This Two Story is located on a challenging topographic lot, with utilities already in place, it was a case study in the pros and cons of lot selection.
Land, and the questions nobody asks before they buy it.
Most people spend more time researching a car than a piece of raw land.
That's not a dig. Land just looks simple. A parcel number, a price, a lot of trees and a view. The listing photos are good. The realtor is confident. And the excitement of imagining your home on that hillside is a real thing.
But land is not simple. The gap between what a lot looks like on a sunny Saturday in August and what it actually costs to build on, that's where a lot of builds go sideways before they ever start.
We put together a Pre-Purchase Playbook because we kept having the same conversation with clients who had already committed to land. Good people, smart people, who just didn't know what to ask before they signed.
We'd rather you know before.
The cost that surprises people most
It's not the house. It's the ground under it.
Site prep is the number that catches buyers off guard almost every time. Most people budget around $50,000 for the work required before a single wall goes up. Clearing trees, building a driveway, bringing in power, connecting to water, sorting out sewage.
On a rural or waterfront property without services already stubbed in, that work typically runs $150,000 to $200,000.
That's not a flaw in the land. It's just the reality of building in the places people most want to live. Remote is beautiful. Remote also costs a lot more to prepare.
Rule of thumb we use: no driveway, no utilities, long approach, budget $200K for site prep before you factor in anything else.
Before you make an offer
Remote has a price tag, and it's bigger than most people think.
Remote access
On waterfront sites we've built on, ferry travel and road time alone have added 15 to 20% to total trade costs.
Every contractor who shows up factors in how far they drove. Every delivery carries a location premium. When something goes wrong mid-build, and something always does, the ripple effects on a remote site hit harder. A contractor who misses a ferry doesn't just delay their own work. They delay everyone behind them.
None of this means don't buy the remote lot. Just price it honestly.
What's underground
Before you make an offer, ask the seller directly if there's a geotechnical report on the property. Slope, soil instability, rock shelves, drainage problems, wetlands, these don't show up in listing photos and they have a direct impact on your foundation approach and your budget.
The other thing worth an afternoon: go visit your local municipal office or regional district. Development permits, rezoning applications, subdivision approvals, it's all public record. One afternoon can tell you everything that's coming. Most buyers never look.
The financing conversation
Carrying costs on raw land start the day you take possession. Property tax, service connection fees, development cost charges, none of it waits for your build to start.
The thing that surprises people most: buying land in cash doesn't automatically put you in a stronger position with a construction lender. In some cases it can actually limit your options. Construction financing is its own thing, and that conversation needs to happen before your offer, not after.
We built the Pre-Purchase Playbook because these questions are a lot easier to answer before you're committed than after.
If you have a site in mind and want to talk through what your variables might look like, reach out. That's the kind of conversation we're here for.
Download the full playbook and use it before you make an offer on any piece of raw land.
Until next month, The Blend Team
