1. Boundaries lines.
Do the boundaries of the seller’s property on the ground follow the boundaries as described in the seller’s deed? They should. A surveyor can plot the deed’s boundary description on a topographical map, which will help you determine in a general sense whether the deed matches the ground reality. If the description does not match what you find on the ground, hire a surveyor to figure out what’s wrong.

2. Physical and legal access
Does the seller have legal and physical access to the property he’s selling? If the seller’s property has frontage on a state-maintained public road, the seller should have direct access. If the seller’s property does not have direct access to a state-maintained public road, the buyer must make sure that the seller is conveying a legal and physical right to cross the property of another(s) to get to that state-maintained road.

I’ve faced a situation where the legal access to a seller’s property was not the physical road that the seller used. The legal right of way (ROW) should be identical with the physical access road, otherwise problems will arise. The right of way in the form of an easement should be sufficiently wide to suit the buyer’s purposes. A 12-foot-wide ROW is wide enough for pick-up trucks, but not wide enough for snow plowing and log skidding.

If the seller’s property is accessed by a road that connects the property to a public road, make sure the seller has a recorded document establishing the right to use this road. Make sure this right-of-way easement imposes no restrictions—such as width, traffic weight, types of use—that would limit your intended use of the property.

If you are buying undeveloped property that borders a public road, make sure that there is enough sight distance on either side of your proposed entrance to allow you to get a new-entrance permit from the state or county road office. Read more »

No buffalo roamed on Hawthorne Street in Pittsburgh where I grew up. Punching a time clock was more in my future than punching a cow.

Chuck Wagon was the name we called a too-big kid over on the next block. Today, we might call him Salad Bar, but that really doesn’t convey the intended schoolyard meanness of the original.

I was not, like President Bush, born with a silver burr under my saddle.

Nonetheless, for the majority of my adult life, I’ve grazed beef cattle -- about 1,500 altogether -- on a Virginia mountain farm.

So how did that happen?

Twenty-five years ago I bought a country place that had fenced pasture. I was pretty sure that something in addition to mortgage debt went in there.

Almost half of America’s two million farms run cattle, about 100 million head in recent years. It is America’s largest agricultural sector and provides us with about 28 billion pounds of meat at an average of $4.16 per pound in 2007.

If you buy open land in the country and certainly a farm, you’re likely to discover your inner cowperson even if you didn’t realize you were looking for it.

Every greenhorn buyer should know a few things about the cattle business.
Read more »