Don't Get BLINDSIDED By The Cost of Buying Land

If you're planning on buying land, there are a lot of things to consider before making your purchase. Beyond just the location and type of land, there are hidden costs that many people don't think about.

In this video, we'll discuss the most common hidden costs associated with buying land so you don't get blindsided by unexpected expenses. From surveying fees to zoning restrictions and everything in between, we've got you covered. Don't make the mistake of underestimating the true cost of buying land - watch this video before making any decisions.

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*DISCLAIMER* The contents of this video are for strictly educational and entertainment purposes. This video is not intended to provide financial, accounting, tax, or legal advice. For financial or legal advice consult with financial advisor or lawyer.

[ridgehilljillie]

Here in eastern PA most people are not aware that once a property switches from well to city water that they lose their rights to the ground water. They can never go back to well water.

[Gdavis]

I’m a real estate lawyer. Listen to what this guy is saying. I have to add please use a local real estate lawyer and a local surveyor and a local engineer and Architect to advise you what you need to build what you want to build on this property.. best surprises are no surprises.

[TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

Great info. Selling property and not telling the new buyers you still have mineral and timber rights is highly unethical, people should get sued over that.

[descai]

Also check the sale history of the property to see if it has been resold multiple times recently. This could be a red flag that people buy it without realizing it has problems and then resell it.

[DVDVAMPIRE]

I hate a lot of these misleading listings that advertise acreage only to find out 75% of it is conservation land or include pictures of property that isn't actually for sale.

[priscillawrites]

I bought 2 acres from a builder, with architectural plans - it was a mini-development of 5 homes. All the items you mention, we covered.
A few years after I moved in I was walking in the front yard and fell into a sink hole. I had specifically written into the contract that building materials, tree stumps, etc would be removed from the property before closing - nothing buried on site. They buried all kinds of refuse on site. I had to have the area excavated, regraded, and soul brought in to make up for the hole that was left from decomposed materials.

[Sight-Beyond-Sight]

One piece of land I looked at was a great deal, except the utilities were nowhere near it. The owner planned to split their land up and sell the furthest partition first in order to have utilities/road run through the rest of the partitions (at the first buyer's expense) to get even more money for the remaining plots.

[killbillfanaquiahora]

I don't know how this video made it on to my feed, but I'm glad it did. I'm not even in the market or industry but this was a very informative video. Your pace, elaborations...just fantastic. Well done!

[GenghisKhan]

People need to fight back on all these permits and impact fees. Why buy anything is someone is going to tell you what to do. I've passed on several properties for this reason. Its insane

[tomschmidt]

Great overview. We purchased 13 acres in Southern NH in the early 1980's. This was back acreage that had recently been subdivided. That was fortuitous in that we had an accurate plot plan. Agree wholeheartedly with walking the land.

1) This was New England back acreage so it was common for folks to use to use it as a dump for household trash. Nothing dangerous but it took many trips to the local dump by myself and wife to remove it, but we did end up with a nice collection of glass bottles. However other areas of the town were not so lucky as we have the dubious distinction of being home to multiple Super Fund sites.

2) Find out about zoning ordnances. We moved a mobile home to the site and lived in it for couple of years while we built a house. Make sure you are allowed to have two structures on the property at the same time.

3) Here in NH we have something called Current Use taxation. To maintain as much open space as possible large parcels can be put into Current Use. The parcel is then taxed at its productive potential: farm, woodlot etc rather than its speculative value on the market. In NH the minimum amount of land that can be put into Current Use is 10 acres, so you need enough land in addition to that to build on. If the land is taking out of Current Use there is a substantial fee so that is something to be aware of.

4) Electricity was mentioned but for many of us internet access is also important. We had Landline telephone and DSL for many years. Recently fiber was deployed in our town so we now have much higher internet access speed. Our house is about 600 ft off the road. The utility company provides one free pole. We were all excited until we found out due to how the poles were located along the road the first pole was at the end of our driveway and we needed to pay for two more.

5) Site development is costly and well and septic system cost can be hard to control. We moved a used mobile home to the property so when we built our house later those costs were already taken care of. Living on site worked out well while building the house we were able to work on it at night.

6) Schools and local governance, when we lived in the city we (or at least I) had a romanticized notion of rural life. Now that we live in a semirural area I like to joke the only difference between urban and rural areas is there are fewer crazy people per square mile in rural areas. How well the local government works can have a tremendous effect your situation. We have been lucky our town has managed pretty well with the changing situation over the years.

[DavidSmith-fruz]

Good advice because any number of things can go wrong with a land purchase. I bought 244 acres, had it surveyed and broken up into lots and parcels. After selling most of the property, I come to find out that one of my lots could not be provided power unless the owner of another property across the road gave an power line easement. Fortunately, I still owned that piece of property. I could have been stuck with almost a worthless piece of property.

[PoppaCYS]

These videos are so informative. There are pitfalls I would have never imagined.

[FixIt]

One things he didn't mention was HOAs. They can be an additional, gigantic pain in the ass and cost additional thousands of dollars per year on top of your property taxes. HOAs can be extremely restrictive as to what you can even do with your own home, right down to exterior paint colors

[stephenfrantzen]

Great information as always. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos.

[rafalsanbra]

So much my son and I will have have learn about before being ready to make that purchase happen. Thank you for providing all these details. I bet a lot of people are not aware of everything you spoke about. Really appreciate uploading this awesome video.😊

[southernguy]

not only just do your due diligence, don't trust the listing or agent. I was going to buy a lot that the listing said had sewer, cable, gas and electric utilities available. I knew this was untrue as I lived next door to this lot and knew cable wasn't available. The sewer and gas stopped a quarter of a mile up the road.

I brought this up to the listing agent that her description was wrong and I know because I live beside the lot. The old gal changed the listing to all utilities available. Some agents are just in it for the commission.

[EarlBalentine]

We bought a lot in southern Michigan near the Indianas border. We question the township government offices about our intensions and most of the policies, laws or whatever was pretty much off the top of their heads. They new our intensions was to park our RV on the property while we cleared the land. We had a power pole dropped in and also we connected a sewer line to the city sewer system at the street. The city was fine with letting us park our RV on the property until a new engineer was hired to bring all the rules up to date. Althugh we had a 14 day permit for our trailer and were told that we could just renew it every 14 days but the new engineer said nope, it was only a tempearary permit. The engineer said if we want to continue to park our RV on the property that we would need to have a contract in our hand from a home builder. We told the engineer we were only going to be on the property for a few months while we prep the land but wasn't going to build a house until next year. Our plan was to ready the property with power, driveway, mail box address, sewer hookup, construct a drive =way with gravel. The engineer said no that we must have house contract and ask how soon we can get off our property. We sold the lot and moved on. We were not ready to sign a contract with a builder that year. So even if the city gives you permission they can also change their minds. It was a big cluster Funk.

[davidbuckwitz]

Great advice Wayne, thanks to your experience. Mark Twain said, "Success comes from experience, experience comes from failure" 😮

[willofdodge]

Man you are truly a blessing. Thankyou for all your knowledge and help answer questions

[Ben-gtvf]

I feel blessed to have found this. I am a few years off from purchasing land of my own and our own for our family-
Knowledge is Power and you definitely just dropped some knowledge about the subject.
Many thanks! 👍