Top 12 Right Of Way Agent Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive world of right-of-way acquisition, a sharp blend of technical knowledge, people skills, and regulatory fluency sets candidates apart. The following twelve skills help Right of Way Agents show depth, range, and readiness to move projects from concept to closing while keeping communities, budgets, and timelines intact.

Right Of Way Agent Skills

1. Negotiation
2. GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
3. Real Estate Law
4. Title Research
5. Eminent Domain
6. Stakeholder Engagement
7. Project Management
8. Environmental Compliance
9. Surveying Basics
10. Conflict Resolution
11. AutoCAD
12. Public Speaking

1. Negotiation

For a Right of Way Agent, negotiation means crafting agreements that secure property rights or access while respecting the landowner’s interests, constraints, and time. It’s the art and discipline of finding workable terms—compensation, conditions, timing—without burning bridges.

Why It's Important

Projects move only when people agree. Strong negotiation reduces delays, limits disputes, and builds goodwill with owners and communities. It keeps deals fair, defensible, and practical.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

Refine listening, clarify objectives, and prepare thoroughly. Useful focus areas:

1. Know your facts: valuation drivers, project purpose, schedule pressures, comparable transactions, relocation or damages considerations.

2. Map interests, not just positions: uncover what actually matters—timing, privacy, access, tax impacts—and trade accordingly.

3. Establish a clear BATNA and concession plan: know walk-away points, sequence offers, and keep movement purposeful.

4. Communicate with empathy: mirror concerns, summarize, and check for understanding; de-escalate before countering.

5. Stay policy- and statute-aware: align offers with governing rules to keep outcomes compliant and defensible.

6. Practice: role-play tough scenarios, review recordings or notes, and iterate.

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume

2. GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

GIS captures, stores, analyzes, and displays spatial data. For ROW, that means clean parcel maps, accurate boundaries, easements, routes, constraints, and a single visual source of truth for decisions in the field and the boardroom.

Why It's Important

GIS tightens coordination and reduces guesswork. It reveals conflicts before they cost money, clarifies who owns what, and supports transparent negotiations.

How to Improve GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Skills

1. Data integrity first: maintain authoritative parcels, easements, and ownership data with QA/QC, version control, and clear schemas.

2. Integrate systems: connect GIS with document management, title notes, appraisal data, and project trackers for seamless updates.

3. Go mobile and cloud: enable real-time field updates, offline use, and quick sync for teams on the move.

4. Advance your tools: build skills in platforms like ArcGIS Pro or QGIS; learn georeferencing, topology rules, and spatial analysis.

5. Standardize outputs: consistent symbology, scales, and templates for exhibits and owner packets.

How to Display GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Skills on Your Resume

3. Real Estate Law

Real estate law governs ownership, transfer, and use of property—including rights-of-way, easements, leases, and encroachments—plus the procedures that bind them together.

Why It's Important

Every acquisition lives or dies by legal clarity. Understanding statutes, case law, and proper documentation protects projects from disputes, delays, and costly do-overs.

How to Improve Real Estate Law Skills

1. Stay current: track state statutes, local ordinances, and recent cases affecting easements, condemnation, notice, and recording.

2. Clarify processes: use standardized agreements, exhibits, and checklists; reduce ambiguity and cycle time.

3. Strengthen transparency: clear communications, consistent documentation, and accessible records build trust.

4. Promote fair compensation: align with market data and statutory guidance; document rationale thoroughly.

5. Prefer resolution over litigation: mediation and structured negotiation save time and money.

6. Keep learning: pursue courses or certifications (e.g., via the International Right of Way Association) and collaborate closely with counsel.

How to Display Real Estate Law Skills on Your Resume

4. Title Research

Title research traces ownership, easements, liens, restrictions, and other encumbrances to confirm what rights exist and what can be conveyed—no surprises after signatures.

Why It's Important

Clear title avoids disputes, unbuildable segments, and emergency redesigns. It underpins valid offers and enforceable agreements.

