A Landscaping Easement

I learned something new.  After 24 years in real estate, that doesn’t happen all the time.  I recently had a client buy a home and we didn’t get the new survey until two days before closing.  As soon as I looked at it, I saw the problem – the back yard was much smaller than we were led to believe.  After some phone calls, emails, and digging up old documents, I learned that the original owner had purchased a landscaping easement from the developer about 30 years ago.  This easement allowed the owner of the house to maintain the landscaping of the adjacent land, which is now owned by the HOA.  It looked just like the yard so we thought it was the yard – as did the agent representing the seller.  The easement transfers to my client and lasts into perpetuity.  As it turns out, it was a genius move by the original owner.  This home has spectacular hill country views so the landscape easement allows the home owner to use the land and maintain the landscaping in a way that preserves the view for all time.