3 Reasons Lack of Access Kills Land Deals – And What Smart Investors Do Instead 

3 Reasons Lack of Access Kills Land Deals – And What Smart Investors Do Instead 

By Jill DeWit 

If you’ve spent more than five minutes looking at land deals, you’ve heard the word “access.” And if you’ve been at this for any amount of time, you’ve probably said it out loud more than once: access, access, access. 

There’s a reason this topic never goes away. Access has been an issue since there has been land. You can have the prettiest parcel in the world—great trees, great views, perfect acreage, a price that feels like stealing—yet the whole deal can fall apart the second you realize you can’t get to it in a way that makes sense for the end buyer. 

As a land investing coach, this is one of the first things I want you to understand clearly, because access doesn’t just “affect value.” It affects whether the property is usable, financeable, insurable, marketable, and sellable. In other words, it affects whether you’re buying a deal… or buying yourself a problem. 

So let’s break this down in plain English. I’m going to explain the three reasons lack of access kills land deals, the difference between physical and legal access (because people confuse them constantly), and the mindset shift that keeps you profitable: we are not in the business of improving property. 

We buy it right. We sell it right. We keep our pipeline full. That’s the business. 

 

First, the mindset that saves you years of headaches 

I want to make this crystal clear before we get into the “three reasons.” 

The Land Academy model is not an HGTV show. We are not here to buy a property and spend two years battling neighbors, hiring surveyors, chasing easements, paying attorneys, and trying to prove a point in court. If you want to make access-challenged deals your niche, you absolutely can. You could build an entire business around solving those problems. 

But that’s not what we do. 

Our business works because it stays simple: we buy undervalued land, we make it look amazing online, we disclose what we know, and we resell it. We’re not out there building roads, filing lawsuits, or negotiating with someone’s angry uncle who’s been guarding a gate for 30 years. 

That lens changes everything. It also immediately reduces fear, because you stop thinking “I have to solve this.” Instead, you start thinking, “Is this the kind of deal I want to take on—or do I want to move on to the next one?” 

With that in mind, let’s get practical. 

 

Legal access vs. physical access (and why both matter) 

Most people say “access” like it’s one thing. It’s not. There are two types, and they’re very different. 

Physical access means you can actually get to the property on the ground. Not theoretically. Not “a line on a map.” It means a buyer can drive there, stand on the property, and use it for whatever the intended use is. 

Now, physical access can mean different things depending on the end buyer. If you ride a motorcycle, you can “access” places that a minivan can’t. If you own an ATV, you can get into areas that a real estate agent in a Camry will never touch. That’s why I like to define physical access as: can a normal person reasonably get there. 

Legal access is the paper version. It’s the recorded right to reach the property—often through a platted road, easement, or legal description that shows a right-of-way exists. Legal access can exist even when you don’t see a road on Google Earth. And physical access can exist even when the legal paperwork is questionable. 

The best-case scenario is obvious: you want both legal and physical access—especially when you’re new. It makes buying easier, selling easier, and eliminates the “what if” conversations that can derail a deal. 

Now, here are the three reasons access kills land deals. 

 

Reason #1: No physical access = no obvious use 

The fastest way for a land deal to die is when nobody can get to it. 

If I pull up a parcel on maps and I can’t see any physical way to access it, I stop and confirm. And I mean confirm like an adult—not guess, not hope, not convince myself it’s fine because the price is exciting. 

This is where newer investors get trapped. They see a “smoking deal” and they start imagining the profit. But land has to be usable to be valuable. If you can’t physically get to it, you need to understand what the intended use is and who would actually buy it. 

Sometimes the access is there and you just can’t see it. Heavy tree cover can hide roads. Seasonal roads don’t always show up clearly. Some counties have trails or maintained paths that don’t look like much from above. In those cases, you confirm with the county, pull a plat map, ask the seller, or even ask nearby owners if people have historically been accessing the parcel. 

And here’s the key: physical access issues change the math. If a property can’t be used easily, it’s worth less—unless you know of a very specific use case where buyers don’t care. For example, we’ve seen property types that were only valuable to a very niche buyer (think recreational use like hunting, hiking, or even something as unusual as rock climbing). In those cases, the deal can still work if the price is low enough and the buyer profile is clear. 

