Picking a lot to build your home!
Picking your lot is probably one of the easier decisions to make in-home building/buying. It was for us when building our dream home. Generally, a new construction builder will have a set of lots that are zoned for their floor plans and they do this in sections.
Each section will be a couple of streets and have a set amount of homes they can build. The lot is the section of land that a home will be built on. They’ll have a map of the section and which streets have the permits and zoning.
Location
The first part you should think about is the location. This coincides with area and community, but make sure you like both! A few main points to cover from those other blog posts (linked below) are schools, stores, and services.
A little run down of those main points. Are the schools ones that you want to send your kids to? Don’t forget about extra curriculars! Is there any store you cannot live without? Costco, Walmart, or Starbucks. Services that you’ll need in the coming years? Most popular are medical, religious, and cell phone/internet.
With how the builder zones and permits the section you choose will already have the location picked.
Street
The next part is the individual street. Do you like the location of the street? The street may be busy, or it may be eerily quiet. If your home backs up to a street and has a street in front check both streets.
Corner homes can be nice, but if you want privacy that might not be the best option for you when picking a lot. Are you on a nice cul-de-sac? Does the street have a dead end? All things to think about.
Distance
Distance for your home also goes back to the three S’s. Schools, stores, and services. It might not be that you are too far, but that you might be too close. If you are too close then you would get some unwanted traffic.
Another point to consider is the distance between homes. Drive around previously built sections by your builder. Are they too close or too far for your liking? Many people dislike if their neighbors can see inside of their home.
Views
View are great! Not everyone wants to see just their neighbors home or another lot being built. Stand at your perspective lot and imagine seeing the views just about every day of your life for the next 10 years. If you are disgusted then its not the lot for you!
For us, we have 360 degree view of mountains and hills, farm land, an LDS Temple (always a beautiful building), and a lake. We know with the new construction some of these views will be taken away, but whatever we will keep is great!
Views also don’t just mean from your home, but also the neighborhood. We love walking as a family and our neighborhood has stunning views of all the things mentioned above. So we’ll never get bored.
Neighbors
With new construction, you don’t get to pick your neighbors or really know who they are until you move in and get to know them. When we picked our lot we tried to imagine how close the homes are and we were comfortable with that.
Another thing you can do is drive around the completed sections from the builder, that are close to your prospective lot. Do you see people that you wouldn’t mind spending time with or having your children play with their children. This is super indicative of who will be buying the lots next to you.
Finally, your builder may not let two of the same floor plans next to each other. Unless, you have two different faces on the home. For example, you may have the same floor plan but one home has rock sheeting on the front and the other home doesn’t.
Final Thoughts
Generally, picking the lot should be the easiest part of your build. Up to this point, you’ve done a lot of research on the area and the community and you are picking the exact location of your home.
If you’ve built or are going through the process of building a home, what do you think? Did I miss anything? Let me know down below!
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