Interesting...as I said above, I emailed this guy this morning saying
1) NO easement and 2) the earnest money had to be refundable if the
deal fell through. I assumed the deal was off.

Lo and behold, I come home this evening and find a new contract in the
fax machine. He left in the easement thing (which I just crossed out)
and left in that he could keep the earnest money if I default. I
crossed that out and referred to another paragraph in the contract that
addresses earnest money issues.

I'm going to email him back and tell him I want no deed restrictions,
and I'm also thinking I need to retain the mineral rights, too. (We're
in Texas.)

Am I making sense?