Thinking about Pie shap new home lot

That's the ideal lot for me, with a large backyard and small front to take care of. Looks good as long as you have sufficient parking.

That is ideal for me, as well. Thin frontage and wide at the back.

These are typically amongst the best lots in a subdivision as far as backyard space
There is usually a significant lot premium cuz of this

Lots of folks buy these lots cuz they intend to put in a pool etc
Cuz it leaves lots of room for it and other stuff / uses too

Out front they tend to exist on either a curve in the street, or on a circle / cul de sac
Cul de sacs are better than circles
And circles are better than curves
When it comes to things like traffic & parking
Snow removal ... a lot depends on WHERE you live
Tends to be ... the bigger the cul de sac or circle ... then the less issues with snow build up / removal

Out back ... these lots can back onto 3 possibilities
Regular shaped lots (ie street behind is straight)
In which case you’ll have more neighbours backing onto you
(not always the best ... Cuz fewer neighbours are more desirable ... more neighbours = more chance of a jerk neighbour)
2nd possibility ... is the street behind also as a similar set up to your street
So the neighbours behind also have pie / odd shaped lots
This tends to be the best scenario
3rd possibility ... the street behind you is a major thoroughfare
Lots of pie lots unfortunately end up in this category
Backing onto a busy road is NEVER a good thing
Not just cuz of the noise
But you literally have no idea what’s gonna happen on that road behind you
5, 10, or 20 years from now.
They could throw up a mini mall, a gas station
Or widen it from 2 lanes to 4 or more

All stuff to think about

PS ... don’t know much about fengshui ... but I thought a lot of that was based on house orientation
Such as which way the front door faces ... N E S W etc

fanbouy wrote: ↑ Hi All i am thinking about Pie shape lot which is narrow in front and wide in back. you can see lot picture in attachment. Can you please give me your opinion about space, resale and fengshui. We really like the lot but very confused. Please help us to take decision.

fengshui master here
the curve is the shape of a scythe and u are on the cutting edge
mr. death will slashy u with his scythe everyday if u live here

/s

fanbouy wrote: ↑ Hi All i am thinking about Pie shape lot which is narrow in front and wide in back. you can see lot picture in attachment. Can you please give me your opinion about space, resale and fengshui. We really like the lot but very confused. Please help us to take decision.

We had a pie-lot in a previous house. Couple things I remember:
1) Great backyard to front yard ratio.
2) No place to shovel the snow. By the end of the winter, we'd have piles 6+ feet high.
3) Limited parking for guests. Wasn't too much of an issue for us, as we had a double car garage, and along enough driveway for 2 sets of 2 vehicles. But you end up with no curbside parking, because your entire curbside area is driveway.

C

Mmm, pie.

Seriously, these shaped lots tend to be desirable because the backyard is so much bigger. What sort of premium is the builder charging?

Is that a 22 foot wide lot?

Live on similar pie lot. Def the best lot setup, in general, Imo.

Good:
Smaller front so don't have to shovel that much snow. Front yard tends to be less private and actually less used than backyard, so it's good to have the land at the back instead. In the backyard, do a big deck, pool, outdoor rink whatever.
Less adjacent neighbours or at less further away and much better privacy at backyard.

Less good
Less potential parking spaces on driveway. Front door look less "grand" depending on except lot and position of the house. Lot more fences you need to build.

Your map doesn't look to be backing to major road so that's good.

I'd def pay premium for it if I had to buy new and could afford it. I rather have smaller house if that's a possible tradeoff to get back-pie lot.

Our last house was a pie, similar in shape, although ours went further out along the back from the left and a shorter angle as it turned to come to the right property line. Ours was on a curve at the end of a crescent, 2nd house in from the main road, 3 houses in a row with pie lots. Ours had the biggest back yard of the 3, but smallest front. The house looked pretty tucked in there from the front, but the yard really spread out. We had an 8x10 shed and an 18 foot round pool in the back right quadrant of the back yard before you even got to the actual back of the house area. One of our neighbours had a bbq out front one time where he invited most of the neighbourhood, so we had a ton of people spread out across the fronts of a few of our houses. One guy over heard someone ask me how warm the pool was. He looks at me and says "how small a pool did you have to put in that yard?", thinking how small it looked from the front. So, we ended up taking him for a look and half the people tagged along lol. He was shocked to see our backyard was about 3 times the size of his lol.

As others have said, snow can be an issue. Our driveway was 16 foot wide and easily held 4 cars. As I said, the 3 of us had pie lots, and there wasn't much space between our driveways at the road. Us and house number 1 the driveways were barely a foot part at the curb, and the other side, maybe 3 feet. Number 1 had an ATV with a plow and when the snow got bad, he pushed all the end piles over to his front yard. Typically, I shoveled my driveway from the garage down to about half way and pushed it onto my front yard, and then went to the curb and pushed it up the driveway to near the same spot. Not very much grass to cut, especially after my wife did up her flower beds.

fanbouy wrote: ↑ Hi All i am thinking about Pie shape lot which is narrow in front and wide in back. you can see lot picture in attachment. Can you please give me your opinion about space, resale and fengshui. We really like the lot but very confused. Please help us to take decision.

Don't even hesitate. Buy the biggest and best located lot you can buy. A larger lot will help towards increasing the value of your house.

