Closing Attorney & Title Services in Hermitage, TN

You have a contract on a Hermitage house, or one is waiting for your signature. It is the standard Tennessee form, written to fit any house in any county, and it says nothing about the three things that set Hermitage apart: federal lake land past the back yard, a ZIP code that crosses into Wilson County, and the path of the 2020 tornado. All three are public record. All three cost less to learn about while the offer can still change. Buying your first home? The road from offer to keys →

Start at the water, because that is where the listing photos start. The Corps of Engineers runs J. Percy Priest Lake to keep its shoreline public, and its shoreline plan for the lake prohibits private docks and other private floating facilities, along with mowing or clearing on public land. The Corps' lake questions page goes further: cutting trees on Corps land is a federal offense, and the rules for its lakes forbid any structure, a dock included, on project land or water. Some other Corps lakes in the Nashville District run under their own plans, so what a friend built on a different lake proves nothing here. If the listing shows a dock, a cleared view or a path down to the water, find out whose land it sits on before any of it goes into your price. ^‡‡‡

Then the harder question: where does the lot you are buying actually end? The Corps' 2007 master plan for the lake says the land around it was bought under a 1962 Army-Interior acquisition rule known as the 300-foot policy, which put a strip of perimeter land into public hands - so a Hermitage lake lot may stop before the water does. The same plan says the boundary was surveyed and marked on the ground, that it runs more than 150 miles, and that encroachments onto public land have had to be corrected. It also mentions land the government holds by flowage easement rather than owning outright. The Davidson County Register's answer to lot-line questions is that only a private surveyor can locate them. So ask for a survey that shows the government line and whether the fence, the shed or the garden crosses it, and read every easement in the title commitment before closing day, not after. ^‡‡

The water itself moves. The 2007 master plan says the Corps plans for an ordinary swing of about eight feet, from summer pool at 490 feet above sea level down to 482, and that a heavy storm has been known to raise the lake more than 15 to 20 feet. Below Percy Priest Dam, the Stones River and its bottom land, Clover Bottom, lie between Hermitage and Donelson, and a river below a dam answers partly to what the dam lets out: during the May 2010 flood, the Weather Service and the Corps conferred about releases from area dams at least 17 times in three days. Near the lake or the river, look the address up in FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, get an insurance quote before you make the offer, and ask the seller, in writing, what the water has done on that lot. ^‡‡‡‡

On March 3, 2020, the tornado that crossed Nashville kept going. The Weather Service's survey found EF-2 damage to homes and businesses as it turned southeast and passed through Hermitage into Wilson County. A house that stood in its path may have a new roof, new framing or be new from the foundation up, and good work is worth paying for. What you need to know is whether the work was permitted and inspected. Metro's Property Permit History search answers that by address: run it, ask the seller for the repair and insurance records, and tell your inspector which years to look at. ^‡‡

Last, don't trust the envelope. A Hermitage mailing address does not make a Davidson County house: part of the 37076 ZIP lies in Wilson County, and Mt. Juliet's 37122 reaches back into Davidson. The county the parcel sits in decides where the deed is recorded - Deaderick Street in Nashville for Davidson, the Wilson County Register of Deeds on East Main Street in Lebanon for Wilson - which Trustee sends the tax bill, and whether the schools are Metro Nashville's or Wilson County's. Look up the parcel, not the street address, before you sign, and on the Wilson side check the school zone with Wilson County Schools' own lookup. ^{‡‡‡‡‡‡‡} Who pays which closing costs in Tennessee →