Tell me about buying land...

[tgray99]

DH and I are interested in buying some rural land fairly close to a small city. We eventually want to build a home on it but because the area is pretty popular right now, we want to get some acreage before all the developers buy it up. Does anyone have any experience doing this? We'll need utilities eventually, is that something we look for when we're buying the property or is that something that we can deal with later (ie, drill a well or tap into city water lines, etc)? Also, how do you make sure that your land won't be right up against a future business area? Is there a zoning thing we should be looking for?

TIA!

[dreamgirly]

I don't have any personal experience with this, but we will be doing it within the next 6 months or so, so I'm along for the ride with you...

Also, my parents have done this, and they look up the county property appraisers website and look at the plots of land, to see vacant land, get the persons name & address who owns it, then sends them a letter requesting purchase of the property and if the owner is willing to sell it, they agree on a price. Although they have never developed the land they purchase, it is just an investment so I don't know about the utility stuff. And it tells you if it's residential or commercial property on the appraiser website. HTH :)

[momama]

We were looking at purchasing land recently, we ended up going with a builder's package (land & house). I have to say that, around here at least, buying lots of land is hard to come by. I think developers/builders get inside tracks or something because almost every bit of land we were looking at was owned by a builder who was only selling packages. But, the few lots that we did find had all the testing etc. done already.

We looked up the land around the lots we were most interested in to be sure that it wouldn't be developed, most of it was deeded open space.

I don't have any further help or details because we ended up not buying a lot by itself.

Good Luck! Its very fun & exciting. :)

[fuzzy]

While we didn't buy land, we considered it before we found our current home. Two things we were told to look for: 1) did it have enough road frontage to qualify as a building lot (we have to have 200 ft of frontage) and 2) Generally speaking, is water readily available in the area (for a well)?

[mamax2]

DH and I have bought land twice, the things you want to consider:

- Your building envelope - how much space can you actually build on? The plat/survey should show this and is readily available from: the listing agent, the property owner, the county or the local land surveyor (if you know who surveyed the property)

- Does it have county/city water/sewer? Is it slated to get county water/sewer? when? No to all of the above? You're going to want to get a valid perc test done, if it's not on file, make your offer contingent on the lot passing perc. Call the county and ask for typical well depths in that area so you know what type of drill depth you'll be paying for.

- Zoning, well, zoning ordinances can change so unless they are conservation areas or wetlands, I wouldn't be 100% certain that rural property will stay designated rural. It could go residential, commercial or light industrial. Of course, if you're looking at buying a REALLY large piece of property, you probably don't have to be concerned about anyone being all that close.

- Is the property subdividable? County and/or surveyor can tell you this. If you're looking at a large tract, you may want the option of subdividing at a later date - this would help you insure it stays residential and gives you some say-so in what happens around you. Also, possible income producing potential.