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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 | JUNE 2021
Understanding Easements, Rights-of-Way and Their Effect on You and Your Property Value written by RIKI MARKOWITZ An easement is the legal right of another person or entity to use part of your property. Without understanding what an easement is and how it affects homeowners, it can sound worse than it really is. But for some homebuyers, receiving a survey report that reveals a previously unknown easement can have disastrous implications.
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Most properties in Central Texas — and around the country, for that matter — have some type of easement. Whether it’s a legal agreement granting a utility company permission to erect power lines above ground or sewer lines underneath, without these arrangements, homeowners everywhere, from cities to suburbs and rural dwellers alike wouldn’t easily have access to power, telephone landlines, clean water, gas, cable, wifi and many other mainstays of modern life. The reason why it’s important for real estate professionals to know what easements are and how the agreements work is because it’s just one more part of the pre-closing process that many prospective homebuyers in and around Austin are relinquishing in their effort to outbid the competition. Susan Horton, 2021 president of the Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR), worries for agents and their clients right now. “In this hot market, buyers are waiving everything. They’re waiving their right to cancel because of an appraisal, they’re waiving it because of a survey, they’re waiving the opportunity to get the home inspected,” she says. Another downside to buyers of giving up pre-closing rights so that they can secure the purchase of a property in Austin is finding out about easements after it’s too late.
ers from using their property the way they want to, making it one of the most critical rights homebuyers are forfeiting, says Horton. If a buyer yields his or her right to an inspection, she or he might find out the house needs a new roof or new plumbing. That can cost a lot of money. But if there’s a drainage easement behind the house, it can prevent the new owners from putting an underground pool in their yard. If a property has a livestock restriction and that’s the sole reason a buyer chose that property, there’s no easy path for backing out of the transaction. Horton has experience with restrictive easements. But that was a long time ago before buy-
Certain types of easements can prevent own-
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