How to Improve Title Research Skills

1. Master the records: deeds, plats, probate files, tax data, judgments, UCCs, HOA docs—track chain of title and red flags.

2. Read descriptions fluently: metes and bounds, PLSS, subdivisions; spot gaps, overlaps, and scrivener’s errors.

3. Compare on the map: reconcile legal descriptions with GIS and surveys; verify closures and monuments.

4. Document curative steps: affidavits, corrective deeds, subordinations, or quiet title referrals where needed.

5. Standardize notes: build templates for ownership reports and exception lists for fast review by counsel and appraisers.

How to Display Title Research Skills on Your Resume

5. Eminent Domain

Eminent domain allows the taking of private property for public use with just compensation. Right of Way Agents help negotiate settlements, manage notices, and coordinate with legal teams to meet statutory requirements.

Why It's Important

Some projects can’t proceed without it. Proper use ensures critical infrastructure gets built while honoring owners’ rights and legal safeguards.

How to Improve Eminent Domain Skills

1. Follow the law step-for-step: necessity, public use, good-faith offers, appraisal standards, and due process.

2. Compensate fairly: align with credible appraisals, damages analysis, and statutory benefits.

3. Educate owners: clarify timelines, valuation, relocation options, and appeal rights (including URA where applicable).

4. Negotiate in good faith: seek settlement creatively—alter alignments, access provisions, construction conditions when feasible.

5. Streamline the paper trail: precise exhibits, accurate legal descriptions, consistent notices; minimize procedural challenges.

6. Invest in training: refreshers on state law updates and ethical standards keep cases solid.

How to Display Eminent Domain Skills on Your Resume

6. Stakeholder Engagement

Engagement means real dialogue with landowners, agencies, utilities, and communities—surfacing concerns early and shaping solutions people can live with.

Why It's Important

Early buy-in reduces friction. Honest communication saves months, not minutes, and preserves the project’s reputation along the corridor.

How to Improve Stakeholder Engagement Skills

1. Map stakeholders: level of influence, interests, pain points, communication styles.

2. Communicate on purpose: set cadence, choose channels, avoid jargon; publish clear milestones and next steps.

3. Listen actively: reflect back what you heard, validate concerns, and show how feedback shapes the plan.

4. Be transparent: decision criteria, constraints, trade-offs; no surprises.

5. Adapt: when conditions change, update stakeholders quickly and explain why.

6. Measure and iterate: track questions, commitments, and outcomes; refine the plan.

How to Display Stakeholder Engagement Skills on Your Resume

7. Project Management

ROW project management coordinates scope, schedule, cost, quality, and risk across acquisition, appraisal, survey, legal, and construction interfaces—so the right document hits the right desk at the right time.

Why It's Important

Without disciplined coordination, small delays compound. Strong PM keeps permits aligned, budgets stable, and field crews unblocked.

How to Improve Project Management Skills

1. Plan with clarity: define milestones, dependencies, and resources; visualize with Gantt or Kanban.

2. Control change: formalize scope changes, document impacts, and reset timelines realistically.

3. Track risk: maintain a live risk register, owners, triggers, mitigations, and contingencies.

4. Standardize tools: common templates for offers, exhibits, and status reports; tight versioning.

5. Use tech wisely: project trackers linked with GIS, real-time dashboards, and mobile updates.

6. Sharpen governance: clear RACI, frequent stand-ups, decisive issue escalation.

How to Display Project Management Skills on Your Resume

8. Environmental Compliance

ROW work must align with environmental laws and permits—think NEPA reviews, Clean Water Act authorizations, endangered species protections, cultural resource consultations, and state equivalents—while minimizing on-the-ground impacts.

Why It's Important

Noncompliance triggers fines, stop-work orders, and reputational damage. Good compliance keeps projects lawful, resilient, and community-minded.

