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Health & Fitness

Buying a home? What about Easements?

If you are a home buyer, particularly a first-time home buyer, whether you are buying any of the homes for sale in Framingham MA or anywhere else, it is possible that you may run into a situation where an easement is recorded on the property you are considering buying.  As the prospective home buyer you would want to know what effect an easement will have on the property.  As the home seller you are concerned about the effect an easement might have on property value and potential sales. In this installment of the Home Buyer Education 101 series we will look at easements and what they mean to you.

What is an easement?

An easement provides individuals the legal right of use or passage through another’s property owner’s land for a specific purpose.  There are several types of easements that can be attached to a property including Grant, Express Reservation, Implication, Prescription and Necessity Easements. As a home buyer it would be beneficial to ask the seller or seller’s real estate agent if the home for sale in Framingham MA contains an easement.  Easements are usually contained in a deed, but not always.

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What are the benefits?

Let’s say you are looking at a home for sale in Framingham MA, which has a Beneficial Easement, allowing you the ability to cross your neighbor’s property to access a public pond, river or lake. This easement could have a positive effect on your property value depending on the conditions of the easement and why it was granted.

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Are there any concerns?

If the home for sale in Framingham MA has a Prescriptive Easement, allowing others to pass through the property, you have to consider how this will affect your privacy, any future building expansion and property value. The most common type of Prescriptive Easement, allows utility companies and agencies to access your property to repair any electrical, gas or water lines, which may run through the property, and although potentially intrusive you may rarely see any activity. On the other hand for example, let’s say the home you are looking at buying was once part of a larger tract of land that is now subdivided. The subdivision could have created a property lot behind the perspective home that is essentially land locked without access to a public street or road. Initially you may think of it as vacant land and later after closing on your new home find out a “Paper Road” exists which may allow the landowner behind you access through your property.

It highly recommended that a homebuyer ask the seller or seller’s agent about easements which maybe related to the property. Its also very important to consult a Real Estate attorney regarding easements or any other questions you may have before making an offer on any homes for sale Framingham MA or other townships.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Roger Martin is a Massachusetts Realtor with Century 21 Commonwealth.  Roger is a unique blend of both Realtor and licensed General Contractor with over 20 years of experience building Custom Homes , Renovation and Design.  Serving the Ashland, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Concord, Dover, Framingham, Lexington, Marlborough, Natick, Needham, Newton, Sherborn, Sudbury, Wayland, Wellesley, Westborough, Weston and surrounding areas.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions for future articles or have interested buying or selling a home, please feel free to contact Roger at (p) 1.508.598.1934 ; (email) roger@realestateinmassachusetts.org or (blog) www.realestateinmassachusetts.org

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