The Utility Company Wants To Pay Me For Easement Access - Should I Do It? 

10/19/2026 10:33 AM       Mark Goodman

If you own a decent amount of acreage, there’s a possibility that a utility company will approach you with a proposal. They might ask if they can pay you to create an easement that allows them access to your land to erect or maintain essential infrastructure on your property. 

On the surface, it may seem like a win. You may not regularly use that area of the property, you’ll still own the land, and you’re getting a payday. So why shouldn’t you sign? Creating a utility easement can have surprising or unintended consequences, especially if you want to sell the property down the road. That’s not to say you should never jump at this opportunity, but you do want to really understand what you’re agreeing to before you sign on the bottom line. We take a closer look at what a utility agreement can mean for your property value and future sales ability in today’s blog. 

If you get paid and essential electric infrastructure can be created on an area of your land that you don’t really use, it can seem like a good thing for you and the community. And it very well may be! But you need to realize all the ways agreeing to a utility easement can impact you and prospective buyers in the future. 

The utility company may only build and access this equipment as dictated in the agreement, but that can impact your property value in many ways. Some ways that a utility easement can impact your property value include: 

• Reducing the usable acreage on of your property 

• The addition of perceived or actual safety risks on your property 

• Can impact how you use the property in the future 

• Less control over who and when utility workers enter your property 

• Decreased future sales price, as a future buyer would get the inconvenience without the payday 

• Potential impact to property use, like hunting, livestock grazing or leasing out the land 

• The creation of visually unappealing structures on your property 

Maybe none of these factors really impact you, but there’s a good chance at least some of the above factors should be considered prior to agreeing to a decades-long easement with a utility company. 

If you’ve been approached by a utility company or another party that is hoping to pay you in order to create an easement, run everything by a team of professionals to ensure you understand all angles and that your financial interests are protected. At Commercial Partners, we’ve been helping clients create smart easements that don’t hinder them in the long term. For more information on how we can assist with your easement or another aspect of commercial property management or acquisition, reach out to our team today at (612) 337-2470.