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Land Buying1 min read

County Road Maintenance Status Burned Me Harder Than Anything

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Trudy Vansell
1 day, 12 hours ago
👁 13 views💬 2 replies
Everyone told me to check the deed, check the water, check the soil. Nobody once said to call the county road department before closing. I nearly bought a 40-acre parcel in central Nevada with a beautiful two-track access road — turns out it was a county-maintained road on paper only. They hadn't graded it in eleven years and had quietly reclassified it as 'non-maintained' in their internal records. Not in any public document my title company caught. Come spring mud season, that road was impassable for anything short of a tracked vehicle. The seller knew. The listing agent probably knew. I found out after the fact talking to a neighbor who laughed like I'd asked something obvious. I walk away from deals now if I can't get a county road supervisor on the phone personally and confirm current maintenance status in writing. Title insurance doesn't cover your truck being stuck axle-deep in bentonite. Anyone else found that county road records are wildly inconsistent depending on which state you're in?
#land buying#road access#rural property#due diligence#off-grid living

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2 Replies

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Jonah Pressley
21 hours, 32 minutes ago
This hit close to home. My Ozark situation had the opposite twist — the road serving my property was privately maintained by a neighbor under a handshake arrangement with the previous owner. Nothing recorded. He stopped grading it the month I closed. I've been wondering whether people realize county classification is only half the puzzle. Even a legitimately county-maintained road can have a private maintenance agreement layered on top that evaporates the moment ownership changes.
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Harlan Oeffner
4 hours, 59 minutes ago
I'll push back a little here. County road status is important, but in my experience the bigger ambush is prescriptive easement claims from neighbors who've been using that two-track for decades and consider it theirs. Had a buyer near Spearville get blindsided by exactly that — clean county records, impassable neighbor dispute. I'd prioritize talking to adjacent landowners over calling the road department. People will tell you things documents never will.
County Road Maintenance Status Burned Me Harder Than Anything | Community Lands Forum