What is the going rate in upstate NY for telcom easement?
I was approached by a telcom company seeking a 50'x50' easment on my commercial property.

Is anyone familiar with what telcom's are paying for these types of agreements?
[{"id": "cnyx7sp", "text": "There really is no going rate for telecom easements, or any easements for that matter.  The value of the easement is directly tied to the value of your property.  You own what is called a fee simple interest in your property which means you entirely own the right to occupy, access, use, or modify your property in any way that you see fit, except that you have to pay taxes, obey laws, etc.  Easements don't involve a physical taking of your land (i.e. physically reduce the size of your parcel by the easement area) but are the transfer of some of the rights that you currently own, in this case most likely the right to access your property whenever they would like to maintain lines and equipment.  So now instead of owning 100% of your \"bundle of rights\" you now only own, say, 80% of those rights because they have the right of access, which in this example lets suppose that's worth 20% of your fee simple interest.  Now let's say your property is worth $100,000 per acre and the easement area is .06 acre (50x50) so the land area of the easement is worth $5,739 ($100,000 x .06 acre).  Using the previous percentages, lets say you retain 80% of the value, which would be $4,591 ($5,739 x 80%) and they take 20%, they would have to pay you $1,147 ($5,739 x 20%).  Using those same percentages, imagine your property is worth $500,000 per acre, then they would have to pay you $6,000 ($500,000 x .06 acre x 20%).  So your question is sort of like asking \"what is the going rate for commercial property in upstate NY?\" which as you know could yield a million different answers.\n\nAlso whats tricky about easements is that you only have one chance to receive compensation so its important that you are paid a fair market value as you really can't go back to them years later if your property was adversely affected by the easement.  So if by them taking the easement it negatively impacted the market value of your property beyond just the value of the easement area then you are also entitled to severance damages or a cost to cure any problems their taking may have caused.  Imagine if that 50x50 area comprised a driveway, so they would have to compensate you for the value of that .06 acre of land but they would also have to compensate you for the cost of creating a new driveway.  \n\nHope this helps, I guess the moral of the story is that if you have any question or doubt about the fairness of their proposed compensation then its best to get an appraisal done by an independent appraiser. \n\nSource: I'm a commercial real estate appraiser who does a lot of condemnation/eminent domain work.", "replies": [{"id": "cnz4l04", "text": "Thank you for your thorough answer.  It does help me get a better understanding of what I am looking at.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]