But in general, physical access is the first “deal-killer” because it makes the property harder to use, harder to enjoy, and harder to sell to a normal buyer. 

 

Reason #2: No legal access makes the buyer nervous (and buyers pay less when they’re nervous) 

If physical access is about usability, legal access is about certainty. 

When a property is landlocked on paper—meaning there is no recorded road or legal right-of-way—buyers get nervous. Title companies get cautious. Lenders don’t want to touch it. Even cash buyers start asking questions they wouldn’t ask on a normal deal. 

And yes, in most states, there are legal concepts that prevent a landowner from “reasonably withholding” access to another landowner. But the law and reality are not the same thing. 

In reality, legal access issues often come with conflict. Sometimes it’s subtle—neighbors who “don’t love it.” Sometimes it’s not subtle—gates, threats, and people who have decided they own the road because they’ve been controlling it for decades. 

Could you solve legal access by negotiating an easement? Absolutely. Many times, it’s solvable. You approach the right neighbor, you offer a fair solution, you put it in writing, and you record it properly. Sometimes you bring in an attorney or a surveyor. Sometimes it’s smoother than you expect. 

But remember the mindset: we are not here to improve property. We are not here to spend months (or years) fighting. 

So as a land investing coach, my advice is this: unless you have a very clear, fast, low-friction path to solve legal access—you either buy it so cheap that the risk is priced in, or you move on. 

 

Reason #3: The gatekeeper problem — when someone “defends” the access 

This is the one that surprises newer investors the most. 

You can have legal access. You can even have a physical road. But if the access crosses a property owned by someone who is determined to stop people from using it, you can have a problem. 

This is the “farmer with the gate” scenario. They’ve lived there forever. Their family has lived there forever. They’ve decided no one is driving down that road, even if the paperwork says otherwise. 

And you can argue with them. You can threaten legal action. You can make it your life mission to be “right.” 

But if you’re building a land investing business, that is rarely a good use of your time. 

Here’s the smarter play: sell the problem to the person who wants it solved most. 

Who is that? 

Usually the person controlling the front parcel. 

If someone is gatekeeping access, one of the cleanest solutions is to offer them the land behind them. Because if they own it, they never have to worry about anyone driving down that road again. Their problem disappears. 

This is where neighbor letters become incredibly useful. If you’ve got a parcel that’s access-challenged, your first outreach is often to the neighbors anyway. You can approach it as, “Would you like to buy this before I sell it elsewhere?” And if they’re not interested in expanding their ranch, their buffer, or their privacy, you can shift into, “Is there a way we can work out access?” 

Sometimes, the deal solves itself because the neighbor just buys it. And that’s a win. 

 

What I want you to do with access issues as a newer investor 

If you’re new, I want you to stop thinking you have to know everything up front. You don’t. 

You need to understand what access is, why it matters, and how to recognize the common scenarios. But you don’t need to become a legal expert before you send a mailer. 

The truth is, the majority of deals you review will have normal access. Access-challenged parcels are a small percentage of the overall market. They just feel loud because when they show up, they trigger anxiety. 

So here’s the simple approach. 

If a property clearly has legal and physical access, great—move forward. 

If it’s unclear, confirm. Ask the seller. Ask the county. Pull the plat map. Get clarity. 

If it’s obviously problematic and would require conflict, extended timelines, or expensive “improvements,” move on—unless you can buy it so cheap that the risk is priced in and the buyer profile is crystal clear. 

And if you want help evaluating something like this, that’s exactly what a community is for. Get opinions. Learn from people who’ve seen it. You’ll save yourself a lot of money and a lot of stress. 

 

A quick closing thought about “frustration” and momentum 

This business will frustrate you sometimes. A seller will want a number that doesn’t work. You’ll see a property that’s almost perfect except for one big issue. And you’ll be tempted to sit there and negotiate yourself into the ditch. 

Don’t. 

The secret to making good decisions is simple: keep your pipeline full. When you’ve got options, you don’t chase bad deals. When you’ve got enough calls and enough properties coming back, you can calmly choose the best ones and move forward. 

That’s why we send a lot of mail. That’s why we don’t overthink one deal. That’s why access issues are something you learn to evaluate quickly—not something you let derail your momentum. 

If you can do that, access becomes what it should be: a filter, not a fear.