From the desk:Land Banking (Buy and Hold)

Title commitment shows no recorded access on the parcel I am 12 days from closing

18 acres, $71,000, exurban county, my first land purchase and I have been slow on purpose. Contract has a title contingency with 14 days left on it.

The commitment came back and Schedule B lists the usual utility easements, an old right of way for a pipeline along the south line, and nothing at all granting access from the county road. The parcel touches the road for zero feet. The way everyone gets in is a dirt track across the neighbor's pasture that the seller says has been used since the 1970s. There is no recorded easement for it. The seller's position is that it has been used forever so it is fine.

What I have: a plat from 1978 showing the track drawn in as a dashed line with no label. A tax map that shows the parcel as landlocked. A neighbor who told me on the phone that he does not mind people crossing but he is 71 and his kids want to sell.

What I do not have: any idea what an unrecorded historical use is actually worth in this state. I understand prescriptive and implied easement claims exist and that they vary enormously by state and are decided case by case, so I am not treating it as settled.

My options as I see them: ask the seller to buy a recorded easement from the neighbor before closing and pay for it, buy title insurance with the access exception carved out and hope, or walk and lose about $900 in survey and commitment costs.

The part I keep going back and forth on is that if I make access a condition, the seller may just relist. It has been on market 400 days, so maybe he does not. Or maybe he does and I have learned an expensive $900 lesson about which parcels to look at at all.

Answer

1nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

Do not close on the exception. A land banking parcel makes its money the day you sell it, and the buyer at the far end will run the same title work you just ran and find the same hole. You would be buying a discount you cannot pass on.

The cheapest version of what you want is the seller paying the neighbor for a recorded, appurtenant easement with a described width and a maintenance clause, signed and recorded before or at closing. Appurtenant means it runs with the land instead of with you personally, which matters because you are planning to hand it to someone else in ten years. Recording practice and what makes an easement enforceable differ by state, so that document needs a real estate attorney licensed where the land is, not a form off the internet.

The 71 year old neighbor is the actual clock here. His kids selling is exactly the event that turns a friendly handshake into a lawsuit, and it is likely to happen inside your hold period. That is the argument to make to your seller, and it is also the argument that gets the neighbor to sign now while he still has a reason to be agreeable. Sometimes it costs a few thousand dollars. Sometimes the neighbor names a number that tells you the parcel is not worth buying.

On the 400 days, that is your leverage in the ordinary sense of the word. A landlocked parcel that has sat over a year has sat for a reason, and the reason is on your Schedule B. Losing $900 is a fine outcome compared to owning a parcel you can only sell to the neighbor.

Title commitment shows no recorded access on the parcel I am 12 days from closing

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