Valuation of a septic drain field?

[Jim L.]

Landlocked property has an easement over a 1/4-acre ell in the neighboring property that otherwise blocks the property from the road and is largely (desirably, for privacy/noise) covered in trees.  Owner of neighboring property is willing to selling the ell, and develop-able vacant land in the area goes for $10-$15/sf normally.  Some larger (8+ acre), treed, hilly land nearby seen for $2-$3/sf.  However, the ell includes the neighbor's septic drain field.  Sale of the ell would require an easement for the septic drain field.  So...  as the neighbor would retain some value in the land (easement for drain field) and the land is essentially un-developable, what is a fair price range?  

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Jim L., this isn't the kind of deal you can base on comparable sales.

1. You can't go find any other replacement property that meets your need here.

2. The seller also has a limited pool of buyers for this. It sounds like you and also the neighbor with the drain field would be the realistic pool of buyers.

3. The numbers give you a range of values for discussion/negotiation purposes, but in reality a deal like this isn't a market rate deal because there isn't a broad "market" for a property like this. This is mostly how much YOU want the property versus how much the SELLER wants to sell the property.

For example, if the seller DIDN'T want to sell the property, a fair price might me MORE than that $10-15/sf range.

Conversely, if the seller NEEDED to sell the property to raise money for something, a fair price might be closer to that $2-3/sf number.

So, this is mostly about the motivations of the parties involved IMO.