More thoughts that keep me up at night. If we buy the land, have our 'perfect' plan and then start getting bids for construction and it's just too much do we just be patient and save $ like crazy as well as consider adjusting the plans. Are bids based on the property they will be building on or mainly just the plans themselves? (And are the plans site specific? I assume not since you can buy plans online. )I know this may seem like an obvious answer but I am just trying to avoid making a purchase and then the dream not even being a possibility. I know that you have to have a largish (20%) cushion to accommodate the unexpected during a build and am just trying to get as much logically figured out so that I don't get my hopes up unrealistically.

Thanks all for taking the time to read and try to make sense of my ramblings. Sometimes I don't even know how my brain connects it's thought process. :-)

i think you should buy the land first and choose a plan later,
that being said, i had been looking at plans for many years and had several favorites---it took about 2 minutes to decide which plan to use on our 4 acres..
really nice pieces of property are not easy to find.....

Definitely need the land before the plan. It's a lot easier to change the plan than to find a piece of land to suit what you want to build. You'll want to consider the views and sun when you're deciding where to put the windows, or whether the bedrooms should be on the front or back. There might also be a slope that you have to (or want to ) design your house around (walk-out basement?).

You can buy plans online, but they never take advantage of site specific features.

The land itself can affect the build cost. How easy is to access? Do you need to build infrastructure? Is the site flat or sloped? Will the dirt support a structure? But, builders should be able to give you a ball park so you can figure out whether it's feasible. For example, in my area, building in the inner city, with established streets and sometimes awkward access (the lot might be only 25' wide, with neighbours on either side), builders were able to tell me to budget $200-300/sq. With the caveat that if I get fancy, there is no top end.

And the builders may be willing to take a look at the property to see if there's anything obvious that will affect the ability to put a house on it.

In the case of this particular piece of property, while it may already have some infrastructure - gravel drive, water, electricity - it also has 2 existing structures on it. 2 structures you will have to demolish. Make sure you budget for that.

You need to do your own due diligence on the land. Check for flood zones. How is it zoned? What is going on in the neighboring area? You don't want to be downwind of a hog farm! Make sure you have a title search done to be sure it is free and clear. It's not a bad idea to have the soil checked, as some soil types are not good for building, and can raise your costs significantly. Have the well checked, too. The septic system will probably be too small. Many area have a GIS site that can give you a lot of info about the land and surrounding area. Our county GIS site has topography, soil types, zoning, even crime statistics.

A good house plan will be site-specific. Our land features a view in the rear, and sloping property, so we built over a walk-out basement, and put the living room, dining room, and kitchen across the back. I had to look at waterfront plans to get inspiration, as they usually feature a rear view.

I would also talk to the local building department to get an idea of permit costs and regulations. I've heard horror stories about insane permit fees. I have a friend who built in CT, and spent $66,000 in fees and permits! By comparison, here in rural SC, we paid $480.

I would visit the local governing authority in person and see what you can find out. Ask questions and take notes. If there was a home at one time, there must be a septic tank buried somewhere on the property. That might affect your building decisions. Also, the advice on soil analysis is good. I can't explain technical issues, but soil and septic systems have to work. If you will be on well water, talk to a local well company about what you need to know.

If you're going to allow current owner to keep cattle, do you need liability insurance? How will it affect taxes? Where we live, agricultural exemptions are huge.

All that being said, we owned our land for seven years before building. Finances and LIFE kept us from building sooner, but our land purchase was a good opportunity. We took all that time to periodically discuss what we wanted in house plans and where to locate on property.

I say buy the land if you love it and then go from there. If things don't work out, you can sell it.

I do know ( or have been told) that it is not in a flood zone, there is a large hill behind where we want to build, and a small creek between the hill and the flat land we are planning on building on. I looked into the septic permit which is $300 to replace or $400 for a new septic. If we have to go for a new septic do we have to have the previous one removed?!?

Where would I find a list of permits needed/fees to get an idea of how much will be tied up in fees.

$200/sq ft is out of our price range, hoping to keep it about 1/2 thatâ¦is that realistic? I mean if money were not an issue i would love to build with a rain water collection system, and solar tubes, and solar panels â¦the list could go on, but that isn't feasible, and the real goal is getting us there and a place to live. My daughter (7) said she would be willing to live in a tent for a few years so we could save money to build our dream home LoL!

If you want to be out there more but are on the lower end of the budget (remember 20% contingency fund), then I recommend purchasing the property (once the DD Mush suggested is done) and spend time out there as you save money.

The pole barn sounds good enough to spend weekends out there with the kids. With acreage, there is always something to do. Cut downed and dead trees, have bonfires, find a spot away from the potential home site to plan out and build raised garden beds, clear the land at the home site, etc. Turn off the AC and lights at the house and spend the weekends at "the farm".

