For clients
Land, ranch and real estate
Whether you're the buyer, the seller or the family keeping the place, the paperwork on Montana ground runs deeper than the listing: water, access, leases and the next generation.
If you're buying
Before you sign the buy-sell, know what you're getting and what comes with it.
Review of the offer and contingencies
Title, survey and access questions
Water rights and well records
Closing review with the title company
If you're selling
Keep what you mean to keep and promise only what you mean to promise.
Counter-offers and disclosures
Reserving mineral or water rights
Carrying a contract for deed
Splitting a parcel off first
If you're keeping it
Leases, neighbors and handing the place to the next generation.
Grazing and hay leases
Easements and fence-line disputes
Ranch LLCs and succession
Conservation easement questions
At the closing
A second set of eyes before the keys change hands
Real estate agents and title companies do good work here, and none of them is your lawyer. Arne reads the contract, the title commitment and the survey with only your interests in mind, explains anything odd in plain words, and fixes it before closing day rather than after.
Asked about land
Do I need a lawyer if there's already a title company?
Not always. The title company insures title and handles the money; it doesn't advise you. For a ranch, a split parcel or anything with water or access questions, a lawyer's review is cheap next to a mistake.
Does the water right go with the land?
Usually, unless the deed or contract says otherwise. It has to be transferred properly, and that step is often missed.
Can you write a grazing lease?
Yes, for a season or for years, with who fixes fence, who pays for water and what happens if the land sells.
Send the lease or the listing
Write with the address or legal description and what you're weighing. The office will call back.