The most common land-buyer heartbreak in the Wasatch Back goes like this: the road is right there, you drove it, it is gravel and gates and perfectly usable, and then it turns out nobody recorded an easement giving the property legal access. A road on a map is not a right. Access has to be written down, recorded, and tied to the parcel.
Recorded access
Verify a recorded access easement in the title, not a handshake with the neighbor. Long-used tracks can become prescriptive easements, but proving one in court is expensive and slow.
If the only access crosses someone else's land, we want the easement on paper before we are at the closing table.
Mineral rights and other severed interests
In Utah, mineral rights can be severed from the surface, and the mineral owner may hold the right to access the land. Water rights are legally separate from the dirt too.
The title work tells us who holds what, and we read it before you pay.
Encroachments
Fences, driveways, and structures that cross property lines are common on ranch ground. Most are friendly; all of them should be understood.
A survey and a careful title review sort the friendly ones from the expensive ones.
Access and title are the quiet parts of a land deal, and they are where the money hides. We pull title, read the easements, and walk the lines before you commit.
Belladonna Bayless
Associate Broker · Land & Ranch
