People spend six months choosing a floor plan and an afternoon choosing the ground it sits on. It should be the other way around. Here is the short list we walk through with clients before they sign anything.
1. Setbacks and easements
A generous-looking lot with a utility easement down one side and a thirty-foot front setback can have a buildable envelope half the size you assumed. Get the plat, mark the envelope, and check your house actually fits inside it before you fall in love with either.
2. Soil
Expansive clay, fill from a previous structure, or a high water table can each add five figures to a foundation. A soil test costs a few hundred dollars and is the single best-value spend in the whole project.
3. Drainage
Walk the lot after heavy rain, not on a dry Tuesday. Where the water goes now is where it will want to go once your house is in the way, and re-grading a site is expensive.
4. Utility runs
Ask how far the nearest sewer, water, gas and electrical connections are, and who pays for the run. On rural lots this is regularly the difference between two comparable parcels.
5. Access
A concrete truck needs to reach the pour. If it cannot, you are paying for pumping on every single one, and that adds up faster than anyone expects.
We will walk a lot with you before you buy it, at no charge. It is a good hour for both of us.