FYI, the larger the lot size

the higher the property taxes as well, compared to your neighbours

Atleast thats the case in ontario

Pie lots that open wide in the back are the perfect lot IMO.

ssj4_ootaku1 wrote: ↑ FYI, the larger the lot size

the higher the property taxes as well, compared to your neighbours

Atleast thats the case in ontario

Property tax is based on the value of the lot and home. A bigger/better lot , just like a bigger / better home will increase your tax. If you want to pay less tax then buy a smaller house on a smaller lot.

A bigger lot: you can do a food forest and grow all of your own fruits/veg in the mild/ hotter months.

I'm no fengshui expert, but when I was shopping for my last house, my realtor talked lots about fengshui (don't even know if he was an expert). But he cautioned us from lots that are located in on the outside sweep of a corner (like drawn in your picture). He told us it was bad fengshui for your front door to face upwards to a street. Please don't ask me anything about this, I don't understand the rules (but I do kind of believe in it...some houses just "feel" right).

More practically, he told us that when you are on the outside of a corner like that, every car that drives down the street and turns that corner will shine its lights right through your windows. Every single time. This would drive me crazy, to be honest, especially on a busy street.

My favourite lots are mid-block (e.g. some distance from corners and "non-house" stuff (stores, parks, parking lots, apartments, etc.). Drove my wife crazy when house hunting, lol.

dottawat wrote: ↑ I'm no fengshui expert, but when I was shopping for my last house, my realtor talked lots about fengshui (don't even know if he was an expert). But he cautioned us from lots that are located in on the outside sweep of a corner (like drawn in your picture). He told us it was bad fengshui for your front door to face upwards to a street. Please don't ask me anything about this, I don't understand the rules (but I do kind of believe in it...some houses just "feel" right).

More practically, he told us that when you are on the outside of a corner like that, every car that drives down the street and turns that corner will shine its lights right through your windows. Every single time. This would drive me crazy, to be honest, especially on a busy street.

My favourite lots are mid-block (e.g. some distance from corners and "non-house" stuff (stores, parks, parking lots, apartments, etc.). Drove my wife crazy when house hunting, lol.

Not really fengahui but certainly can be a concern if facing directly to incoming traffic. It'll depend on specific lot and house positioning, but generally I find houses on corner would be ok as following the curve of the corner kinda avoided that situation.

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ We had a pie-lot in a previous house. Couple things I remember:
1) Great backyard to front yard ratio.
2) No place to shovel the snow. By the end of the winter, we'd have piles 6+ feet high.
3) Limited parking for guests. Wasn't too much of an issue for us, as we had a double car garage, and along enough driveway for 2 sets of 2 vehicles. But you end up with no curbside parking, because your entire curbside area is driveway.

C

I agree with B: No place to shovel the snow. By the end of the winter, we'd have piles 6+ feet high. This is a challenge I face, also no where to put recycle bins or blue boxes or compost bins or put large items for trash collection like mattress, bed frames, ect they will go on your driveway in the winter

Another thing, if you have a big backyard pie shaped, cutting the grass will be a pain in the you know what, I fill up on average 3 bags of grass clippings and misc yard waste like twigs, leafs, branches, weeds, etc. lots of time consuming work
If you have any kind of storm and the fences get damaged or breaks for falls down, be prepared for a big repair bill compared to your neighbours with a smaller more regular sized backyard. i had 3 sections of fence break, and the repair bill was $24,000 so unless you go thru insurance, and even if u go thru insurance they only cover your portion, the neighbours may not agree to fix it so your on the hook for the neighbours cost.
weeds, more grass means more weeds, lots of cleanup involved, time consuming, and lastly
property tax. your property tax is NOT on the size of your house its the size of your lot, bigger backyard means bigger lot means more tax compared to your neighbours, so u better use that space really good, cus your paying for it

GoodFellaz wrote: ↑ I agree with B: No place to shovel the snow. By the end of the winter, we'd have piles 6+ feet high. This is a challenge I face, also no where to put recycle bins or blue boxes or compost bins or put large items for trash collection like mattress, bed frames, ect they will go on your driveway in the winter

Another thing, if you have a big backyard pie shaped, cutting the grass will be a pain in the you know what, I fill up on average 3 bags of grass clippings and misc yard waste like twigs, leafs, branches, weeds, etc. lots of time consuming work
If you have any kind of storm and the fences get damaged or breaks for falls down, be prepared for a big repair bill compared to your neighbours with a smaller more regular sized backyard. i had 3 sections of fence break, and the repair bill was $24,000 so unless you go thru insurance, and even if u go thru insurance they only cover your portion, the neighbours may not agree to fix it so your on the hook for the neighbours cost.
weeds, more grass means more weeds, lots of cleanup involved, time consuming, and lastly
property tax. your property tax is NOT on the size of your house its the size of your lot, bigger backyard means bigger lot means more tax compared to your neighbours, so u better use that space really good, cus your paying for it

The value of a big pie lot isn’t just necessarily using that extra space, It’s also the added privacy and space with your neighbors vs having houses so close together. Even when you’re inside the house this is a benefit IMO.

More maintenance and bigger fence is a fair point but you can always pay someone to cut your grass. Ultimately a big lot is a luxury, and you may not feel is worth the premium. But It’s like saying you don’t want a big house because it’s more maintenance to clean , and costs more to heat, etc.