I do recommend buying the land ahead of time, but if you can afford to pay off the land as much as possible before building, I would do that. My DF also suggests we live in a barn on our property to save money for a build, and we may do that, but not for years.

thanks all for the info/tips. Please keep it coming. I had another thought when I was driving home that I wanted to ask and it's slipped my mind nowâ¦when it comes back i'll be sure to ask :)

Here's another question, how much does a soil analysis cost (i'm in the midwest if that helps any) and who do you contact. Is this something that should be done say like a contingency to the purchase of property. If it doesn't test suitable for the build we walk away. I mean I don't think it's an issue there is a home that just went up on the back side of the property line atop the hill.

Also the well is on the opposite side of the drive than the house so we would have to go under the drive to tie into it..how much of an issue might this be?

Thanks all!

You need to find out who has jurisdiction over building and zoning where the land is located. It could be a town, a county, or in rare cases, no one. For us, it was the county. They can answer any questions about permits and land use.

As for house cost, in many areas of the country you can have a basic house built for $100/ sq ft.

I don't know what a soil test costs. I'm sure you can make it a contingency; everything is negotiable. I would check for yourself that it is not a flood zone. The county or town should have maps. It seems like we have '100 year floods' every couple of years lately. Flat land at nearly the same level as a creek could be flood plain.

Putting a waterline under a gravel drive is no big deal for a backhoe. They dig right through it like any other dirt. As for the old septic, if you go with a new one, I would think all you would have to do is fill in the old tank, again, no big deal while there are earth moving machines on the site. Check with the authorities, though. For us, septic is a different agency altogether than building.

$200/sq ft is out of our price range, hoping to keep it about 1/2 thatâ¦is that realistic? I mean if money were not an issue i would love to build with a rain water collection system, and solar tubes, and solar panels â¦the list could go on, but that isn't feasible, and the real goal is getting us there and a place to live.

That's why you need to talk to local builders. $100/sq' is completely out of the question in my city. Since we bought our land, prices have increased and $200 is now too low. But your area may be completely different. Permit fees are part of the cost of building, so again, talk to someone local and they can give you a better idea of the costs of building in your area.

A rainwater collection system isn't actually too expensive when you're digging anyway. We considered an underground cistern, but having to drain it every fall to keep it from freezing and cracking our foundation made it impractical.

An above ground system can always be added later. I have a rain barrel at my current house, and it's plenty for my outdoor watering needs. Our area doesn't allow us to use rain water in the house (for toilets, etc).

Solar can also be added later. We've sloped our roof to allow for it, but we aren't adding panels until we can save up more money.

yeah i figure extras like the solar can be added later.

How do you go about choosing a contractor/builder. Is it just a matter of finding a few and talking with them to see who seems to best fit your goals/work ethic etc. Will they come and look at the land with out a fee?

This site has been a great resource for me, but are there others that you would recommend. As some would say at this point I don't know what I don't know :) I don't know what questions to ask, or where to start.

where you live will make a huge difference in the price per square ft of your home along with the plan itself and your finishes
we chose our builder because we knew a few people who had used him and we'd watched their builds
we had to wait 18 months for him to "get to us" and it took about 8 months for him to "get around to looking at our plan" .....word of mouth seems the best method for choosing a contractor around here
ours did look at our land but he was already very familiar with the area

Just an update if anyone follows we did buy the land and it is beautiful. I am working on decluttering and deep cleaning and getting our place ready to sell. I would love to see this come to fruit in the next 12 months or so, but I am struggling seeing it! How much do you all usually have in savings before taking the plunge? Even with the sell of our house I think we'll be lucky to have 30ish in savings. To me this isn't enough, but I just want to avoid getting in over our heads!

Once you sell your home, the land will be paid for and you will have 30ish in savings? Or you will have a mortgage on the land and 30ish in savings? I would take a look at your total debt/obligations/bills and see how leveraged you are. After you attend to all of your obligations each month, how much would you have left? That would give you an idea if you are even in a position to be able to save money. If you aren't able to save money, it is not in your best interest to spend more money. You may want to look into using the pole barn as a place to live as others have mentioned, or find an inexpensive rental close to your property where you can live while you save money. You can look at classifieds for cheap or even free travel trailers that you could park in the pole barn to use to live in while you save. Amending your lifestyle could also help tremendously. Cutting unnecessary spending: cable, smart phones (switch to flip phone $30 a month from walmart), home phone, coffee outside the home, soda, expensive types of snacks, new cars, delaying purchases, avoiding Christmas/Birthday/Valentine's/whatever holiday spending hype, etc. There are lots of ways to save money, but most people are unwilling to give up anything to do it. Determining what is most important to you will be the first step, and it sounds like your daughter has determined what is important to her. I hope you figure it all out.

