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Greetings from Houston, TX. My fiancee and me have identified a plot of land, ~4 acres in an acreage community in Houston, i.e. lots on which owners custom build homes. The community has a home owners association.
The plot we are interested is in for sale by owner. We have never bought land before, and plan to buy the land now and construct a home later.
There is no time limit to construct.
The owner has a survey from 2012, and is willing to provide a new one if needed. However, we are not smart enough to comprehend the survey and may need some professional help.
Can we hire a surveyor or some other professional to comprehend the survey for us?
We will need to build our own septic and water well, which is the norm in that community, the existing homes have done it.
What other questions do we need to ask the owner? How else can we evaluate the land, apart from assessing the neighborhood and price?
We are interested in getting a soil sample tested, which a major university does for a very competitive fee. Is it ok to ask the owner to collect soil to conduct this test at our expense of course.
What else would you recommend doing in order for us to evaluate if the land is a good buy or not?
Buying good land for a house can be a complex decision, but if there is city water and sewage disposal it is much simpler.
The soil test is not what you think it is. It is not a small sample that you take to the lab. A specialist must come out and take several soil cores to evaluate what the structure of the soil is in different parts of the land to help him determine what kind of a septic system you will need. The soil cores help describe the types of through-the-soil drainage that can be expected. If the soil drains too fast or too slow you will have problems with dissipation of your water waste and thus require an expensive dispersal system (up to $30,000 in some cases).
For water, you might need a well, and not all land has easily available water. You may also need a hydrologist, or an expert to determine if environmental hazards are buried on the property.
I imagine you could contact a builder, a land developer, a real estate attorney, or perhaps your county planning department to get advice on the things you will need to know. Hopefully another poster will give you more compete info than I have, but I just want to get you started.
Haha, remembering friends that didn't get a water test because, why,
everyone else around in Sandia Park, NM had great water.
Big mistake...their land got something like 10 gallons a minute compared
to 300 gallons a minute...I made that part up, but...something like that.
Make your offer contingent on the lot (1) passing a perk test (which you need to get a permit to install a septic), (2) an acceptible opinion from a local well digger about the possiblity of finding water and what the well depth is in that area, plus the quality of well water in the area.
If the land has been recently surveyed, there should be corner markers. You take the plot map and match it to the marked corners. If any of the pins are missing, make your offer contingent upon having the corners professionally marked.
Don't buy anything that doesn't have power to the property line. Power is outrageously expensive to bring in if it isn't already there. call the electric company to find out how much to install power.
Slopes, even small slopes mean big money for cutting a building pad and driveway.
Make sure it isn't the lowest property or you will get run-off from everyone else when it rains.
I don't like a lot of rock because that makes it expensive to dig the foundation and water lines and underground power, if you want underground.
Greetings from Houston, TX. My fiancee and me have identified a plot of land, ~4 acres in an acreage community in Houston, i.e. lots on which owners custom build homes. The community has a home owners association.
The plot we are interested is in for sale by owner. We have never bought land before, and plan to buy the land now and construct a home later.
There is no time limit to construct.
The owner has a survey from 2012, and is willing to provide a new one if needed. However, we are not smart enough to comprehend the survey and may need some professional help.
Can we hire a surveyor or some other professional to comprehend the survey for us?
We will need to build our own septic and water well, which is the norm in that community, the existing homes have done it.
What other questions do we need to ask the owner? How else can we evaluate the land, apart from assessing the neighborhood and price?
We are interested in getting a soil sample tested, which a major university does for a very competitive fee. Is it ok to ask the owner to collect soil to conduct this test at our expense of course.
What else would you recommend doing in order for us to evaluate if the land is a good buy or not?
Thank you,
thehoustonian
You can hire a surveyor but this is something that the title company should handle. You'll want at least a geo tech study done (soils). A lender may require a Phase 1 or other environmental study. Request any studies from the seller. Make building permits a condition to close so you abate much of the risk in buying land. Check the building envelope. Request the hoa docs (they are public record and available online in MD), make sure what you intend to build fits with the architectural regs, find out if the roads are public or private. What easements are on the lot? Are you taking out an A and D loan or paying cash?
Frankly there are a 1000 things you should ask. I would hire someone to consult with because it doesn't sound like you know what you're getting into.
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