I have 55 acres of land, mostly wooded. Should I be worried about Adverse Possession or Tacking or Easement by Prescription, if I have several relatives who have deer / dove hunted in the back acreage for over 20 years? And, has used my dirt road by my house, to get back there. (One of the relatives has an adjacent property) Just started real estate classes, and I learned the mnemonic OCEAN. They must have used the property Openly, Continuously, Exclusively, Adversely, Notoriously. However, I acquired the property around 2005 - 2007. Does the 20 years start over with me, a new owner of the land? How would you suggest I handle things? Should I post my property with lots of POSTED no hunting signs and tell them to take their deer stands down? Or, should I give them permission in writing, just for this year, to take care of the Notorious portion of OCEAN? Also, I am considering selling my land to buy rental properties. Is this a good idea?
Greensboro, NC · Member since 2016 · 45 posts · 20 votes
9y
I would consult with a real estate lawyer. You could execute a hunting land lease to protect your property rights, but there is also liability if folks are climbing into trees with guns. And unless the land is ripe for you to develop, it would be a good source of cash for other investments!
Lender · Greater LA/Orange County area, CA · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
9y
No.
You have (presumably) paid the taxes and allowed your relatives as your guests to be on the property for purposes you agreed are voluntary and can be revoked at any time.
Thank you, Rick! Do you have an opinion on whether I should keep my land, hold on to it, or sell to a developer and buy rental houses, etc. for cash flow. Or, sell to have cash for other investments?
Engineer · Aberdeen, NC · Member since 2016 · 16 posts · 6 votes
9y
Annette - You seem pretty familiar with the general aspects of adverse possession and similar legal issues. I doubt you have a problem, but I don't know the specifics, so I second Tyler Hall's suggestion to speak with a real estate attorney. If you need recommendations for a real estate attorney in your area (one very good one in particular), let me know. If you need your land surveyed (boundaries marked), I can recommend good land surveyors local to you as well. As far as whether to hold/sell/etc your land, I suggest running the numbers for specific cases and comparing the options. I haven't used the investment calculator tools here on BiggerPockets, but apparently those are pretty good. I prefer generating my own analyses using spreadsheets - for all sorts of stuff - and recommend doing that if you can and are comfortable doing so. Speaking with a CPA and attorney with real estate expertise before committing to anything would be a good idea. Good luck!