7 Things to NOT DO When Buying Land to Build On

Congratulations on starting the process of buying land to build your dream home on or to build your family legacy! Here are 7 things you DON’T want to do when you start this process!

1. Don’t figure out your budget

The first thing to NOT do is determine your budget. You’ll need at least 10-20% down to purchase a piece of land using a bank. If you’re able to find someone who will finance the property for you, it will still likely be about 10%, and that’s just for the land. If you don’t know your budget for the land AND the home, then you may end up with a beautiful piece of property but not be able to move on it because you used all of your budget to buy it. And if you don’t know what your budget is, you may end up looking at land you’d never be able to buy in the first place. This makes for an even longer search than you planned on, simply because you didn’t take the time to find out how much land you’ll be able to buy.

2. Don’t walk the Property, just buy it online

Another way to end up with a nightmare property is to buy land just from what you see online. At Lonestar Land Sales, we do our best to give you an accurate depiction of what the land looks like. However, there is nothing that beats seeing it in person with your own lives. This will also likely be one of the largest investments you’ll make, so it’s worth it to make time to see it in person. The last thing you want is to end up with a property that looked perfect online but is terrible for what you wanted.

Another thing to avoid is not having public access to your house. Unless you plan on committing to the Off-Grid life, you will need a formal 9-1-1 address. This means that you’ll need to have some form of public access to your property. Most of the time this looks like a country road or common road outside of your property.

You also don’t want to skip checking for utilities. Again, unless you’re thinking the Off-Grid life is for you, utilities like water and electricity will be very important to giving you the life you want to live on land. You’ll be in for a long and expensive process if you buy land without checking to see if utilities are available. This is something you want to specifically ask. Just because you can see an electric line or water line does not mean that your property will have those things. Whether you’re working directly with the owner or with an agent, you’ll want to ask about this specifically.

5. Don’t check to see if you can build on the property

Imagine FINALLY buying the property that you’ve been dreaming about and searching for. You’re ready to move onto the property and start building your dream home. But then you find out there isn’t a suitable spot on the property for you to build your dream home. Sadly, that happens FAR too often! What you can do to avoid that is to ask for or buy a percolation test to be conducted on the property before you buy it. This will give you an idea of how large of a structure you can build on the property. Having this before you buy is critical to making sure you are buying the property that is best for YOU!

6. Don’t check to see what easements or reservations are on the property

You’ll also want to check to see what easements or reservations are connected to the property. Easements are what allow certain people to have access to your property for a certain reason. Many times this looks like sharing a road with your neighbor so that you can access your property and they can access their property. This is something that you’ll want to ask for specifically as well. During the whole buying process, it can be easy for something like this to slip through the cracks, so make sure you ask for this and are clear about who is able to access your property and why.

7. Don’t ask about the restrictions on the property

One of the final things you’ll want to avoid is NOT asking about restrictions on the property. Some properties have very strict restrictions and HOAs. At Lonestar Land Sales, the land you buy from us will have light restrictions that are meant for your neighbor than for you. It’s important that you know these restrictions so that you know what you can and can’t do on the property. The last thing you’d want to see happen is that your plans are to simply put an RV or mobile home on the property but then you buy the property and find out that you can only build a house on the property. Again, ask for the restrictions specifically before you buy, and make sure you’re clear on what they mean and how that affects what you’re planning to do.

There you go! There are 7 things you DON’T want to do before you buy land to build a home on. Make sure you’ve checked on those 7 things and you’ll be more than ready to start this endeavor and enjoy the process! Check out this blog to learn more about what to expect!

Deciding to purchase land in Tennessee is a significant step forward in land ownership. When you work with the property experts at Legacy Farm Group, you can be sure that we will provide these documents for you so that you can get on your land as soon as possible!

Contact us to get started on buying your land in Tennessee! Explore our available properties here