Yeah the more and more i think about it the more we aren't ready. After the sell of our house we will have the 35ish in savings, but still have a mortgage on the property. We don't spend much on coffee and such outside of the house, and don't drink soda, cable is almost nothing since my husband works for the cable company. The thing that gets us in the cell phones, which I've asked to downgrade and hubby doesn't want to. So i'm stuck rubbing pennies together to make dollars. It's really not that bad, but I'm always the one reevaluating the budget, and usually taking extra out of the grocery budget for other needs that sometimes arise. The other thing that has come up lately is dental bills :( getting the 8 y.o in a retainer . My thought was finding a small rental near the property so that we'll at least be in the same school district and near by should things work out to start the ball rolling, I've already packed up a good bit, I hate the idea of living long term in a rental just to build..do you think we would be better of just staying in our current house a little longer and saving awhile longer before trying to sell?

I think that whether or not you stay in your current house would depend on what your mortgage is and what the housing market is like in your area and how soon your house might have major repairs coming due. If houses are selling easily right now in your area and you have a high mortgage and you will need to put a new roof on in a few years or some other major maintenance, you might be in a lot better shape if you were to sell now and find an inexpensive rental near your land. You could probably live in a smaller rental than your current place because you could store things on your property that you would have been keeping in your house. If your mortgage is really low and houses are not selling well and you don't have any repairs on the horizon it might be better to stay where you are. I think that if you fall somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios, that you would be better off selling your home and moving into a rental close to the property. If the rental is cheaper than your mortgage, you can save money there. If the rental is smaller you might save money on utilities. If the rental is closer to your land you will save money on gas going to the property. You can have a test run on the school district to make sure it is everything you hope it will be. If anything breaks in the rental or needs replacing the land lord will fix it and you wont have to pay for it. When you do decide to build, you can line up the completion date with the end of your lease and see if the land lord will work with you in case there are delays in the build and that way once your home is done being built you can move in right away without having the burden of two mortgages. Another benefit of renting is that living in a different house will expose you to another floor plan and possibly give you more ideas when designing your future home. Also, being close to the land and being able to spend more time on it will help you know more about how you want to position your house to take in the most enjoyable parts of it.

Congratulations on getting your land! The more time you spend there the more you'll fall in love with it. You'll dream of your future there. We have done that with our land. A few years ago, I talked to a possible lender. We were able to get pre-qualified for a building loan. It didn't cost anything. They will calculate it with your current assets. Then you can ask what it would be once you sell your own house. Once you know, you can run the numbers to see what you're comfortable with and how much cash you'll need to have on hand for down-payment, etc. Our situation has changed, but we were able to rest easy just knowing what they said we could qualify for.

Did you have to have a floor plan for the bank, or were they going strictly on what your assets were? I love the land, it's beautiful. We have a beautiful hill, but we are not planning on building on the hilltop for several reasons, extra expense being a BIG factor. Though family thinks we should and are obnoxiously and repeatedly voicing this opinion, but it's easy for them to say when it's not their $20-30K, not to mention we don't want the view from our back yard to be the neighbors house…that's why we have 8 acres! If i can figure out how I'll try to post pictures.

this is the view from our hill side showing our pole barn

our dog enjoying the view, the white trailer in the back is the neighbor's rental trailer, our property actually "L" behind their property. They have a chicken coop literally like 10 steps from our property line…wish we could acquire that too LoL.

if you look closely you can see my daughter already climbing down into the creek bed LoL.

my son tucking black walnuts into his pockets this fall.

the view from the hill side into the woods

the clearing at the top of the woods, with a large burn pile in the back

the view of the hillside from the woods, (and the neighbors back yard)

walking down the hill

last one! this is from the hill top, and the side we will build the house (across from the barn so we can share the drive, that tree right in the middle will have to come down though.

hope you all enjoyed the view, i know we do, now if we can just get the rest to fall into place. I am just having trouble deciding to move and rent near our property or wait another year before trying to sell. Our currant mortgage is very reasonable, and the equivalent in a rental (at least around here is double what our mortgage is! I haven't looked around there yet.

That's a beautiful piece of land - I see why you were so drawn to it. Good luck, I hope everything works out for you!

SO lovely! Thanks for the pictures.

Will you be able to put in a septic tank so close to the creek? Our state requires 75' between end of septic tank and water...ie creek or lake for septic.

We did not need to have our floor plans or construction contract to pre-qualify. It's like pre-qualifying for a home loan; they just tell you what you can afford with current assets. Once you apply for the loan itself, that's another story. At least you can get in the ballpark.

There is currently a septic tank/system on the property the tank is in great shape and but we'll have to relocate it as it is up towards the road on the east side (road is on north side of property barn on west side) We will be building wear the old leach field is but I've been told that isn't a problem, and it hasn't been used in over 3 years since they removed the trailer that was on the property.