Check the Ground Before You Break ItBuying Land to Build On: What to Check First

A beautiful piece of ground can hide costly problems; here's what to check before you commit.

People fall in love with land. The view, the trees, the quiet. I understand it.

But land is the one part of a building project you can't change later. You can redesign a house. You can't easily redesign a hillside, a wet spot, or a zoning rule. So the time to ask hard questions is before you sign, or at least before your contingencies run out.

Here's what I look at first.

Zoning and setbacks

Zoning is the local rule about what you can build and where. Can you put a house there? A detached garage? A home business? Livestock?

Setbacks are the minimum distances from property lines, roads, and sometimes streams. On a narrow or oddly shaped lot, setbacks can shrink your buildable area a lot. Call the township or municipal zoning office and ask directly. Pennsylvania zoning is largely set at the municipal level, so rules can change from one township to the next.

Access and easements

How do you get to the property? A lot that "touches" a road isn't always one you can legally drive onto. Some lots depend on a shared lane or a right-of-way across a neighbor's land.

An easement is a legal right for someone else to use part of your property, such as a utility line, a shared driveway, or drainage. Easements can limit where you build. Your title search and survey should show them; your attorney can explain what they mean.

Utilities

Is power at the road, or does it have to be brought in a long way? Is there public water and sewer, or will you need a well and septic? What about internet and gas?

Call the utility companies early. Bringing service to a remote lot can take time and add real cost.

Well and septic: the perc test

If there's no public sewer, you'll likely need an on-lot septic system. That depends on whether the soil can absorb and treat wastewater, which is checked with soil probes and a percolation (perc) test.

In Pennsylvania, on-lot septic permitting usually runs through a local Sewage Enforcement Officer under state Department of Environmental Protection rules. Check with your township about who handles it for your parcel. A lot that fails can be very hard, or impossible, to build on as planned. I'd make a passing site evaluation a condition of purchase if at all possible.

For wells, talk to neighbors and local well drillers about typical depth, yield, and water quality.

Soils, slope, and drainage

Soil affects your foundation. Some soils hold well; others shift, hold water, or have rock just under the surface that's slow to dig through.

Slope affects everything: driveway, foundation, erosion, and where water goes. Walk the land after a heavy rain. Look for standing water, soggy ground, and channels where runoff flows. Water always wins, so plan with it, not against it. For anything questionable, a geotechnical (soils) engineer can give you real answers.

Safety note: steep ground, old wells, and unmarked holes on rural land are real hazards. Walk carefully, and don't go poking around excavations alone.

Floodplain

Check FEMA flood maps for the parcel, and ask the municipality about local floodplain rules. Building in a flood zone can limit what you can do and affect insurance and lending. Your lender and insurance agent will want to know.

Survey and title

A boundary survey shows where your lines actually are, along with easements, encroachments (a neighbor's fence or shed on your land), and sometimes features like streams or wetlands.

A title search confirms the seller can sell and shows liens, restrictions, and covenants. Deed restrictions or HOA rules can limit house size, materials, outbuildings, and more. Read them. Then have your attorney read them.

The cost to develop

This is where surprises live. Raw land isn't ready land. Before the house, you may need clearing, a driveway, grading, utility runs, a well, a septic system, stormwater controls, erosion and sediment controls during construction, and permits for all of it.

A cheap lot with hard ground, no utilities, and a long driveway can end up costing more to build on than a pricier lot that's ready to go. Price the whole picture, not just the land.

Take your time on the front end

In my disaster relief work with Samaritan's Purse, I saw up close what water and poor ground can do to a home. The best protection is knowing what you're buying before you buy it.

If you're looking at a piece of land and want a clear-eyed look before you commit, my Land & Feasibility Assessments walk through zoning, access, utilities, septic, drainage, and the hidden costs, then put it all in plain language. Give me a call and let's walk the ground together.