aaron Horne
I guess it's that idea of that mob mentality like John kind of mentioned, is like once a small idea is put in place and now it's outright like, I think they were trying to claim squatter's rights as well. I'm kind of like, we've been doing this for 35 years. This one person comes in and spoils our fodder. So yeah, it's really interesting.

Aaron Horne
It's really cool. When Paige brought it to me, I'm like, she's like, You should talk about this. I'm like, Well, no one's more educated to talk about it than you. You've been following the story for months, so if you pop something together, we'd love to talk to it.

Patrick Berry
So it's so hard to try to get an idea of how that sort of relates to our marketplace. Like it's a very hard like you look at titles here in Tasmania and I think it's to the high water line for memories, John, that you own if it's a waterfront property.

John McGregor
Oh it depends or I think it depends on where which section, but that sense of right, there's always quite clearly defined.

Aaron Horne
And in and in this case it's the creek has moved over time, so that's changed the boundary of things.

Patrick Berry
So the creek has moved into her properties, I believe so.

Aaron Horne
And then moved in towards making the beach area larger into her area, which is makes it the more appealing, attractive option to bay. So it's again yeah this kind of the she's had a race of age and stuff as I just said but it's really cool.

John McGregor
When I watch one of the tiktoks of it had these little kids with them like sticks just thrusted it up like it was like.

Aaron Horne
A tusk and more volatile.

John McGregor
And it must've been like seven. So obviously that's the the kids are getting a message from like their parents and in many ways probably the young kids, you know, the young that I know, they're probably the worst offenders of hassling the poor woman to some degree. Yeah, because.

Patrick Berry
Well, kids love swimming.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Especially in a hot Colorado so the not really appreciate page tracking it together if anyone else out there is listening has come across anything else like this or you'd like us to talk about anything we're always open to.

Patrick Berry
And as we've clearly showed today, we know nothing. It's lucky Babbage was able to come in for us with the disclosure card.

John McGregor
Really? I think you said it. If we done it, if we're never told, we know we're not living there 24 seven Sometimes you don't know. And I guess that's where trying to ask those questions about what the you know, if we can get more information about what are the numbers like, what's it like at different times the you asking a little bit more lifestyle question.

John McGregor
Yes. Love the orientated questions. That's probably the only real means of trying to be able to understand if you're trying to buy a, you know, lifestyle choice change.

Patrick Berry
It is hard though, like people ask me all the time, you know, what are the neighbors like? I'm like most of the time it's like it is today. Like it's dead.

John McGregor
Quiet. Yeah, yeah.

Patrick Berry
But I'm also only here through certain times of the day when people are at work. I don't know what it's like. I know. Yeah. I mean, I take 9 p.m. at night.

John McGregor
It was a bad joke to say, Look, everyone was fine until you moved in the neighborhood.

Patrick Berry
Or, you know, next door might be dead quiet. But because it's an Airbnb that we don't know and it's yeah, like I said, oh, I'm actually selling because next door is a pain in the ass because when people move in for their holidays, they keep me awake. But the owners, I'm going to go tell me that.

John McGregor
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patrick Berry
It is a hard one and I don't think there is any right or wrong way to go around it. So it will.

Aaron Horne
Be interesting to keep following this and kind of finding out you the season two of the weather there is kind of legal ramifications for when it was sold and and the disclosure of the information.

John McGregor
I'd like to see it all end up in like a really nice holiday barbecue scene where everyone celebrates the craic and she's forgiven and then they're forgiven as well. What what a.

Aaron Horne
Great gift for you in.

John McGregor
Life. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice Christmas finish movie. You don't like that kind of stuff.

Aaron Horne
They all hug and fade to black.

John McGregor
Yeah. Yeah. It's.

Patrick Berry
Yeah, it's.

Aaron Horne
A Hallmark.

John McGregor
Movie. And then the kids are still doing it now has a different meaning.

Aaron Horne
I love that. All right, guys. Well, as we said, if you've got anything you want us to wax lyrical about and freely pretty much not give any advice on.

Patrick Berry
We'd love to hear you guys would.

Aaron Horne
Love to do say number one and number one on the property pod. Reach out via all our channels or email or actually I got an email about I guess just before I talk to you about that letter. Yes. Beautiful. This is the property pod. Thank you so much for working through my taking the letters and we'll be back next week with more Part two.

John McGregor
Thank you, Page.

Patrick Berry
Thank you.

Aaron Horne
Thank you. PAGE Bye. You have been listening to the property both recorded and edited by Fall and Fall Media House in conjunction with the Fall.

Patrick Berry
And Fall Property Code. This podcast is general information only and the thoughts of views expressed is the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek than use their own investigation into any topic we discuss to ensure they fully understand their own situation.

John McGregor
It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial or investment advice or recommendations expressed or implied, and it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on the basis of this information without first taking qualified.

Unknown
And professional advice.