How to Buy a Vacant Home Site

Purchasing a building lot for your custom home can be a great experience if you take the time to educate yourself on the complexities of buying and building on vacant land.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Telephones
• Attorney Referral Services
• Contractor Referral Services
• Notebooks
• Personal Organizers
• Writing Pens
• Cellular Phones
• Notebooks

1. Retain an attorney with experience in land transactions and development.

2. Enter into a contract contingent upon your ability to obtain a building permit for your desired home design.

3. Check with local utility companies to confirm that electric and gas service are available at the site. See if there are any connection charges.

4. Check if there is public water service available at the site. If not, allow for the expense of well drilling in your construction costs.

5. Contact the town to check if there are public sewer lines to the property, and confirm that there is capacity available. If not, allow for the cost of installing a septic system.

6. Confirm that the seller has obtained a septic system design suitable for your proposed house if you require a septic system, and that the design has been approved by the local board of health.

7. Contact the town building department to confirm that the lot is correctly zoned for your proposed use and that the house will fit within the allowable setbacks and other restrictions.

8. Confirm that the seller has had the site checked for wetlands and that your proposed use is fully compliant with all wetlands regulations.

9. Inspect the lot with your contractor to confirm that the topography will not cause any unexpected costs during construction.

10. File your blueprints and building permit application and confirm that there will be no problem with receiving a permit.

11. Close title to the property.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure that your attorney is experienced in land transactions. Purchasing vacant land is actually far more complex than simply buying a house.
• Do not hesitate to retain additional experts if you have any question as to your complete understanding of the situation.
• Hire an experienced engineer immediately if you are dealing with any matters pertaining to wetlands or septic systems.
• It is extremely risky to purchase land outright, without a contingency for obtaining a building permit.
• Wetlands and septic system issues are subject to extremely stringent regulation - make certain you have a good engineer if dealing with these issues. These issues can make your lot absolutely unusable and virtually worthless - do not fool around with them.

on 9/5/2006 Even if your land purchase is for future use, it is wise to check the floodplain designation for your property. Your insurance agency can provide the FEMA designation, but official confirmation must come from the county or state. This designation is used to determine eligibility and cost of flood insurance.

Another issue can be soil stability and issues of soil expansion and contraction,which need to be considered in the design and placement of a house. This information should be checked with a county or state environmental quality department.

on 11/22/2005 Our realtor recommended that we drill the well prior to purchase, as she learned that people in our area need water treatment systems. She felt that this would assist us in asking for credit from the buyer, due to the cost of water treatment.

on 11/22/2005 One more area that you have to explore is the existence of toxic wastes on the property. Anything from oil leaks to chicken carcasses can make the land toxic - and, in California for example, the responsibility for cleanup falls on the current owner.