Landlocked Colorado parcels are the single hardest thing to sell at retail. Your 10 acres in Huerfano County has no recorded easement, the neighbors won't grant one, and every buyer who looks at it walks away the moment the title company flags the problem. We buy landlocked parcels all over Colorado. We price them realistically — they are worth less than parcels with access, but they are not worthless, and we close in 14-21 days without demanding you first go to court. Call 970-478-1022 and we'll give you honest numbers.
Colorado has thousands of landlocked parcels, mostly created during subdivision errors in the 1960s and 1970s, or during probate partitions where one heir ended up with a "back" parcel and no road. The recorded plat may show adjacent roads, but the legal right to use them may never have been properly granted.
If your parcel was once part of a larger tract that included road frontage, Colorado courts may impose an easement by necessity. The test, from Thompson v. Whinnery and later cases, requires unity of title, subsequent severance, and strict necessity at the time of severance. If all three exist, a court will order the burdened neighbor to grant access — but it takes a lawsuit.
If historical use shows an informal access route was used continuously when the parcels were severed, courts may find an implied easement. Less strict than necessity but still requires litigation to establish formally.
Under C.R.S. § 38-41-101, 18 years of open, adverse, continuous use creates a prescriptive easement. If you've been driving across Cousin Bob's ranch to reach your back parcel for two decades, you may already have a right you didn't know about.
If the parcel was created as a speculative subdivision lot without ever being part of a larger tract, there may be no easement at all. Courts in Colorado will not impose an access easement out of thin air (Bromley v. Lambert and progeny). These parcels have very limited retail value, but we still buy them.
If your parcel borders BLM or US Forest Service land, the federal government does NOT grant cross-access to private owners. You cannot "walk through the forest" as a legal right. The Bundy case and related federal litigation have hardened this rule.
We pull the plat, the deed chain, and any recorded easements. We check neighboring deeds for reciprocal grants. We look at historical aerial imagery to spot any actual road that's been used. Half the "landlocked" parcels we evaluate turn out to have some form of access that the owner didn't know about.
If there's a plausible easement by necessity or implied easement argument, we factor that into our offer. We won't promise you litigation funding, but we know the case law and we know when a theory has legs.
Truly landlocked parcels in Colorado typically sell for 10-30% of what comparable accessed parcels bring. That's a brutal discount but it reflects the actual market. We don't lowball further than that — if the market says $8,000, we offer something close to $8,000.
Because we're not going to try to force an easement through litigation before closing, we can close as fast as any other cash deal. 14-21 days typical. Title company handles whatever recording is needed.
We take on the access fight ourselves after closing. Sometimes we negotiate directly with the neighbor. Sometimes we litigate. Sometimes we combine multiple parcels to eventually achieve access. You don't have to care — the land is ours.
Huerfano County, 40 acres, no recorded access. Parcel created in a 1972 subdivision that never built out. Three realtors refused to list it. We bought it at a realistic landlocked price, then negotiated a $2,500 easement with the west neighbor 18 months later.
Costilla County, 5 acres, "paper road" access. Plat showed a subdivision road that was never built. Legally the road existed, physically it didn't. We bought the parcel, knowing we'd probably just sit on it for a decade.
Park County, 35 acres with possible easement by necessity. Parcel was carved out of a 320-acre ranch in 1988. Strong unity-of-title argument. We bought at a modest discount and filed a quiet title action post-closing that established the easement.
Related: raw land, mountain land, land with easements.
Get answers to common questions about selling your land
Yes. We buy landlocked parcels statewide. The price reflects the discount — typically 10-30% of what a comparable accessed parcel brings — but we close in 14-21 days and pay cash. You don't have to litigate anything first.
A court-imposed access easement required when a parcel would otherwise be completely isolated. Colorado requires unity of title, subsequent severance, and strict necessity at the time of severance. It is a common-law remedy, not automatic, and requires a lawsuit.
Not as a legal right. The federal government does not grant cross-access to private owners bordering BLM or Forest Service land. You can use existing public roads, but cutting a new track across federal land is trespass and can be prosecuted.
You must show 18 years of open, notorious, adverse, continuous use under C.R.S. § 38-41-101. "Adverse" means without the landowner's permission. Permission resets the clock. Documentation — photos, witness statements, tax records — is critical.
Only through litigation establishing easement by necessity, implied easement, or prescriptive easement. Colorado courts will not impose an access easement just because you want one. The legal bar is high and cases take 1-3 years.
A road shown on a recorded plat but never physically built. Legally the road exists as a public right-of-way or easement, but practically you can't drive on it. Paper roads are common in old Colorado subdivisions and create a legal-vs-physical access mismatch that kills retail deals.
No. Colorado counties are under no obligation to build or maintain roads to private parcels unless the road is on the official county road map. Most subdivision "streets" from 1960s-70s era developments were never accepted into the county road system.
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