Real Estate Properties

A call to action… Now is the time to act and for you to join the fight to protect and to keep private property rights that you use and enjoy. Well meaning individuals are campaigning to remove many of these fundamental rights that most Americans take for granted.

Every property enjoys a “bundle of rights”. Real estate agents and brokers work to market and transfer both the property and the property’s “bundle of rights”. These are the rights people have in real estate they own – also called “private property rights”.

There are two primary philosophies in America today regarding land ownership and real estate ownership. The first philosophy calls for and advocates the government owning the maximum amount of real estate, including land. People in this camp do not trust home owner’s and private property owners to manage their real estate responsibly. The opposing group, those who support people owning their own home or own land, see the rights people hold in private property as the core to living in a free society.

Well meaning socialists have advocated the public’s ownership of everything from your home, to land, means of production, capital, credit, to health care. This has been true since the start of recorded history. Socialism attempts throughout the history of the World, including those happening today, have all had the same result; failure. Evidence of this is seen in history books and in places like Cuba.

The United States was founded on the principal of every American having the opportunity and benefit of owning real estate and private property rights. “It’s all on your shoulders to push yourself as hard as you can. And that dictates how successful you will be,” according to The Code of the West; Alive and Well on Wyoming Trailer. It is essential for capitalism to flourish that you have the right to manage, control, and own your own home, farm, ranch, land, and your own business. The quality and standard of living we enjoy today, we owe mostly to our ability to own our own homes, our own real estate and our own land.

If you no longer had the right to own your own home, to own your own lot or your own land, what would America look like?

Private property rights are being attacked now more than ever by agencies of the federal government and by laws with deceptive labels. The Conservation and Reinvestment Act, for example, if passed allows the removal of private property rights; placing these instead with federal bureaucrats. The Grizzly Bear Overlay (GBO), if approved, may affect large amounts of land. Swaths of real estate in Idaho and elsewhere if approved, could suddenly become subject to the strict rules of the GBO. The GBO would restrict what people can do with real estate. If your rights in your real estate were lost as a result of an overlay – but not lost to property across the street from you, how would that effect demand and the value of your property? The Environmental Protection Act has a pretty name but in reality, the act transfers the management decisions you have in your home or property over to the the federal government. There are many laws and acts that have the same effect, such as, wet lands laws, endangered species acts, national monuments being proclaimed, and others that have consequences and limit the the rights an owner or renter has in their home and land.

This is not a simple disagreement between the two philosophies to arrive at an agreed upon objective. Freedom of choice, freedoms and rights guaranteed by the US Constitution, and quality of life are at stake. Real estate owners and renters are being burdened with higher taxes and increases in takings and loss of private property rights. However, many agents and brokers are learning the issues. They are getting involved. The are fighting to defend the personal and private rights people enjoy in properties they own or rent – to help protect owners and future owners. Reasonable people know that the government cannot spend its way out of debt. It cannot keep taking water from the well without eventually running the well dry.

Now is the time to act and for you to join the fight to protect and to keep private property rights you use and enjoy, either as an owner or as a renter. And now is the time to help your neighbor protect his or her rights. Get involved. Talk to your real estate agent or your broker about the issues as the affect private property ownership. If you are an agent or a broker, join the Realtors Land Institute and other groups associated with private property and rights in property.

There are many groups you can contact or join and get involved. Contact the author for more information about groups and ways to get involved.

By: John Knipe

About the Author: