Finding Land

You don't need to own a lot before you talk to us.

Most of our customers already have their land when they call. A good number don't — and that is a perfectly normal place to start.

We are builders, not realtors, so we won't sell you a parcel. What we can do is walk a lot with you before you buy it and tell you what building on it would actually involve, and point you at someone who knows what is for sale.

What we look at when we walk a lot

Six things move the cost of building more than anything else. None of them are visible from a listing photograph.

  • Access

    How the site is reached, and what it costs to get a road in. On a wooded mountain lot this is regularly the biggest surprise in the budget.

  • Grade

    Steeper ground costs more to build on. It can also be the reason the view exists, so it is a trade rather than a fault.

  • Perc and septic

    Whether the ground will take a septic field, and where. This governs where the house can sit — so it belongs near the front of the process, not the end.

  • Utilities

    How far the nearest power and phone lines run, and whether they come in overhead or underground.

  • Orientation

    Where the sun comes from and where the view is. These are free to get right on paper and expensive to fix afterwards.

  • The buildable envelope

    Setbacks, easements, and the shape of the ground together decide how much of a lot you can actually build on. It is often smaller than it looks.

A gravel road running away downhill between bare trees, leaf litter along both verges and a blue mountain ridge in the distance
A road cut in, before anything else happens. On a wooded mountain lot this is regularly the largest line item nobody budgeted for.
The home from the open hillside, deck along the near side and the ground falling away to a distant valley
Grade, doing its work. The ground falls away toward the valley, and the walkout level under the deck is a room the slope made possible.

If a lot needs clearing, a drive cut in, or a septic system, that is work we do ourselves — see excavation and site work.

Looking at something specific?

Send us the address or the parcel number before you commit to it. We would far rather tell you what a lot involves while you can still walk away from it.

Get in touch (304) 496-9839