What are the real-estate tax policies of Senators McCain and Obama?

I’m not sure reliable answers are available. Campaign promises are preferences, not contractual obligations. Circumstances — the economy, control of Congress, competing demands — will shape what either wants to do as President as well as what is feasible. But mostly neither has said.

On fiscal policy, they share some positions. Both appear to like balanced budgets, pay as you go and deficit reduction, but both have proposed policy packages that would increase the national debt—McCain more than Obama. Read more »

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or qualified conservation organization that restricts specific uses or development on the land. This is a landowner’s way to protect the land for now and in the future. One of the significant benefits of a conservation easement is the protection of wildlife habitats, natural lands, and resources for generations to come.

The seller of a conservation easement is a landowner who desired to restrict development or land use through this option, but still holds on to ownership of the land. Read more »

Easements are commonly found in real estate. In general terms, an easement is an arrangement whereby a non-owner of a property has the legal right either to use that property or limit its use in some specified, special way.

The non-owner who holds the easement can be another parcel of land, public agency, utility, individual, business entity or a non-profit organization like a land trust.

A positive or affirmative easement would allow me to use a stream on my neighbor’s property for watering my livestock at a certain spot. A negative or restrictive easement held by my neighbor would prevent me from erecting a line of wind turbines that would ruin his view. Read more »

Four types of easements are not agreed to: easement by necessity, easement by implication, easement by prescription and easement by condemnation.

1. An easement by necessity prevents certain properties from being landlocked, that is, cut off from a public road. If I were to sell 50 acres at the back of my 100-acre tract and provided no access easement to the buyer, he could get a court to grant him an access easement for a road over me by necessity so that he could reach his 50 acres. The buyer in this example should be aware that the court may not award him the location for a right of way that he wants. Easement by necessity may also be used to gain access to a water source in certain circumstances. Read more »