This is pretty common in many parts of California. Depends on when you bought your land, OP. If it was a long time ago then it might have been buildable but not anymore. If you bought it only recently then it should have been disclosed to you. Besides, $20000 is an OK price for a piece of land which you cannot build on. The same price for a piece of land that you can build a house on is outrageously low. Are you out of state? Why didn't the price itself alert you?

Can I sell you a bridge with that?

Dude id be so pised. If i were you id tell that dam'd realtor and tell him to shuv that land up his a$$ one shouvle full att'a time

Build an amusement park Buy out the city's businesses after you get ric h for not giving you a building permit ??????? Profit $$$$$

if you had a lawyer look over the contract before you signed it , you could of saved yourself from wasting $20,000 . YDI

OP, is this your first land purchase? Did you do the checks? Apparently you didn't have the best knowledge before purchase. Expensive lesson, but if that is what it takes, well good luck in the future...

There is such a thing as "fiduciary responsibility". It is that realtor's responsibility to disclose everything about that property that would be relevant about it, such as was anyone killed or died on that property. Even if The realtor didn't know about it, he should have taken the time to research the property prior to selling you the property. You may be able to take him to court to recover your money.

Hire a lawyer and sue that bastard for 10 times the value of the empty lot for selling you restricted land.

See if you can apply for a variance.

Thats why normally the lawyer does the due diligence...