You should pick the lot. I see no reason for the builder to pick it. If you have a certain plan in mind then just verify it will work with the lot.

I bought the lot first. I figured the place where my home was was more important to me than the design of my house. I then worked on finding/creating a house that worked in my lot. I guess it depends on your approach...if you already have your heart set on a plan, then you need to make sure you find a lot that works for that plan. If your outdoor surroundings and location are more important, then I'd approach it from that angle.

I hope that helps. Good luck to you.

Welcome to GW, Sagefemme!

In many areas of the country, topography plays a big role in what style house CAN be built but I don't think that is particularly true in Edmond. I've only been there once but my recollection is that the terrain is essentially flat with, at most, a few rolling hills and very few trees.

If so, then it isn't like one lot would be perfect for a house with a walk-out basement and the next one over won't accomodate such a house at all. As far as floor plan options are concerned, the biggest difference between one essentially flat lot and another essentially flat lot of about the same size is going to be which direction the front of the house faces.

That can be very important. For example, if you want most of your windows to face the back for privacy AND you don't want to worry about loads of solar gain in the summer, you'll want to pick a lot that faces the south. That way you can have lots of windows in the rear of the house facing north where they won't get hit with so much hot summer sunlight.

Other factors you'll want to consider is where the lot is located. In other words, is the lot on a main artery into and out of the neighborhood or at the end of a cul-de-sac? Obviously, houses at the end of a cul-de-sac have less traffic driving by than those on the major artery into and out of the neighborhood.

Is it near schools, commecial areas, and nearby major thoroughfares? If you don't want to deal with BigMac bags blowing thru your yard constantly, avoid any lot that is too near a high school. (Trust me on this!) Lots that back up to parks can be great... if the park is large and the entrance to the park is a fairly good distance away so that few park visitors ever walk to the back of the park.

If you're buying in a golf-club community, are you one of those people who will delight in being right on one of the greens. Or will you hate the loss of privacy that comes from having golfers 20 or 30 feet from your back doors all day long? Will replacing broken glass from errant golfballs drive you nuts?

Your builder is unlikely to take any these issues into account if he chooses your lot for you. In fact, he is likely to simply give you the lot he thinks is LEAST likely to be chosen by anyone else.

Bottom line, go pick the lot you want and worry about the exact floorplan later. Just don't pick out a long narrow lot (eg., 35' x 150') unless you've already picked out a floor plan that will fit onto a narrow lot. All other things being equal, where the depth of the lot is between about 1.5 to 2.5 times the width, it will tend to accomodate the most floor plans while still giving you room for a front and back yard. Thus a 50' x 105' lot has the same amount of acreage as the 35' x 150' lot - but you have lots more options for how to build on the 50' wide lot.

Solicit the builder's advice, take note of any ideas he has that make sense to you...and then pick out the one you like most based on the many good points others have listed above.

I've built two homes and really have nothing more to add to Bevangels exceptional post.

Jo

We bought a 2.5 acre lot a few years back and now we are half way through our build. This is a square, flat lot that once was a farm field.

One thing I wish I had done was talk to the neighboring house to see if there were any 'issues' they were dealing with. The issue we (and they) are dealing with is the high water table. We have 2 sumps almost continuously running. The yard becomes a lake during heavy rains (this problem will be fixed a bit once final grading is done). The build has gone VERY slow due to the high water.

If we had known about this, we may not have purchased it.

I wouldn't get too far out ahead of yourselves; wouldn't buy a lot that you won't build on within a year.

I'd check out the financial security of these two bulders of 'master planned' communities. You don't want to be one of the homeowners living in a wasteland of uncompleted and/or unoccupied homes -- upside down in the house and without any of the promised amenities like clubhouse, pool, golf.

Perhaps the economy is better where you are, but new housing starts have just reported a staggering drop, and there is a 13-month supply out there unsold.

Would these be custom homes, or builder models with some modifications? If the latter, you might be able to pick up a model for less than you could build it -- or with more amenities thrown in to make the sale.

Old architectural rule. Design the house to fit the lot. In other words, buy the lot first, then pick out a plan that works for that lot.

Heard that from an old architect. ;-)

Thank you everyone for the great responses!

We do not plan to buy the lot until a year before we plan to build.

Bevangel, unfortunately many of the neighborhoods we looked at were extremely hilly (NW Edmond). Many of the houses were either below the street or way above the street. Many also had cliffs in their backyards or the sides and with us having a small child and planning more this made us cross MANY neighborhoods off our list! You would think OK was completely flat but nope!

Chisue, both communities have their clubhouse, pool, etc. already up or will be done this summer. They both have elementary schools on-site and one started with the 2007-2008 academic year and the other will start this August. They both stressed the importance of getting their amenities up early.