Love Thy Neighbor

I’d like to note that searching for buildable land was not easy. In fact, it’s one of the first times during our homebuilding experience we felt a bit overwhelmed. We were starting from scratch in every sense of the phrase—and we didn’t know who to turn to when we had questions about the lot. Our realtor (as nice and informative as he was) might be biased, the seller would likely say anything to promote the property and we didn’t personally know anyone in the area that built their home.

Just as we were about to leave the site one weekend to head home, we realized who could answer our questions better than anyone else: the next-door neighbor (whose home was for sale). Hopefully he’d tell all—we needed to hear it! This was going to be our biggest purchase to date by far and we didn’t want any regrets. We dropped a note in the mailbox with our phone number and received a call the next week.

Here is what we asked him:

1. How long have you lived in the area?


2. Why are you moving?


3. How tough was it to build your home?


4. How much fill did you need to bring in?


5. Did you have a problem installing your septic system?


6. Please explain the covenants and how they are enforced.


7. Did you have any problems digging your well?


8. How deep is your well?


9. How long did it take to build your home?


10. Do you like the area/street?


11. Is the lot we’re interested in listed for more money now than it was six years ago?


12. Do you have air conditioning? How hot does it get in the summer?


13. How often does the street get plowed?


14. Was your architect in or out of state?

Before we contacted the neighbor, we called the zoning chairman and the town selectmen’s office and asked:

1. When was the land previously bought and sold?


2. Were there any pre-existing facilities or plants on or close to the property at any point?


3. Are there any restrictions we should know about?


4. Is there anymore information I should obtain as a first-time homebuilder?


5. Did you have a problem installing your septic system?


6. Are there any height restrictions if we wanted to install a residential windmill?


7. Is it mandatory that homes have a septic system, or can they have composting toilets?


8. Why has the land been vacant for so long?

I encourage anyone else in this process to reach out and make contact with everyone you can. We gained priceless information from every person we talked to. And after we talked to our future neighbor, we realized that building a home is complicated—but not impossible. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. (We had some who did.) Most people don’t build their home, so respect their opinion, but don’t dwell on it.

When we were certain the lot met all of our requirements, we made an offer. And not too long after, though it felt like a lifetime, we learned that it was accepted!

On our way to living where the blacktop ends.

Groundwork

Once we knew what state and town to live in, we ultimately fell in love with a single lot—seven acres of green pine and white birch trees, south facing and sloping, with a “million-dollar view” of the Franconia Range. We were in heaven. But crashed back to Earth when we realized we had to make sure the land we wanted to build on was, in fact, buildable.

Here’s the checklist we used to make sure the plot was up to par:

✓Soil composition – Could the soil handle sewage and support a foundation? A perc test result proved it could handle sewage, and the custom-built homes nearby told us a foundation was possible.

Gorgeous grime.

✓Drainage – We steered clear of low laying areas and flood plains. The site we ultimately chose was in danger of neither.

✓Orientation - It was essential that the land face south for optimal solar gain (have I mentioned that yet?), and if it didn’t, our home needed to. We got lucky. The lot (and view!) faced south. In addition to a compass, we used a Solar Pathfinder provided by our architect to determine this.

The compass showed us where south was:


The Solar Pathfinder showed us a full year’s worth of solar radiation data on the spot. We could tell what time of the day each month our house would be shaded by trees, obstructing our solar gain. The trees you see on the Pathfinder in the image below are second generation. They can easily be cut down and used for fueling our wood stove.

We used a Solar Pathfinder for solar site analysis.

✓Access – The proposed building site would be right off of a road—perfect for bringing in supplies and equipment.

✓Utilities – Electricity and phone hookups were available, but it would be up to us to dig a well and septic system.

✓Easements – The lot had no easements that would affect our utilities, rights-of-way or views.

✓Topography – A steep hillside, boulders, trees and other natural landscape can hinder construction. The lot featured second generation trees, rocks AND a steeper than normal grade! (You can’t win them all.)

Just a few pebbles on the site...

✓Restrictive covenants – The lot did come with covenants. The only sections in the covenants that were of any concern to us were building square footage and house color. After a closer reading (you can’t paint your house bright red…OK, we didn’t want to anyway!), and better understanding of how “covenant rules” were enforced, we were no longer concerned.

The lot passed the test!

Picking the Perfect Spot

When building a home in an unfamiliar area, it’s generally a good idea to rent a place before buying land. This way you get to know the surrounding community firsthand. You’ll stumble across sections you like, sections you don’t like and sections you likely wouldn’t have found save for your new neighbors’ enthusiasm to tell all.

I say renting is “generally” a good idea because it doesn’t work for everyone. Truth be told, it didn’t work for us. Yes, we had a good amount of money saved up from living at home a few years after college—but we weren’t about to waste it on rent. In our minds, we had a good thing going and wanted to save as much money as possible before we started construction.

So how did we decide precisely where to place our home? We visited the area as much as possible ourselves (note: without a realtor). We searched out schools, investigated lots for sale, drove down main streets, wandered into cafes, chatted up locals and biked rural roads. We narrowed our search for the perfect town by what others told us, what our hearts told us—and what our budget told us!

When we signed up with a realtor, we already had a few lots in mind…some we had driven past, and some we’d run across online. Since we currently live out of state, our realtor was an invaluable source in telling us which lots were a rip off, which ones were a good deal, which ones might be unbuildable and which ones had a highway next door.

He also shared the pros and cons of each small town—something we probably wouldn’t have found out until after our move. One town had a “hidden” junk pile (he drove us by it), one had a terrific school district, one had a downtown revitalization planned, etc. Towards the end of our search, we began only looking for lots in a small town.

We told our realtor that we desired a south-facing and sloping lot, so he would better understand our needs. (If built the right way, a south-facing home can provide warming sun in the winter and cooling shade in the summer—making your home work less for a comfortable temperature, and cutting your heating/cooling bills substantially!) Telling him a little bit about our house plans also helped us save time when we visited the area. We didn’t waste the limited time we had (usually just a weekend) driving to lots we knew wouldn’t work with the passive-solar design we had in mind.

Perusing the Internet one day, we ran across the headline, “Million-dollar views.” The listing looked perfect. And it wasn’t a million dollars (Phew!). We tried not to get too excited, called our realtor and never imagined that we were far from “done” settling on a piece of land.