The Perfect Lot
Keep looking…
I’m not a city guy, nor is my wife. We each grew up in the suburbs on average sized lots in average sized houses. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not what we want. We searched for property that fit our criteria:
- At least 5 acres
- access to electric & high speed internet
- within 90 minutes of our family
- reasonable price
Honestly, #2 is pretty easy to get because we aren’t about to homeschool our children, so anywhere we looked would be on a road.
The others…well, you could probably combine any two of those easily. Getting all 3 is the holy grail. We had the misfortune of looking right at the end of covid when prices were still high and inventory was low. This is where a great realtor can help out. We only had to look at 3 or 4 lots before we found the one that fit everything!
Get a Survey!
It doesn’t matter if the sellers provide a survey. It doesn’t matter if the property is staked & marked & fenced. GET. YOUR. OWN. SURVEY. as a contigentcy of close.
It’s a few thousnad dollars and a week to add to the timing. It’s worth it. Ask me how I know?
Raw land vs. Development
We did not want to live in a community. We did not want to live in a cookie cutter house on lot 7B of 34 that a developer owns. We especially did not want to be beholden to an HOA.
We wanted land free and clear of any restrictions, covenants, and rules. That usually means that price is cheaper up front, but cost is more expensive to build. And that is what we are seeing. The property we found had a driveway cleared and roughed in, had a build site cleared of trees, had the septic field identified and marked. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t work to do, or money to spend.
The land was cleared, but exactly where we want the house? The driveway was roughed in, but did it meet maximum grade? There’s still trees that should come down because they pose a threat to the house one day.