Easement issue?? Help!

[maggiethecat]

I got a note from a realtor this morning. I had been looking into Okanogan county properties. This realtor had a property for sale there but he said:

I do have a 20 acre piece.  It does have some easement issues with it, so the buyer would have that issue to deal with.   The neighboring rancher/farmer will not grant access.    However, there are way to get access, courts, etc.

Should I even bother with this property? I'm not even entirely sure what an easement is. All I know is some melon farmer "will not grant access"...

Too bad because that county seems uncomplicated when it comes to getting a building permit.

--maggie

[MikeT]

Google "Easement" and you will get a good explanation from Wikipedia as well as other sources.   If you are the easement holder, you have control over what is stated in that easement.  If you want an easement on someone else's property, the property owner has to grant it or cede control of it.  They can be compelled to do so, I suppose, but I think it is easier to keep these things out of the courts.

Good luck,

mt

[peternap]

An easement is a legal route through someone else's land.

There was a thread in our land forum (which I can't find) that discussed it at length.
See my response in your other thread.

[Sassy]

Benevolance has had to deal with this issue on property in Maine, maybe he could give you some guidance - don't know where they are at in the process, though. 

I was looking at land in Okanagon county - looks likes there's some pretty reasonable places - compared to "Mexifornia" as you lovingly referred to our esteemed state     I lived in the Bellingham area for 12 yrs but that's probably full of permit & building issues & land is pretty expensive there.  Beautiful area but lots of rain...      Winthrop is a cute little town, at least it used to be little when I lived up there - lots of snow in the winter, good hunting if you're into that...  Some friends of mine moved to Leavenworth, also pretty cold in winter, but so would Alaska - they love it - looks like a quaint German mountain town - they are surrounded by mountains.  They'd owned the property for years, though & had been renting out the house to people - last year they had it totally demolished & are having a custom house built -couldn't believe the way they just had everything tore down - not saving a thing - it had a full basement, also.  But both are retired now with good retirement income so, what-the-heck?   

[Willy]

"Winthrop is a cute little town, at least it used to be little when I lived up there - lots of snow in the winter, good hunting if you're into that...  Some friends of mine moved to Leavenworth, also pretty cold in winter, but so would Alaska - they love it - looks like a quaint German mountain town - they are surrounded by mountains."
Sassy both those towns are now priced like California! The town of Okanogan is still cheap outside the city limints a ways. Colliville Reservation is now going up big time. No reason to buy a plce with easment issues here there are lots of places still cheap to buy with out problems. You just need to be 15-20 miles from any town and it is $500.00 to $1,000.00 a acre.  I bought my 13.32 acres for $11,000.00 at the tax auction and that is another way to do it. I could have bough 40 acres for $12,000.00 but did not because I did not like the lay out of the land for fire reasons but it was NICE land with lots of BIG TREES! Mark

[mvk]

In NH there are pepole with easements for wood lots but they can't widen it or up grade enought to get a building permit.

Mike

[Daddymem]

First, some pretty cool looking art there Maggie. 

Second, an easement can be many things.   What you are talking about here is an access easement.  Basically it would be an agreement between the farmer and you that will allow you to access your site.  It will define an actual location tied to the property and what you can do within that area.  If you go that route, get a lawyer on board, there are lots of things you need to consider.  Can you build a driveway?  Can you maintain the driveway?  Can you install utilities in the easement?  Are there time limits to the easement? (some places keep it in perpetuity, some go in as 99 years)  Is the easement transferable to future owners of both parcels?  What mechanism is there to terminate the easement agreement?  A lot of this stuff could be buried in the law books for your location too and won't have to be written into the document-that's why the lawyer, to cover you.  If you go the negotiation route, you'll probably have to pay for the legal work (he might get a lawyer too) and pony up some dough for the "privilege" of using his land. 

These are words from an engineer who deals with easements a lot and unfortunately has had to tell clients that their old easement wasn't as thorough as they thought it was so they cannot go ahead as planned and have to go renegotiate from a weak position. Otherwise known as fork over some big bucks to get a new easement.

