How To Know If Land Is Buildable

If you are interested in ownership vacant land in order to build your next house, this guide outlines non only how to buy country but the specific and unique challenges of buying vacant land in Olympia, Washington and the greater Thurston County surface area.

Where to Detect Vacant State Listings?

Equally y'all would look for existing homes, start with a search on your favorite brokerage site like my site, Coldwellbanker.com, johnlscott.com, refin.com, etc.  Third-party sites similar Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com are not reliable sources for information, so stick with sites where realtors actually piece of work (brokerage sites) and you'll become the most accurate and up-to-engagement information.  Read more than here about the pitfalls of using third-party websites.

How to Research if the Land is Buildable?

Thurston County has excellent resource to notice information about vacant state or whatsoever property, for that matter.

I'd recommend starting hither https://www.co.thurston.wa.us/permitting/ and going to Geodata Maps.

Geodata is a powerful mapping program and this is what the canton planners employ, too.

Watch this video equally I go through researching a property:

What Buyers Need to Know about Ownership Vacant Land in Thurston County, WA

When researching vacant state, here is what to await for:

What is the zoning of the property? Make sure information technology is zoned for your use.  If you plan on building a home, you'd want the zoning to be residential (versus commercial, for case).

Are there easements? Usually there are utility easements, which is very normal and mutual merely check to meet how you would access the belongings.  Does it have its ain access from a public road or would the holding demand (or does information technology already accept) an easement for access?  You cannot build on an easement that would limit or prohibit the employ of that land by the easement owner.

Are there homeowner association rules and restrictions (CC&Rs)? If yous are researching a package that is under neighborhood covenants, those covenants will outline the size and type of dwelling that tin exist congenital and other standards that would be required.

For example, the rules may non let manufactured homes, or your home needs to be 10 number of anxiety from the boundary line, or there is a minimal size of habitation that is allowed.

Is the parcel located within a metropolis's limits or is it in unincorporated Thurston County?  For parcels of country within a city's limits, you'll also want to go to that metropolis's planning department.

Common building restrictions in Thurston Canton

Thurston County has many environmental concerns that affect edifice such as preserving fish and wild animals habitat areas, wetlands, and bodies of water.  Many require a buffer or a setback, which can shrink the building envelope of a parcel.  Many buyers of vacant country presume they can employ and develop every inch of the holding.  In many instances, this isn't the instance due to the protection of these critical area and/or the required setbacks.

Here are the common issues that bear upon what and where yous tin build on the parcel:

Critical Areas – these can exist found on Geodata Maps.  Critical areas are:

• Important fish and wild fauna habitat areas

• Wetlands

• Critical aquifer recharge areas

• Frequently flooded areas

• Geologically hazardous areas like bluffs and slopes

On Geodata Maps, you tin can see if whatsoever of these critical areas be simply you'll need to speak with a Thurston County or city planner to understand what this means for developing the parcel.

About of these critical areas will require setbacks or a buffer to protect them.  For example, if there is a fish-bearing creek on the property, the house may need to be X number of anxiety away from that creek.  (For a recent parcel I researched, the planner stated the setback from this particular creek had to be between 150-250 feet depending upon other factors.)

Shorelines (Puget Sound inlets, lakes, rivers)

Thurston County has a Shoreline Principal Program that manages evolution forth any shorelines and therefore is regulated under this program and/or the Critical Area Ordinance.  A county planner would need to provide assistance to y'all to determine if the belongings contains a shoreline that is regulated and what is allowed.

A few examples of work that is regulated by the Shoreline Master Program includes home edifice, land clearing, and installing or replacing bulkheads, stairs, docks, etc.

Special Overflowing Chance Areas

Floods are the most mutual natural hazard in Thurston Canton, and rivers, streams and groundwater are typical causes of flooding.  If the property is in a flood zone or in a Special Flood Hazard Area, you tin can go through an exception process to build.  Your Thurston County planner can guide yous on this.

Pocket Gopher Report

In Thurston County, yous'll hear a lot of talk about the Mazama pocket gopher. This threatened species of gopher has been chosen the "ecosystem engineers" of prairie and grasslands because of their many benefits to the soil, vegetation and other animals.

As their habitats are being lost due to development, their numbers have declined and they are now protected under land and federal law.

What this means for land buyers:

When yous apply for a building permit, the county will need to inspect the land for these gophers. One of the bigger headaches for landowners is these inspections are only done between June 1st to October 31st because that'due south when the gophers are active. And two inspections will be done, xxx days apart. This can delay your building plans.

If pocket gophers are nowadays, many building projects tin still go forward with modifications such as moving where the building is to be constructed, alter the building footprint, and designating areas of the property every bit gopher habitat.

            Reality Check:          

Wetlands, slopes and prairie lands (where the protected and endangered Pocket Gopher lives) are very common issues with country in Thurston County.  The required setbacks and buffer zones can dramatically shrink where you can identify the house, what size of house you can build and even if you tin add a shop or barn.

In my own professional experience, I had a seller who purchased vacant state about twenty years ago.  He did not develop information technology at the fourth dimension and when he tried to sell it, the planning rules for development had changed so much that this lot became unbuildable.

The green dotted line denotes wetlands and the left edge of the parcel is the route. The edge of the wetlands to the street is 175 feet. When my client was trying to sell this packet, the neighborhood rules (CC&Rs) stated the dwelling needed to exist gear up back from the road 50 feet. The county required the setback from the edge of the wetlands to be 250 feet. Betwixt these setbacks, this left this 1.5 acre lot completely unbuildable. (At that place were the setbacks required for this detail parcel. Your setbacks and requirements may be unlike.)

