What you need to know when looking for land

This might not be the newsletter topic for everyone, but I do think it’s an important thing to talk about. Buying undeveloped land isn’t like buying a home. It’s about finding land that has the features, location, and potential based on what your visions are for that land. And you need to be able to see it in a way that is right for you. Here are some things that I feel are critical to finding what is right for you:

1.       An agent who listens to your wants and needs. (See our last blog that goes deeper into this.)

The more acreage you are looking for (5, 10, 20, 40, 80 acres, etc.) the more important it will be to get their keen eye on listings and general areas that match the features that you are looking for, etc. Listings aren’t much longer for a 50 acre property than they are for a home. In fact, they are usually shorter despite the fact that they are so much larger. Your agent will know what to look for in listings to match your interests.

2.      Know what you really want to see when you are visiting each property.

Drones are an amazing way of seeing so much of what a larger piece of property really looks like, but it isn’t going to show you everything. So, making sure that your agent and their team can look at the property how YOU want to look at it is key.

For example, if you’re a hiker and love to spend time in nature, looking at undeveloped land is kind of a dream of a day. For 40+ acres and seeing the full breadth of a property, there’s a lot of walking to do! You get to explore these private spaces that hold all these visual treasures that likely don’t get many eyes on them.

But, if you have any mobility issues or are going to see multiple properties and the mileage might be well past what your daily movement is, you might want to have access to an ATV when you visit the property. Not all properties will be accessible on ATV, but most will be.

3.      Make sure that you have the right tools and information with you on site so that you know that you are within property limits.

For example, the first property we looked at in Tennessee had a gorgeous creek shown on the front of the listing. Christian and I were enamored with it – water was one of the features that Christian really wanted on the property that we purchased. But when our agent used his app (Hunt, by OnXmaps), he could clearly see that when we stood next to the creek that it wasn’t even on the property we were looking at. It was really critical for us to know that! The best and most accurate digital tools for marking property boundaries are hunting apps. There are fees associated with them, and if you are looking at several states you may need to pay several fees. But most have free trials so that you can try them out the day of – just make sure that they are installed on your phone and set up ahead of time in case cell reception isn’t strong enough for the download.

Knowing how to discern physical property markings is also important. Again, your agent should be able to do this with and for you, but there are ways that trees are painted (if the property has them) to mark corners versus property boundaries, and many have steel markers in the corners or where there are distinct new angles to note. On our property, we have some “angle irons” along a hill that marks the property between us and our neighbor. To be honest, even an agent would not have been able to find them on our wooded property, but our neighbor was able to climb the hill and show us where it was. (Though that was well after we purchased the property and got to know him.)

4.      Know what you’re willing to build and manage when you’re putting in infrastructure, and what you are willing to clean up.

When we purchased our property, it had three separate mobile units on it in various states of collapse, as well as 200 tires and a lot of garbage. That cleanup was completed by a professional and the cost taken off of our offer price, similar to what you would do with a home fix. But that professional cleanup cannot address what will be revealed over time as the soil shifts from rain. Very likely the garbage you see above ground will not be all that is present!

Idywild had a makeshift logging road – good for ATV use or a 4wheel drive vehicle when the road wasn’t wet – but that is it as far as infrastructure when we bought it. That means that in order to build a house or move people around in any kind of vehicle and any kind of weather, we had to build a road. Roads can come in various materials and sizes, but it is a sizable investment no matter what. With tree removal, grading, and materials that often have to be reapplied more than once, road building is a commitment. Do you have the time, knowledge and resources to manage that? We are all ambitious when we are excited about something, but if you are on a tight timeline or just aren’t interested in managing that type of construction that’s ok. Look for a property with a road. The same goes for electricity and water. Does electricity currently run to the property’s edge? Is there a well or running water that you can use for consumption and household use? All of these things are important characteristics to look for – or not! – when searching for your dream property, so that you’re able to create what you’d like to create in the time that you have.

I hope that this was helpful to some of you out there, and I would love to hear if you have any other suggestions in the comments below.