Vacant and rural land: access, easements, mineral reservations and restrictions
Before you buy vacant or rural land, one report shows whether the parcel has recorded legal access, which easements cross it, whether minerals were reserved in an earlier deed, what recorded restrictions limit its use, and whether the legal description matches the plat and prior deeds, verified with the county and explained in plain English.
A listing says the parcel has road frontage. The record may say otherwise: the road is private, the frontage is a platted but unopened street, or the only drive crosses a neighbor's land with nothing recorded to allow it. Land without recorded legal access is hard to build on, hard to finance and hard to sell.
Easements and reservations shape what you can do with the land. A pipeline or transmission easement through the middle of a parcel, a recorded covenant against mobile homes or further division, or a mineral reservation in a deed from decades ago each sits in the chain of title, not on the survey stake or the tax card.
Rural legal descriptions drift. A metes and bounds call copied wrong in one deed, an acreage that changed between conveyances, or a parcel the assessor shows as one piece and the recorder shows as two can turn into a boundary dispute with the neighbor who has farmed the strip for years.
The seller says the neighbor has always allowed it. We report every recorded easement, right of way and road dedication that touches the parcel or the neighbor's, with the images. If nothing recorded grants access, the report says so plainly, so you can raise it with the seller and your attorney before the contingency period ends.
A reservation three or four deeds back may still be in force and may have been sold on separately. We quote the reserving language word for word, attach the deed image and report any later conveyance of the mineral estate found in the index. What the reservation allows on the surface depends on its wording and on state law.
We lay the current legal description beside the recorded plat, the prior deeds and the assessor's parcel map and note each difference: a call that changed, an exception parcel that dropped out, acreage that grew or shrank between conveyances. The report tells your surveyor where the paper disagrees.
Each parcel is researched to the same depth and reported side by side, with any apparent gap or overlap between the recorded legal descriptions flagged. The first parcel is $995 and each additional parcel in the same order is $495.
The report shows every recorded instrument that grants or dedicates access to the parcel, and states plainly when none was found in the county record. Whether the parcel has legal access is a legal conclusion that depends on those instruments and on state law, which varies. The report gives you and your attorney the recorded documents that conclusion rests on.
A mineral reservation is language in a deed by which a seller kept the oil, gas or other minerals under the land when the surface was sold. The report reads every deed in the chain for reserving language, quotes it word for word with the deed image, and reports later recorded conveyances of the mineral estate found in the county index.
No. The report is title research. It compares the recorded legal description against the plat, the prior deeds and the assessor's parcel and notes every discrepancy in the paper record, but it does not locate corners or lines on the ground. A surveyor does that, and the report tells the surveyor where the recorded descriptions disagree.
Recorded covenants, deed restrictions, plat notes, subdivision declarations and use limitations found in the chain of title or on the recorded plat, each quoted from the instrument with its recording reference. If a restriction appears to bear on the use you describe in your order notes, the plain-language summary says so and points to the instrument.
The county and state, and the parcel number, the address if the land has one, or the current owner's name from the listing or the tax card. Tell us what you intend to do with the land and your deadline in the order fields.
The builders and developers package is $995 for the first parcel and $495 for each additional parcel in the same order, with a custom quote by email for more than five parcels. Turnaround is 1 to 3+ days, depending on the county and the complexity of the records. If your deadline cannot be met, we tell you in writing before work begins.
No. Every order is confidential. The seller, the listing agent, the neighbors and anyone else connected to the land are never contacted or notified, and your identity as the buyer is never disclosed. The report is delivered only to your email address.
Describe your situation in a few sentences. We reply in writing with the package that fits, or tell you if none does.