Land question, suggestions, warnings, comments

I always try to seek counsel before doing something major, or something that could have major repercussions in my life. So here I am again checking in with the community at CPF for thoughts, caveats and ideas.

5 or 6 years ago there was a registered survey done that moved a near-by (defining) section corner (SW) on our land. It moved ~120 to the west. We own(ed) the land that our road ran on. The road runs ¾ of a mile to our north on a strip 66' wide. With the 'new' survey, our ~33 wide road (and drainage) starts running off 'our property' at about 3/8th of a mile back. The road remained where it is but the property lines skewed-to put it 'simply'. Anyhow we have been fine with our neighbor and he with us using each others land to get to where we need to go. We offered to buy his land, about 1.33 acres to put the road back on our land. That never materialized. Now he wants to sell some of his land and wants us to give him an easement to get to it. In exchange he'll sell us the other part of the road so we can use it free and clear. There are all sorts of possibilities here, however we are both short of cash. I don't want to go to court to push for any rights I might feel I have. And as a Christian I want to present a good witness to my (literal) neighbor. My thought is to exchange easements, he'd rather I bought the land and gave him an easement. So any input?
BTW less you think He's worried about money and he has all that land!?! We own ~126 acres that we bought for about $40k, 13 years ago, now it is worth about $100k, with our house. Property taxes are less than $120 a year We might be thought of as land poor .

I am at the end of a very long weekend, with much good as well as many emotions. So forgive my short, incomplete explanation. Please ask for clarification where needed. I'll be back briefly in the AM--TIA

So let's see if I have this right: he owns part of the road to your place, you own the access to the land he wants to sell. He wants to sell you the road you need, but want's the free easment for the land he's selling. That doesn't seem right to me. He's getting the money from the sale of the land and also money from you for the road and you're expected to give up some of your property for free so that he can make the sale? It seems to me your idea of trading easements is the fair answer. That being said, personally I would rather buy the land I need instead of having to rely on trying to enforce an easment. If you own it, you control it. You should work out an actual changing of ownership of the appropriate parcels of land. The only way cash should flow one direction or the other would be if there is a significant difference in the size and/or value of property involved.

DonShock said:

So let's see if I have this right............ The only way cash should flow one direction or the other would be if there is a significant difference in the size and/or value of property involved.

Click to expand...

He doesn't live on this land, I live at the far end of the road. So it does have more value to me than to him. Though he can't sell his land w/o getting the person an easement and I may be able to continue using the road as it was established before my land moved.

My best advice is to consult a good real estate attorney. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to protect yourself against liability among other issues, with a well-written, legally-binding document that is recorded. Especially important since it seems that you're about to (or likely at some point in the future) get new neighbors (who could turn out to be a nightmare).

Just an uninformed opinion...

Here in MS if you have someone else's land behind YOUR fence you can claim the land as yours after a period of time. They can't dispute it during this time, but after some decent amount of time, 10 years? maybe, it is yours. All you have to do is file some paperwork.

But also, you can't deny access to someone who is landlocked.

They have access by another route, just no existing road the other way. In MN it is 15 years to have any type of "adverse possesion". And yes whatever we do we'll have a lawyer review or create it
Thanks!

Do you know a realtor in your area? Might have input for less than a lawyer. (But let the lawyer do the paperwork.) I like the idea of talking to someone current and experienced about relative values in your area. Unless you understand the values it will be hard to do something fair, or to even know you're not getting ripped off, and my experience is real estate values are very local.

If you know someone, you might be able to pick their brains over dinner and understand the local tradeoffs. (Better than any of us will be able to help over the Internet.)

(My wife's friend's husband is a realtor and he knows they will get a dinner whenever we have a "great idea" to explore. We don't do that often and he's quite happy to help occasionally.)