I used to think buying two adjacent irrigated parcels from the same seller was straightforward — same seller, same ditch, same water source. What I didn't understand until it was nearly too late is that each parcel can carry water rights with completely different priority dates, and in a dry year, that gap is everything.
The parcel I bought first had rights adjudicated in 1891. The second parcel I added three years later? 1956. Looked fine on paper until a serious drought hit and the 1956 rights got called out entirely while my neighbor's junior rights — decreed just two years earlier than mine on that second parcel — somehow had better delivery infrastructure tied to a different lateral.
I had no idea those two parcels would perform so differently under the same dry conditions. The due diligence I did on the second parcel was essentially worthless because I didn't trace how that specific priority date had actually performed historically during shortage years.
Anyone else discover after purchase that adjacent parcels under the same seller behaved like completely separate water worlds during drought?