How to Finance Vacant Land?

If paying cash for the land isn't viable nor what you desire to do, you tin can get a structure loan to purchase the state.  Only this isn't a stand-alone loan; this loan is for you to also develop the country.

• Construction loans are temporary.

• Not all lenders offer construction loans.

• Structure loans require that you lot have a builder, plans and a cost canvass and budget as part of your loan awarding.

• Construction loans are risky for banks considering for i, there is no collateral.  The vacant country is not sufficient collateral.
  • Typically, borrowers tin expect to put down 20-xxx% (you cannot do a 0% VA loan, for example);
  • the involvement rate is usually higher than it is for an existing dwelling house loan;
  • many lenders crave the water to be on the belongings.  This ways if yous accept to drill for a well, that is an out-of-pocket price and not part of the loan.

• Structure loans, equally I mentioned, are temporary.  For example, your lender may offer this construction loan for 12 months.  At the end of 12 months, the home should exist completed.  At that time, your loan is then converted into a standard abode loan.  It's at this indicate, you can choose the loan product you are eligible for including a VA loan.

• For some lenders, the structure loan and the conversion to the permanent loan is a ii-step process meaning y'all could pay two sets of closing costs.  Other lenders offering a 1-footstep construction loan process where it automatically converts to a permanent loan without boosted closing costs.  In that location are pros and cons to each.

• Construction loans are involvement-just and the monthly payment increases as the project nears completion.

• Understand how draws are handled, who approves them, when they are paid out.

• Ask how cost sheet line items that come in over the toll are handled, and likewise, how are credits handled?  Can you apply credits to other line items?

If you are considering a structure loan, contact me for my list of preferred lenders.

            Reality Bank check:          

Many buyers are unaware of the costs to build.  Although yous may exist getting a loan, many costs are not included in the financing.  It can depend upon what your builder is including in the cost sheet, what your lender requires, and a long list of other items that will come up in your build including merely non limited to:

• Utilities – h2o, septic, electricity, gas, propane, cablevision

• Feasibility Studies – Geotech engineering, prairie land studies, septic perc test

• Surveys – finding the boundaries of the land

• Mitigation/touch fees – for schools, parks, transportation, etc.

• Loan costs (endmost costs)

• Structure overruns

• Items not included by your builder or outside of the cost sheet.  For example, a driveway, landscaping, fencing, etc.

• If the home doesn't appraise, y'all will be required to cover the difference

These things can add up apace add up and can easily get to a six-effigy toll.

If buyers do non take substantial cash reserves, building may not be the best option.

Another cost buyers forget: they however will accept to cover their current mortgage/hire along with making their construction loan monthly payments.  You'll demand the income to cover both payments.

            Reality Cheque – the Cost Sheet:          

The price canvass that the architect prepares will outline the costs for each stride of the build.  You'll want to know if the lender will pay out draws based on invoices?  Or just what the line item is for?

Builders may skim, pregnant the line detail for a roof may be $25,000 but it actually merely toll $xviii,000. The builder may pocket that $7,000 as his profit.

You'll want to know how the lender and the architect is treatment draws, cost sail line items, invoices, overages and credits.

What to practice During your Feasibility Period?

When offering to buy vacant country, I will suggest you make your offer contingent upon a satisfactory feasibility period.  This feasibility time is meant for the buyer to determine if the property can exist built and developed as the buyer intended.

Here are simply some of the professionals you lot'll need to determine the suitability of the land for your purposes:

Professionals Needed for your Country Buy

• Realtor

• Lender

• Builder

• Architect

• Chaser

For your feasibility studies, the most common professional consultations needed are:

• Metropolis and/or county planners and inspectors

• Prairie plant/pocket gopher inspector

• Geotechnical engineer (for slopes, evaluating landslide hazards, etc.)

• Surveyor

• Septic designer

• Well driller

• And more

            Reality Check:          

These will be inspections at the buyer'south price.

Some buyers are risk-adverse to paying for these costs only to find out they cannot build what they wanted.  Some sellers take not washed this legwork and put all of this run a risk on buyers. This is why information technology is of import to work with the city and/or county planners to discover out all you can before moving forward with an offer.

Septic Systems

If the holding will demand a septic system installed, a septic system designer will need to exist consulted.  They tin evaluate the soil to determine if and what kind of septic organization would exist suitable.  This is unremarkably referred to as a "perc" exam, which is brusque for percolation test.  They are testing to see how permeable the soil is for the drain field.  Loftier clay content or solid stone are the worst soils whereas sandy soils bleed best.

Drilling for H2o

The biggest chance for many buyers, including us when we purchased vacant land in 2018 and congenital our current home, was determining if in that location was h2o.  Since metropolis water was not available, nosotros had to drill our ain well and you lot don't know if you have h2o until you drill.

To minimize the risk, we looked up the well logs for neighboring homes (at the Department of Ecology – www.ecology.wa.gov) to run across how far they had to drill, how much water they plant and at what pressure.  Later reviewing these logs, we felt our hazard was minimal and we knew nosotros probably had to drill deep.  Not to our surprise, we ended upward having to drill over 200' but that was similar to the neighbors' wells.

Conclusion

It is the buyer's sole responsibleness to verify and decide whether or non the holding can be developed and the cost to do so.

Equally your amanuensis, I tin guide you lot to the experts and work with you to arts and crafts an offer that provides you contingencies.  Buying state tin can exist risky and costly, but after you do your due diligence, you should be confident you tin build the dwelling of your dreams.

Source: https://www.intunerealestate.com/how-to-buy-vacant-land/

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