How to Improve Environmental Compliance Skills

1. Know the framework: federal, state, and local requirements; thresholds; seasonal windows; mitigation duties.

2. Coordinate early: involve environmental specialists before alignment is locked; avoid sensitive areas where feasible.

3. Document thoroughly: surveys, permit conditions, and construction constraints embedded into plans and contracts.

4. Monitor and report: routine audits, field checks, and corrective actions; keep records inspection-ready.

5. Leverage tools: GIS constraints mapping, compliance trackers, and SWPPP controls with photo evidence.

6. Train teams: field crews and contractors briefed on do’s and don’ts, stop-work triggers, and reporting lines.

How to Display Environmental Compliance Skills on Your Resume

9. Surveying Basics

Survey literacy lets ROW professionals read plats and legal descriptions, understand coordinates and closures, and collaborate cleanly with licensed surveyors.

Why It's Important

Boundaries, easements, and access hinge on measurement. Better comprehension means fewer mismatches between paper and dirt.

How to Improve Surveying Basics Skills

1. Learn the language: bearings, distances, curves, closures, and the precedence of calls (monuments over distances, etc.).

2. Know the systems: State Plane, UTM, vertical datums; how RTK GPS and control points underpin accuracy.

3. Read plats and exhibits: verify match between legal descriptions, GIS, and survey deliverables.

4. Spot trouble early: gaps, overlaps, encroachments, occupation lines that disagree with record lines.

5. Coordinate well: provide precise scopes to surveyors; request what’s needed for defendable ROW exhibits.

6. Practice: review historical plats and as-builts; rebuild confidence by checking closures and computations.

How to Display Surveying Basics Skills on Your Resume

10. Conflict Resolution

It’s the disciplined approach to defusing tension, aligning interests, and steering parties toward agreements they can accept and keep.

Why It's Important

Disputes stall projects. Resolving them quickly protects timelines, budgets, and relationships that matter beyond a single parcel.

How to Improve Conflict Resolution Skills

1. Listen and reframe: surface underlying interests; restate issues in neutral, solvable terms.

2. Use structured problem-solving: define, generate options, evaluate trade-offs, commit in writing.

3. Negotiate for mutual gain: small concessions with big perceived value can change the tone.

4. Bring in neutrals when needed: mediation or facilitation can unblock entrenched positions.

5. Set escalation paths: clear steps, timeouts, and decision makers prevent endless loops.

6. Capture agreements precisely: reduce ambiguity; confirm who does what, by when.

How to Display Conflict Resolution Skills on Your Resume

11. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is CAD software for precise 2D/3D drawings. For ROW, it supports exhibits, alignments, takings maps, and clean, legible visuals that withstand scrutiny.

Why It's Important

Clarity in drawings reduces misunderstandings, speeds approvals, and anchors legal descriptions to something everyone can see and measure.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

1. Standardize templates: title blocks, layers, linetypes, scales, and annotation styles for ROW exhibits.

2. Work smart: use xrefs, sheet sets, fields, and dynamic blocks to cut rework.

3. Automate: lean on scripts or LISP for repetitive tasks (layer setup, labeling, export routines).

4. Mind the coordinates: georeference drawings, match coordinate systems, and maintain scale integrity.

5. Bridge CAD–GIS: build a clean path for exchanging data (e.g., DXF, SHP, or georeferenced images) without losing accuracy.

6. Train purposefully: focus on the features you’ll use most—markups, redlines, and exhibit production.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

12. Public Speaking

Public speaking for ROW means explaining complex projects in human terms—open houses, council meetings, hearings—so people feel informed and respected.

Why It's Important

Clear, confident communication builds trust. It quells anxiety, gathers feedback, and keeps the project narrative accurate.

How to Improve Public Speaking Skills

1. Know your audience: owners versus officials versus neighbors—each needs different details and tone.

2. Structure simply: lead with purpose, follow with impacts and benefits, close with what’s next.

3. Make it visual: legible maps, before/after views, construction phasing that anyone can follow.

4. Practice delivery: rehearse tough questions, build concise responses, and pace your speaking.

5. Handle nerves: breathing, brief notes, and a clear opening line help you settle fast.

6. Invite feedback: log questions, follow up promptly, and show changes born from input.

How to Display Public Speaking Skills on Your Resume