Category: Uncategorized

What do you need to do/know if buying raw land?

via Houzz

Some things to ask before buying raw land…

GENERAL LEGAL ISSUES
1) Is this a legal lot? If not, how do I make it legal?
2) Are there any existing liens against the property?
3) Does the Zoning on the property permit my project?
4) Are there any existing zoning violations on the lot?
5) Are there any cultural heritage sites on the property?
6) Does the deed also convey the mineral rights to me? (Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t b/c on almost all land, the mineral rights have been divided from the surface rights. But do find out what minerals are likely to be located in your area and who owns those rights. Consider the possibility that the owner of the mineral rights may decide to mine for them. Laws generally give mineral rights owners amazingly broad rights of access to the surface property as NEEDED in order for them to reach their underground minerals. You do NOT want someone deciding to drill an oil well or strip mine for copper in YOUR back yard. It might be worthwhile to find out who owns the mineral rights and whether they would be willing to sell those rights to you for a small fee.)

NATURAL HAZARDS
7) Is the site subject to flooding? (Get a FEMA flood plain map and do NOT plan to build inside of or very near a 100 year flood plain. Even better, don’t build in a 500 year flood plain!)
8) Is the area subject to any other natural (or semi-natural) hazards? (landslides, forest fires, earthquakes, faults, subsidence, liquifaction, etc.

ACCESS ISSUES
9) Does the lot have legal access to a public road? (For example, if the only access to the public road system is via a private road over a neighboring property, will the buyer of the lot acquire a legal right to drive over that private road?)
10) Does the existing access roadway meet the fire department access requirements? If not adequate, what will it cost to improve the road?

SEWER/SEPTIC
11) Is the lot served by a public sewer system? If so, what is the sewer connection fee and does the sewer district have the capacity to serve my lot?
12)If public sewer connection is not available, will I be able to install a septic system on the lot? If a perc test has already been done, what were the results? (IF NOT, AND YOUR ARE GOING TO NEED A SEPTIC SYSTEM, MAKE THE CONTRACT CONTINGENT ON PERC RESULTS THAT WILL ALLOW FOR AN ADEQUATELY SIZED SEPTIC SYSTEM!)

WATER
13) Is the lot served by a public water system? If so, does the water purveyor have enough capacity to serve the lot? Do water lines already run to the edge of my property and if not, how far away are they and how much will it cost to get them to my property? How much is the water connection fee? How long does it take to get a water hookup?
14) If the lot is not served by a public water system, is it possible to drill a water well on my property? How much is drilling a well likely to cost?
15) Does the local fire department have water pressure requirements that I must meet before I can build?

OTHER UTILITIES
16) Does the lot already have access to electricity, gas, telephone, cable, trash pick-up services, etc. If not, what is it going to cost to get these services to the lot?

HOA
17) Does a Homeowners Association have jurisdiction over the lot?
18) Are there any Homeowner Association or Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&R’s) related to the development or use of the lot?
19) What deed restrictions exist on the lot?

SURVEYING
20) Has the lot been recently surveyed? (Get a copy of the survey but also have your own survey done BEFORE you buy… and either be on site when the survey is being done or have the survey company mark the boundaries with very clear markers that YOU can see. You don’t want to purchase land, start building and then discover that the land you actually purchased is the next one over from the one that you thought you purchased and started building on!

BUILDING PERMITS & RESTRICTIONS
21) What building permits are required to build on the property and what do those permits cost?
22) Are there any restrictions (city, county, HOA) on what you’re allowed to build and, if so, are you comfortable that you can design a home you want within those restrictions? Eg., height restrictions? impervious ground cover restrictions? minimum/maximum square footage requirements.

TAXES and MISC.
23) What taxing entities will be taxing your property and at what rates?
24) Is there ANY proposed growth/development in the area that would make the property less valuable to you or to a future buyer if you should try to resell? (Possible examples: a new airport is going to be built a mile away so that planes will be flying over your property constantly; The 100 acre property right next door was just sold to a developer who plans to build high density housing units; county commissioners are seriously considering a proposal to install four playing fields – with floodlights on 150 ft tall poles to allow for nighttime games – in the county park that adjoins your property; a new tollroad is being built, and when finished, it will pass within 1/4 mile of your property.)

Connect Homes

via Connect Homes

Connect Home costs will vary with the size of your home, the options selected and certain site conditions. However, a good starting point is to assume that the completed base price of a typical Connect Home will be about $230 per square foot plus the cost of land.

For reference, residential building in the U.S. generally costs between $100 and $1000 per square foot, depending on what you build and where your build it. You can certainly find cheaper homes than a Connect Home, but we don’t think you’ll find the same level of design, quality, convenience or efficiency at or even well above that price. Like Tesla, Whole Foods, and Apple, we are changing the quality and convenience of what you can buy at a moderate price level. Reference our price list for standard pricing of our model homes, which cost from the $200,000’s to the $500,000’s to build.

