Real talk from real landowners. Ask questions, share stories, learn from people who've been there.
I changed my mind on this after buying a parcel years ago where the paper water rights looked solid — senior priority, decent acre-feet, everything you'd want. What I didn't investigate hard enough wa...
I've watched buyers get fixated on acreage, soil type, even fencing condition, while completely ignoring the one document that determines whether a farm actually functions: the water decree. Not just ...
I used to think solar access easements were for homesteaders with fancy off-grid setups who wanted legal protection for their hobby. Changed my mind completely after watching a buddy buy a promising 4...
I bought 38 acres in Letcher County thinking the standing hardwoods were mine to steward. What I missed was a reserved timber rights clause buried four deeds back in the chain of title. Previous owner...
I used to think any decreed water right was good enough when buying irrigated land. I changed my mind the hard way watching neighbors with 1960s priority dates get completely shut off while I kept irr...
I spent eight months eyeing a 40-acre parcel along a tributary of the Madison drainage. The price was right, the creek was loaded with cutthroats, and I had a building site mentally picked out before ...
Everyone told me to just get the perc test done and I'd know if I could build. So I did, it passed, and I bought the land feeling confident. What nobody explained was that passing a perc test and gett...
I see buyers obsess over deed restrictions and HOA covenants while completely ignoring groundwater conservation district regulations — and it's a serious mistake, especially in Texas. When I expanded...
I learned this the hard way watching my uncle lose riding access to a back forty he'd had a handshake agreement on for eleven years. Landowner passed away, heirs didn't honor a word of it, and that wa...
I used to think buying land with a creek running through it in spring meant you had reliable water year-round. Dead wrong. I purchased a 40-acre parcel in the Bitterroot Valley back in 2014 based on a...
I spent two years telling people to just focus on surface rights when buying small rural parcels. Minerals are someone else's problem, I figured. Then I helped a friend evaluate a 40-acre piece in sou...
I bought a 40-acre bottom parcel in the Missouri Ozarks eight years ago and felt confident because FEMA's flood zone maps showed most of it outside the 100-year boundary. What those maps didn't captur...