Buying Land to Build On in Central Virginia: What to Check

Building your dream home with Keel Custom Homes on a personally selected lot can be incredibly rewarding, but it requires careful consideration and planning. Here are a few key factors to be aware of before purchasing your land:

Zoning and Land Use Regulations

Tarrington Midlothian Virginia

Check local zoning laws and land use regulations to ensure the lot is suitable for residential construction. Some areas may restrict the type of structures you can build, minimum lot sizes, and setback requirements. Keel Custom Homes is happy to put you in touch with the right people who can help you understand zoning.

Soil Quality and Land Topography

Conduct a soil test to determine the land's suitability for construction. Poor soil quality or challenging topography can lead to increased construction costs and potential structural issues. Ensure the lot has suitable soil and a level (as possible) building site.

Access to Utilities

Verify the availability and proximity of essential utilities such as water, electricity, gas, and sewage systems. If the lot is in a rural area, the cost of extending these services to your property can be significant. Keel can help you understand the costs and risks of the utility connection locations.

Environmental Restrictions

Investigate any environmental restrictions that may apply to the lot, such as wetlands, flood zones, or protected wildlife habitats. Building in these areas may require special permits and limit your construction options.

Access and Easements

Ensure the lot has legal access via a public road or an easement. Review any easements affecting your property, such as utility lines or shared driveways, as they can impact your building plans and property usage.

Land grading and site prep work

Cost of Site Preparation

Consider the cost of preparing the lot for construction, including clearing trees, grading the land, driveway length, and installing drainage systems. These costs can add up quickly and should be factored into your budget.

Property Taxes and Insurance

Understand the property tax rates and insurance requirements for the lot. High property taxes or mandatory flood insurance can impact your overall cost of ownership.

Engaging the Professionals

Hire professionals, such as a land surveyor and a builder familiar with building on your lot, to assist with the purchase and development of the lot. Their expertise can help you navigate the complexities of land acquisition and construction planning. For expert guidance and quality construction, Keel Custom Homes is your trusted custom home builder in Virginia, specializing in building high-quality custom homes in Richmond and surrounding areas.

In conclusion, purchasing a lot to build your home involves more than just finding a piece of land you love. By being aware of these critical factors and conducting thorough due diligence, you can make an informed decision and lay a solid foundation for your dream home.

Start with the perc test

In much of Central Virginia, whether a lot is buildable comes down to a percolation test. If the property is not on public sewer, the soil has to absorb and filter wastewater at an acceptable rate before the health department will issue a septic permit.

A failed perc test does not always mean no house — an alternative or engineered system may still be possible — but it changes the budget substantially, and those systems carry higher maintenance obligations. A conventional drainfield needs a reserve area set aside as well, land you cannot build over, which affects where the house can sit.

If you are looking at rural land in Goochland, Powhatan, Hanover or New Kent, treat the perc result as the first question rather than a formality. Make any purchase contingent on it if testing has not already been done.

Water: public, well, or neither

Public water is straightforward. A well is not difficult either, but it is a cost line rather than an assumption, and depth varies considerably across the region — two lots a mile apart can differ by hundreds of feet of drilling.

Ask what neighbouring properties encountered. Ask whether the seller has a well log. And confirm whether public water runs to the property line or merely along a road some distance away, because the connection cost is yours.

Read the plat, not just the listing

A survey and recorded plat tell you what the listing photographs cannot: the exact boundaries, the recorded easements, and the road frontage.

• Easements give someone else rights over part of your land — a utility corridor, a shared driveway, a neighbour's access. You cannot build over them, and they are not always obvious on the ground.
• Setbacks dictate how close to each boundary you may build. On a narrow or oddly shaped lot, setbacks can shrink the buildable envelope far below what the acreage suggests.
• Road frontage minimums apply in many localities, and a private road raises questions about who maintains it and under what agreement.

The buildable area — what remains after setbacks, easements, and any reserve drainfield — is the number that matters. It is frequently smaller than buyers expect.

Flood zones, wetlands and streams

Check the FEMA flood map before anything else on this list, because the answer is free and immediate. A lot inside a designated flood zone will require flood insurance, and lenders will insist on it.

Wetlands are the subtler problem. Land that looks like an ordinary damp corner may be federally regulated, and disturbing it requires permits that take time and sometimes do not come. Streams and their buffers carry similar restrictions under Virginia's water protection rules. If any part of the property is low, wet, or has a watercourse running through it, a delineation is worth commissioning before you commit.

Covenants and architectural review

If the lot sits within a subdivision or an HOA, recorded covenants may govern far more than you expect: minimum square footage, permitted exterior materials, roof pitch, fencing, outbuildings, even where you may park a boat.

Some communities also require plans to pass an architectural review committee before permits are pulled, which adds a step and a timeline to the design phase. None of this is a reason to walk away — it is a reason to read the documents before you sign rather than after.

What site work actually costs

The purchase price is rarely the whole cost of making a lot buildable. The drivers to price out are consistent:

• Clearing and grading — how much of the site must be cleared, and how far the land must move to create a level building pad.
• Driveway length. A long approach is one of the largest and most commonly overlooked line items, particularly if it crosses a ditch and needs a culvert.
• Utility runs. Distance from the road to the house multiplies every service: water, power, and any gas.
• Rock. Excavating rock is expensive and difficult to predict from the surface.
• Tree removal and stump disposal, which is separate from clearing.

A steeply sloping, heavily wooded lot at the back of a long drive can carry site costs several times those of a flat, cleared lot on a public road — before a single foundation footing is poured. When comparing two properties, compare the finished cost of a buildable site, not the asking prices.

Walk it before you buy — with your builder

The single most useful hour you can spend is walking the property with someone who builds on land for a living. Topography, drainage patterns, likely house placement, sun orientation, where the drive would run, and which trees are worth keeping are all far easier to read standing on the site than from a plat.

That is what a lot walk is for, and it is worth doing before the offer rather than after. A lot that fails a perc test or hides a wetland is much easier to walk away from while it is still someone else's.

If you would rather work from something printable while you walk properties, our land purchasing checklist covers the same ground in a form you can take with you.

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