Price List PDF

Finding Land

Via Blu Homes

LOT SIZE

Blu homes fit on almost any lot, and are also great for teardowns. Typically, we recommend lots of 5,000+ sqft. and 40’+ wide. Blu frequently does teardown projects in infill areas, and verifies our delivery and site plan within a delivery assessment. Larger lots can be fantastic, but often require longer utility runs. When you have found a potential lot and ordered a Conceptual Study, we create a site sketch that accounts for local planning department requirements.

LOT PROPERTIES THAT AFFECT BUILDING COST

Besides the cost of the land itself, taxes and closing costs, your Blu team will help you estimate and identify costs driven by the land location and characteristics:

  • Proximity and cost of utilities such as electricity, gas, septic/sewer and water/well, all of which require permitting and construction
  • The cost and extent of site development; for example, steeply sloped lots increase excavation, grading, and foundation costs significantly but can include the extra square footage of a “walk out” or fully finished basement
  • Additional design features, such as decking, trellises, finished lower levels and site-built connectors
  • Environmental restrictions such as wetlands, conservation, or coastal areas
  • Access to the site for delivery and installation.

RESOURCES YOU SHOULD REQUEST

We recommend that you request the following resources from the seller before you put an offer on the land:

  • Boundary survey that contains property lines, setbacks, contours (topo map), location of utilities (water, sewer, electrical, septic restrictions) and environmental restrictions (wetlands, conservation land, etc.)
  • Soils Report (if applicable) will detail geology and seismic data so a structural engineer can determine necessary foundation requirements
  • Planning Dept. Regulations (using your site’s Assessor Parcel Number or ‘APN#’)
  • Find out if your local jurisdiction requires any special planning reviews such as Design Review, Historical Review, etc., from the local building department;
  • Photographs of your site in .jpg format.

Working for the Man Should be a Last Resort

Every time I write a piece advocating escape from corporate servitude, I receive a few emails that contain a particular kind of scolding. They tell me that only an entitled brat could be unsatisfied with a stable job and a roof, in a world where so many pine for only these things.

According to my critics, even if you find your standard weekday boring, painful or unfulfilling, you ought to embrace it, simply because a third-world coal miner would kill for your benefits package. When so many have so little, attempting to escape a situation in which you can reliably feed yourself and fund a retirement could only be an act of the utmost ingratitude.

If you’re reading this, it’s nearly certain that you’re living with levels of potential freedom that nearly all of history’s humans would envy, and that alone is reason enough to feel uneasy if you haven’t yet made good on this gift. Continue reading “Working for the Man Should be a Last Resort”

A Common Habit that Costs us Friends

We all have friends that we know only through certain other friends. Suddenly, I didn’t see my high school friends anymore because we all congregated around friend A. I didn’t see my former work friends anymore because we all kept in touch via get-togethers at friend B’s house. Friends E, F, G and H were great people and I liked them, but it we never made plans together without friend C. Friend D knows everybody — and I thought I did too, until he was gone.

Doing your half

Whatever our reasons, I suspect most of us don’t pull our weight socially, and we depend, possibly without realizing, on that wonderful minority of people who are tirelessly connecting us freeloaders and cowards. I can identify a handful of these people in my life, and I’m sure you could too if you thought about it for a moment.

In every relationship there’s a certain amount of initiative that must be taken, by someone, in order to make sure you still see each other. It’s reasonable to assume we have a moral responsibility to do at least 50% of this work. We ought to be extending an invitation for every one we receive, roughly, if we value it when people do it for us.

http://www.raptitude.com/2014/11/a-common-habit-that-costs-friends/

Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy

“Sure,” Lucy has been taught, “everyone will go and get themselves some fulfilling career, but I am unusually wonderful and as such, my career and life path will stand out amongst the crowd.”  So on top of the generation as a whole having the bold goal of a flowery career lawn, each individual GYPSY thinks that he or she is destined for something even better.

Unfortunately, the funny thing about the world is that it turns out to not be that easy of a place, and the weird thing about careers is that they’re actually quite hard.  Great careers take years of blood, sweat and tears to build—even the ones with no flowers or unicorns on them—and even the most successful people are rarely doing anything that great in their early or mid-20s.

But GYPSYs aren’t about to just accept that. Continue reading “Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy”

Thoughtful, prosperous alignment of your values and your lifestyle.

You might think that in a world where such a thing is possible, we’d all be trying on lifestyles until we found one that fit.

But relatively few do.

As it stands, the norm is to pick a popular one, perhaps fully aware that The Man himself is at the helm, and run with it for several decades, even well after its ultimate irrelevance and emptiness begin to show.

Meanwhile, we complain fondly about it, make knowing jokes with our colleagues about it, steal pens and toner to reclaim some of our lost self-esteem, and if we’re lucky, become at least numb to the work itself.

What makes it seem worthwhile is that the proceeds allow us to build, in our evenings and on our weekends, a fraction of the life we wanted all along.