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Archive for the ‘Land Ownership’ Category

For about a week Rob and I had been discussing the ranch. Out of reach during the week’s storms, we could only wait for a break in the weather and a couple days of drying before heading out to determine damage. In the meantime, we decided it was time to purchase a new ranch vehicle. [...]

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Accessing property via a road that has no deeded rights is common. In the hills around Livermore, very few of the landowners have right-of-ways that have been validated by an official grant of easement. On the other hand, very few of these access roads are disputed. The land seldom changes hands, so the owners are [...]

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There’s a war going on. It’s a conservation culture war.  Traditionalists believe hunters and fishermen have been major supporters of wildlife and there is plenty of evidence to support that claim. Those who oppose consumptive uses would like to find a way to supplant that financial underpinning for wildlife habitat. This is nothing new, but there are [...]

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The value of a duck club is as subjective as any real estate evaluation on earth. An appraiser would look at duck club sales and compare the price, annual operating costs, taxes and acreage to come up with a value. A few days ago I got a call from a duck hunter who was evaluating [...]

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  Traveled to the ranch last weekend to take a break and look over the ponds we worked on last fall. http://hunterlandowner.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/pond-repair-at-the-ranch/ The pond repairs will produce water for cattle and wildlife. Stock ponds are also breeding habitat for endangered amphibians, the California red-legged frog and California tiger salamander. The winter rains were well spaced and appropriately [...]

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  I recently received the following email. The question was so appropriate that I decided to make a post on the topic.  Good morning Rich,            I bought a 100 acre property here in Ontario, Canada in January with three partners. We have known each other for over 25 years and have hunted together forever. We [...]

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The concept of highest and best use is most used by developers and appraisers. A developer will tell you that when a property is economically ready to be improved to a more productive use, it’s time for him to step in. An appraiser will tell you that a property’s highest value is based upon the [...]

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To many of us, the Life Estate appears to be something that we’ll never see. I remember first learning about life estates when I took my first real estate course in 1977. It seemed like a neat trick. A life estate can be granted to an individual by the owner of a property. First there [...]

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This is a photo of a chalcedon checkerspot butterfy. The photo was taken by Rob Fletcher on May 28, 2008 in the hills south of Livermore. May is the time when the butterflies are out at the ranch.  A different (from the one in the photo) species of checkerspot, the bay checkerspot, is closely associated with serpentine soils. Some [...]

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The situation Ten parcels of ranch property owned by one partnership with about 25 members, one LLC with three members, a family trust with 20 heirs and four individuals including one who was deceased and still on title.   That was the status of our ranch in year 2003. We owned an undivided interest equivalent [...]

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