Can you get the seller to sell you an option to buy for 30 days or so? Sometimes they will do that and sometimes they won't, but it could give you some protection for all the work you are about to do. Once you start contacting adjacent landowners and they realize it's for sale and that someone may be about to buy it and get a ROW, you might find that you are out of luck. If you have an option to buy for a period of time, they won't be able to outbid you.
I once bought a parcel and the ONLY reason the sale went through was because I had an option to buy. Good luck with it.
I had another realtor to tell me the same thing, he said he wouldn't contact any adjacent landowners, because they may not know it's for sale and that would alert them and as you said, I could be out of luck.....
