My wife and I wanted to build a Victorian home on a few acres of land and spent several months reading about how to build using a general contractor. We learned a lot about how a house is built and how to buy land.
Here is a checklist I created on how to buy land. I’m not an expert but hopefully you can find a few nuggets of information that will help you to build your own dream home. Someday we hope to build when we have more time to dedicate to the project.
Legal
- Ask attorney if open space can revert back to some other zoning someday
- Ask current land owner for professional survey of property to determine boundary lines
- Buy land contingent on ability to install septic for number of bedrooms needed
- Does site have water rights and does it convey with land?
- Should I get new boundary survey?
- Get 90 day contingency to inspect land
- Get title search to show easements & restrictive covenants
- Study deed carefully
Location
- Research the property history at property records office
- Drainage. Pooling of water from slope? Visit after heavy rain
- Trees need to be removed to make way for house?
- 8 degree slope should be limit to build due to expense
- Be sure you buy site on public road not a private road unless you have easement
- Can septic be installed so you can built house in best location and far enough from well?
- Check light on site at different times of day
- Do you need to power lot – cost to bring in polls – could be $10/foot
- Easy to put well & septic in or is it costly?
- Energy surcharges to ship building supplies to site?
- High water table or bare rock is bad
- How hard to excavate and how hard to put in basement?
- Know what technically is required to place home correctly
- Loamy soil is best (balance of clay, sand, organic matter that appears rich and dark in color)
- Look for “future” utilities on your easements – big electrical towers, etc.
- Are junky yards adjacent to yours or too many animals, etc.
- Should have survey, especially if land is irregular – walk land to see property line problems
- Site above 100 year flood plain?
- Size is not always important – shape of property is important too
- Trees, view, rectangular shape, gently slope or none, good location, streams are all good
- Ask county or town time to clear snow with plow – ask neighbors
- Ask neighbors about power fluctuations and road condition problems
- Talk to neighbors about power fluctuations and road condition problems
- Talk to neighbors around lot – what don’t they like about area?
- Cable, electric, phone, cell phone
- Fire department nearby? Do I need a pond for emergencies?
- How far is hospital, police, ambulance, fire station
- Trash pickup available?
- Will propane service deliver and trench lines?
Price
- Negotiate land by pointing out negatives that really don’t matter to you
- Get an appraisal – not much land is sold asfmra.org
- How much land in excess of surplus – less value then what is required
Soil
- Bare land can suffer from over erosion
- Do I need an environmental audit? Rural trash pits used to be normal
- Don’t want hard cracking ground when dry and sticky soil when wet – expansive soils
- Farm land contain pesticides or leaking storage tanks?
- Fill brought in for some reason?
- Natural hazards or soil problems?
- Noxious weeds / plant disease
- Old buried oil and gas tanks? Past overgrazing problems?
- Test soil for residual contamination and disease
- U.S. Geological survey to learn about terrain & features of land
Well/Septic
- Does water taste sulfurous? Need filter system – cost?
- Find out depth of water table to determine difficulty of digging
- Find out average depth to water from county
- Wells on neighboring properties can be good indicator of easily finding water
- How deep does well need to be – affects drilling costs
- Top of watershed is better so less chance of toxins, etc. in water
- Ask local septic enforcement officer about type of septic needed
- Check date of septic peculation test – may be too old
Zoning
- Deed restriction or town restriction on your home type
- Frontage improvements needed – drainage, etc?
- Maps of existing development, planned roads, utility extensions, locations of planned dumps
- Trees can easily be removed or need special permission?
- What could be built around your property? Also, where is local landfill, mine, etc.
- Zoning of site? Open land or nature reserve could become a shopping mall someday
- What is county long range plan? Garbage dump, prison, 6 lane freeway?
Tips
- Ask new property owners for contractor references
- Always buy land that is located as close to those amenities that an area is known for
- Be very afraid of unrestricted land use. Restrictions sometimes are good
- Be wary of odors and noise
- Call owner if land has back taxes due – find info. From tax collector
- Junked cars on land is in a way good – they don’t cause problems and can lower land value
- Land should be 25% – 30% of total project cost
- Narrow lot in populated area is less expensive and good for social
- Many builders have land/build packages which can eliminate much research on land
- May have to fence property to keep hunters and illegal dumpers out
- Reselling a country home is harder than populated area