Selling a House Under the Flight Path in Tulsa

The house is under the approach and everybody who has ever visited has mentioned it. You stopped hearing it years ago. Now a buyer has raised it, and separately a title search has turned up something called an avigation easement that you have never heard of and certainly did not grant. Both of those have answers, and the second one is the more important.

This article covers what an avigation easement actually is, why one may already be recorded against your property, the Tulsa programme that put many of them there, and how to handle the noise question with a buyer.

What an avigation easement is

The FAA's own definition is the clearest one available, and it is worth reading carefully because it is broader than the name suggests.

An avigation easement is a right of overflight in the airspace above or near a particular property. It also includes the right to create such noise or other effects as may result from the lawful operation of aircraft in that airspace, and the right to remove any obstructions to that overflight.

It is not merely permission to fly over. It is, in substance, an agreement that the noise is permitted.

Like any recorded easement it runs with the land. Whoever granted it, and whatever they were paid for it, it passes to your buyer and to the owner after them. Our article on a power line or transmission easement covers the same principle in a different context.

Why one may already be on your property

Here is the part that surprises Tulsa sellers, and it is why this article exists.

Under the federal noise compatibility framework, which sits in 14 CFR Part 150 and arises out of the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979, airports prepare noise exposure maps and mitigation programmes. The threshold at which residential use is treated as noncompatible is the DNL 65 decibel contour.

Sound insulation under those programmes is commonly provided in exchange for an avigation easement. That is the trade: the airport pays to insulate the house, and the owner grants the right to make the noise.

Tulsa ran exactly such a programme. As reported by the Tulsa World, owners in the 65-decibel areas had three options:

• Sound insulation of homes, schools and churches, at an average recent cost of between 20,000 and 25,000 dollars, with 95 per cent paid by FAA grants and a 5 per cent local match
• A sales assistance programme compensating owners an average of 20,000 to 25,000 dollars for the impaired value of the property
• A payment of 2,500 dollars for a flyover easement

Five of the worst-affected properties were acquired outright, the buildings razed and the land rezoned. Forty-one owners declined to take part at all.

So if your house sits south of the airport and was owned by somebody else in those years, there may be an easement recorded against it that you knew nothing about, and the insulation you have always assumed was original may have been paid for under that programme.

The same reporting described the programme as winding down. Do not assume you can enrol now. Ask the airport what, if anything, is currently available.

Finding out where you stand

1. Ask the title company what is recorded against the parcel. An avigation easement appears as an exception like any other. Our article on what a survey exception on a title commitment means covers reading Schedule B
2. Ask the airport whether the property sits within a current noise contour, and whether it participated in any programme
3. Look for the evidence in the house. Replacement windows and doors of a standard well above the rest of the property, and added attic insulation, are the visible signature of a sound insulation programme
4. Check the county records yourself. Our page on Tulsa County property records covers searching

One further point worth knowing: contours change when the maps are updated. A property inside one today may be outside it after the next update, and the reverse. The easement, once granted, does not change with the contour.

Handling the noise question

You cannot make the aircraft quieter and you should not try to talk a buyer out of what they can hear.

Do not minimise it. Saying you never notice it is true and useless. The buyer heard three aircraft during the viewing and they know what they heard.

Be specific instead. Which runway, which times of day, whether it varies with wind direction, whether there are quiet periods. Buyers respond far better to somebody who clearly knows the pattern than to somebody who says it is fine.

Lead with the insulation if you have it. A house that has had a proper sound insulation package is materially quieter inside than its neighbours, and that is a genuine selling point rather than a defence. Find the paperwork.

Disclose what you know, including any recorded easement, under the ordinary Oklahoma disclosure obligation. Our article on Oklahoma seller disclosure requirements covers the position. The easement is public record and a buyer's title work will find it, so the only question is whether they hear it from you first.

The honest commercial reality: some buyers will not consider the house at any price, and the ones who will are frequently people who have lived near an airport before and are unbothered. Price for the second group and market to them.

Noise is not the only thing the flight path decides

Two further consequences catch owners near an airport and neither is obvious.

Height restrictions. Airports have protected airspace surfaces around them, and property under an approach can be subject to limits on how tall anything may be. That reaches further than buildings: mature trees, a radio mast, even a tall outbuilding. If an avigation easement includes the right to remove obstructions to overflight, that right is not theoretical. Check before you plant a windbreak or add a storey.

Development and zoning around the airport. Local planning authorities are generally notified of changes to noise contours so that incompatible uses are not developed in exposed areas. The practical effect for a homeowner is that what can be built nearby, and what your own property may be used for, can be constrained in ways that are not obvious from the zoning map alone. If your plans depend on it, ask the city with your address rather than assuming.

Neither of these is a reason to panic. Both are reasons to ask two specific questions before you spend money on something a buyer might have to remove.

Where we come in

This is usually a marketing problem rather than a condition problem. The house is sound, the easement is ordinary, and the right buyer exists. Given a reasonable market and honest description, an ordinary sale is the better outcome and will net you more than we will pay.

Where a cash sale genuinely fits: the property has been on the market a long time because of the location, a financed buyer's lender or insurer has taken a view, or the noise is combined with condition problems that narrow the pool further. Our article on days on market and a stale listing covers what happens to a house that sits, and our page on we buy houses in Tulsa covers how we work.

The short version

• An avigation easement is a right of overflight that expressly includes the right to create the noise resulting from lawful aircraft operation, and to remove obstructions
• It runs with the land and passes to your buyer
• Under 14 CFR Part 150 the DNL 65 decibel contour is where residential use is treated as noncompatible, and sound insulation is commonly given in exchange for an easement
• Tulsa ran such a programme, with insulation averaging 20,000 to 25,000 dollars at 95 per cent federal funding, sales assistance at a similar average, or 2,500 dollars for a flyover easement
• A previous owner may have granted one without your knowing
• The programme has been winding down. Ask the airport rather than assuming you can enrol
• Do not minimise the noise. Be specific about the pattern, and lead with the insulation if you have it
• Contours change on map updates. A granted easement does not