[Willy]

WOW I just did some checking on prices around here since I was not looking. Only land way out(30+ miles from a small town) is still sorta cheap! In fact by what I was seeing I should raise my price on my cabin 50% to keep up with the Jones. If I want to build another one next year I hope they have some at the Tax Auction or maybe buy in the dead of winter when no one else is? My own place was $39,500.00 for 40 acres 13 years ago but now I could get $375,000.00+ for it with the buildings I built. I sure don't know how a young couple could even afford to own there chunk of the rock nowdays unless they both have real good jobs ect! Mark

[peternap]

That's why I try to never pass up a deal Mark. I expect values will drop by at least a third and possibly in half before this mess is over. Real estate was WAY over valued.

I got an email today from someone I'd talked to about two pieces he owned. He was adament he could get his price. Today he has his hat in his hand and needs money. We'll see how bad he needs it.

[Willy]

That's why I try to never pass up a deal Mark. I expect values will drop by at least a third and possibly in half before this mess is over. Real estate was WAY over valued.

I got an email today from someone I'd talked to about two pieces he owned. He was adament he could get his price. Today he has his hat in his hand and needs money. We'll see how bad he needs it.

When winter sets in around here everyone stays inside near the wood stove. I will need to buy another chunk around November-December when money is tight and no one is buying. They are asking for 1.5 million for raw land 20+ miles from my cabin and it is a joke. Maybe they figure that if it cost that much someone will buy it thinking it is special and they can tell there freinds how much they paid??? There is a new under ground Gold Mine about 10 miles from my cabin. They need 250 people to work it for the next 12 years or so. With the price of fuel workers will be paying $400.00-$600.00 a month to drive there just to work! I figure my cabin is only 3.5 miles from the road leading to the mine and man would they save some money on gas this way. The are hiring employies on June 10th and I allready sent my listing to the company since there looking for homes to house the workers now. No way is ther enought places to house them all!@ Mark

[ScottA]

I would not buy land without access. If you could negotiate the access before you buy that would be ok. You might talk to the farmer and offer to trade him part of the 20 acres in exchange for a good easment. Price of the land would need to be pretty cheap though.

[maggiethecat]

Thanks to all who replied and also thanks for the nice words about my art

I still haven't heard back from the realtor, I'm afraid he might not have answers to my questions yet  We're not buying any land that we can't legally access. If  we could afford a lawyer we wouldn't need to finance land! 

--maggie

[Daddymem]

Lawyers can surprise you sometimes.  We paid $25 for advice on getting our variance...that's it!  If you buy and need an easement, the extra costs for the protection is well spent, just be sure it is a local, reputable guy.  Another idea is to go to wherever deeds are kept in your area and look for easements already done up for other place and see if you can figure it out yourself, it isn't that hard, just a new language.  You could write it up yourself and ask for a consult on it for cheap.

[considerations]

I'm the next to last person on this dirt road.  The last person has an access easement along the northern boundary of my property.  It is written into the language of the deed, so it is actually on the property ownership document.  I'm in Washington state.

[rwanders]

Just to add my voice to the chorus-----Long ago I was in land development and sales-----I was sometimes offered land "without legal access" which is what you face without an easement or public access (a road or at least an easement for same which you should be able to find on a plat of the property or through a title search). What you buy without legal access is trouble with a capital "T"!! I would never ever do it----your odds for a happy ending would be better at Las Vegas.

[Willy]

I got a note from a realtor this morning. I had been looking into Okanogan county properties. This realtor had a property for sale there but he said:

I do have a 20 acre piece.  It does have some easement issues with it, so the buyer would have that issue to deal with.   The neighboring rancher/farmer will not grant access.    However, there are way to get access, courts, etc.

Should I even bother with this property? I'm not even entirely sure what an easement is. All I know is some melon farmer "will not grant access"...

Too bad because that county seems uncomplicated when it comes to getting a building permit.

--maggie

Are you looking at a 20 ac peice of property outside of Mallot on the Collville Reservation? If so this land is not far from me and the reason it is going real cheap there is no real road to it and not being accessed by a county road on the indian reservation they can keep you off of it if they want. There are different rules on the indian reservation then on regular white man land. My 40 acres is deeded and has a county road on it or I would never had bought the place even tho it is also on the reservation. Having a county road the Collville Tribe can't stop me from accessing my land but if it was not a county road they could close the reservation and denie access to any one not a tribe member. Mark