I used to think a landlocked parcel was just a negotiation angle — buy it cheap, work out access later, pocket the difference. A buddy of mine talked me into co-buying forty acres off a logging road in Polk County on exactly that logic. Seller swore the neighboring family would sell us an easement, had a handshake history going back thirty years. We closed. That neighbor died six months later, his kids split the estate three ways, and suddenly we were negotiating with three different people who couldn't agree on the time of day. We eventually got access, but it cost us nearly as much as the discount we thought we'd captured.
Landlocked land in Appalachia is not the same animal as landlocked land out West where there are established prescriptive access doctrines with teeth. Down here, courts are slow, neighbors are stubborn, and recorded easements are the only thing that actually holds.
If there's no deeded access in that deed packet before you close, walk away. Anyone here actually win a landlocked gamble long-term?