What To Know & Do Before Buying Land: Quick Checklist

What To Know Before You Buy Land?

Dreaming up the perfect plot of land is easy.

Its easy to imagine the open field, the forest of trees set just right off of a natural creek, the rolling hills in the distance…the sun is setting, the birds are chirping, you are sitting on your front porch with a glass of lemonade….

…Until you actually start looking. Reality hits, and it hits hard.

For me, someone who had my head filled with that “perfect” image of the perfect piece of land, it was hard to swallow that this “perfect” land is pretty hard to come by. Oh, and did I mention, really expensive?

Andrew and I spent a solid year looking at plots of land. By the time we were ready to put in an offer on our current property, I felt like we had looked all over East Tennessee. Twice.

Be Honest with Yourself

I am the worst at this. I get caught up in the “dream” and seldom think about the reality of the situation. There were a couple properties that we really liked, but when we were honest with ourselves, these properties were way too far out for our liking. A good 45-minute drive to work or even just a 25-minute trip to the grocery store doesn’t seem too bad when you are standing in the middle of a pretty field, imagining your dream home. But, that commute may get old quick.

Think about why you want the land, and what your future plans for it are. Is it purely for the space? Is it going to serve some sort of function, like for gardening or farming? Or, maybe it has been your lifelong dream to have a huge in ground swimming pool. Consider this, and think about what the land would realistically need to offer.

 For Andrew and I, we definitely wanted the space, but we also had dreams of a big garden. We needed land that could offer not only space for this, but also a flat growing area and plenty of sunshine! It would have been hard to fulfill this dream if we had bought land in the middle of a bunch of trees. It would have been costly clearing out a spot to garden in.

It’s Not Just the Land… It’s what’s around it, too.

This one is super important. (Speaking from experience here).

Early on in our search for land, we found a property that was in a good area, and for a good price! It also was close to 10 acres. We were excited and immediately went out to go take a look. It didn’t take long to realize why the land was priced the way it was. Directly behind the property was a huge overnight dog kennel. You didn’t have to get near it to hear the dogs constantly barking. Yikes.

Things like this happened a couple more times. We eventually learned to google map each property and do a satellite and street view to see what was directly around it beforehand. It saved us a lot of time driving around to properties that we knew were a bust before we even got out of the car.

Do Your Research

*These next couple paragraphs are important ones, as they contain a lot of questions to ask yourself. Don’t let them overwhelm you- I promise they are here to help.  

It goes without saying that not all pieces of land are created equal. Not just in how they look, but the restrictions and amenities they have to offer, too. Does the property have lot restrictions that may interfere with how or what kind of house you want to build? (Side note: Our property has lot restrictions, and this has actually been a good thing! We don’t have to worry about someone coming in on the properties around us and building a big subdivision). Another pro to lot restrictions is that it keeps up our property value. It also ensures that the land around us will be kept up, too.

The biggest con to buying land with restrictions is that you may not be able to build exactly what you want. They may have restrictions on the number of outbuildings you can have. You may want to run a small business or rent part of your property and can’t. It can also create unnecessary expenses, such as your driveway has to be paved, underground utilities… the list goes on.

Also, if your land happens to be a part of a subdivision, it may come with HOA fees attached. We looked at a couple properties like this, and knowing the price we would have to pay in fees every year was enough to make our decision pretty easily on whether or not that land was something we wanted to pursue.

Finally, the utilities. Does the land come with access to city water, or would you need to pay to dig a well? Is a sewer line available to hook into or will you have to install a septic system? Do you have access to natural gas? Or will you have to dig a propane tank, or just go all electric? Will you have access to cable/internet? These are all questions your realtor can help to answer. It’s usually really quick and easy to answer these types of questions, and they are definitely worth asking.

Nothing Beats Going for a Drive

Andrew and I spent most of our free time for awhile getting in the car and just going for a drive to look at land. We would do our research, write down a list of 10 or more properties to look at, and just go. We’d spend hours driving to different parts of town and getting out and walking the land.

Here is where reality really starts to set in, because what Google street view doesn’t always show you is, oh, this road to get to this property is super narrow and kind of sketchy, or hey, this land would be really hard to build on because its basically the side of a mountain. Andrew and I drove out to look at one property that looked really cool online, but upon further inspection, was basically solid rock. There were also a bunch of caves all over the property. Sounds cool, but for two people who wanted to dig a basement and grow a garden, buying property that was basically all rock and no soil was a big no go.

Don’t Rush It

Its tempting to think that if you see a property you like, you need to immediately put an offer in on it or risk losing it. I’m not saying to dawdle, but its worth going out to look at the property multiple times, preferably at different times of the day. This gives you more of an idea of what the traffic is going to be like, what the neighbors (if any) are like, and so on. Land is a big investment and an important first step in the home building process. You need to make sure you like it and would be happy there long term.

All in all, if it is one thing I have learned, just like most things in life, is that the perfect plot of land doesn’t really exist. I can just about guarantee you that anyone who has built a house has done some sort of amendment to their land to make it how they like it. Its been flattened out in some spots, built up in others. Man made ponds and creeks have been dug. Trees have been planted just so and had time to really mature. Let this be good news to you! Its exciting to think of buying a “blank slate” so to speak, and making it entirely your own.

If you made it to the end of this post, you deserve a pat on the back and a sincere congrats. I’m proud of you for sticking with me this long.

Again, the purpose of this post was not to overwhelm you with questions to ask and information to dig into. Instead, I hope you found it informative and even encouraging in this exciting-but sometimes-frustrating season.

Stay encouraged, friends. The “perfect” place for you will come along soon enough.

  Rachael