I'm looking at buying land off of Family. Roughly 13-15 Acres in south central PA. I contacted a surveyor and the local Sewage guy(to make sure it will perk). Its about 3 acres wetlands with a small creek), 4 acres of farm fields and the rest is wooded. I really have no idea what I'm doing because I've never dealt with anything like this before. I contacted the local electric company to make sure I can get a hook up.

The only current access is a tractor trail. I'm looking to remove about 1.5 acres of wood for a building site and driveway and also run electric and Internet. I'm planning on an 1700 SQ ft ICF house with stone veneer and a full basement(unfinished with rough in bathroom). I contacted my local credit union and they can finance 80% of the land.

I am set to receive a small inheritance that would cover the down payment on a construction loan.

I'm planning on eventually building a barn, shooting range, garden etc.

I already told my fiancé that she will need to sign a pre-nup and that her name won't be on the house so I don't lose it in case we would get divorced.

The land I want is pretty flat but there is a 25 ft hill behind it( I would take that too, but I don't want to be land poor.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated regarding anything.

Any specific questions you have? I'm terrible at answering open ended questions.

Clearing trees can be crazy expensive.  Someone will probably say to make sure you get the mineral rights to the land.

I guess my question is what to look out for? Should I get title insurance?

What would everyone who bought land and built a house do differently if they could?

Hire a real estate attorney.  Let the expert represent you.

How close to the road  is the house going to be?   Too far and running utilities becomes problematic and expensive.

Six months ahead of you...get your own survey done soonest...worth it...seems like everyone needs that and the general warranty deed (elect co., county public health, etc)

im basically looking at the same EXACT thing. building a icf house on 15 acres.... partial in ground, but no basement.... although im considering a total under ground roof / shelter / gunroom...   im clearing some stuff by hand with my tractor and truck.. not going to badly.  be around 2-3 years before ill be able to get a house loan though.... which is fine, it will take me that long to get things like i want them. ill be running utilities around 1400'... and underground. that will be expensive.. although the power company gives you 1000' of wire free.....  this is basically back in the woods... its worth it to me to spend the money on the utilities... to get the privacy.

Put in a passive radon mitigation system.  Once you're settled, check it.  If the level is high, it will be easy to add a fan to it.

If you want a pre nup, you might want to rethink getting married. If my wife(much wealthier than me) had said she wanted a prenup I would have seen it as a sign that she wasn't in it for the long haul.

I'm getting ready to build on some land in a few years and believe it's going to be more expensive than buying something already in place.

Title insurance with a survey and boundary deletion are a must.  You really should have a lawyer who specializes in land real estate look over your contracts.

What about water and power?  Do you have access?  Are easements needed on adjoining properties to get them to you?

Go to the library or amazon or wherever and get and read the book "Finding and Buying your Place in the Country".

PS, yes get title insurance.
Check with the well driller also, to see what you are in for as far as cost, depth, risk of a dry hole.
Wetlands at least 500 feet from your building site and septic?  Double check PA and federal laws as well.

I'm looking at doing almost the same thing in Western PA. I want to subdivide off about 2 acres (minimum for Ag zoning) and build a house near the road.

I really just started the process, only made the decision to build over buy very recently. So I'm still learning what I'm getting into. I've barely started looking into it and I've already waded into the maze of red tape. I've been talking to the township, the county sewage authority, and the SEO, and I can't quite get a straight answer on the process.

I have to get the perc done to subdivide, so that's the first step after confirming that I'm happy with the site.

The pre-nup is not because I'm that much wealthier than my fiancé, its just that I don't want to lose my house incase we would get a divorce. I've seen too many men in my family lose everything in a divorce(houses, guns, pay alimony, pension etc). The fiancé is fine with it. It will be well and septic. If it does perc it will more than likely be a sand mound. The property has plenty of road footage.

The neighbor bordering my land said his well is about 45 feet down.

My building and excavating won't disturb the wetlands

Picture of land I'm looking at buying and building on.

So the red is what you're subdividing? What's the small area with the blue box? Can I ask what county?

The little blue box is a 1/3 of an acre that a neighbor owns with a garage and well/septic on it. It would be Adams County.

Yes, subdividing the red area.

What determined what would be subdivided? Seems odd to leave the original parcel with that narrow piece of road frontage  to the north. Looks like a lot of it would be unbuildable with that creek running through it.

ETA: Where on that parcel are you looking at building?

I did want to take it to the property line on the right, but the surveyor said if I blocked that section off from the rest of the land on the other side of the road that the township would consider everything on my side of the road that I didn't take as another lot that would have to be sub-divided.

As for the narrow road frontage to the north, I had wanted the creek to be the boundry, but the surveyor said that would cost a lot of $ to survey. If I took it all the way to the road it would add another 4+ acres which are worthless/ might not be able to afford or get a loan for that much land.

Rough sketch.

Purple is driveway, Orange is area to be cleared for house/Yard and Blue block is where I'm planning on building.

This is what I was originally going for.

Your case may be different but we were advised, turned out true, not to buy the land separately.   Unless you have the cash to do both without the banks.  Banks want to see a single, simple build all tied into one loan.
You can't use the land as collateral for the construction.

Raw land you must have legal right of way access, water, sewer and free from legal restrictions.  Get much info at the county office.  Copies of the whole area.
Get a tech review from the county.
Get a builder, design, budget, tech review, survey and bank review before you buy.

There are lots of other properties if this one doesn't work.

Check out the neighbors. Talk to locals about the area (Ag stores are great for this, ask for the guy who deals with fencing.  He knew everybody's business).

The common advice says that you should expect to go over budget by at least 40%, and we know people who went way over that.  Two builds near us were not completed.  The buyers took a huge bath.  Failed.  The unfinished homes sat for years.

We knew we could not afford that so we planned very carefully and looked for every possible hurdle.  We planned for 5% over budget and came in at 4.5% over including some extras we added at the end.

Mostly upgraded the kitchen cabinets to maple and integrated fire/burglar system while the walls are open.

We get a steep discount on insurance because of the fire/burglar system.  Totally worth it.

When you go to build, pick some plans (or have some plans drawn up) and take them to a few builders and get some prices.  I'm going through this at the moment.  We designed our future house and I took it to the builder.  Builder gave me an estimate.  The estimate ended up being WAY over what I was expecting.  So, the wife and I have been working on the plan to come up with what we can delete out of it.  We've pared it back in an attempt to make it more affordable.  We could afford what we originally wanted but it would have been a much higher mortgage than we are comfortable with.  

You can save money in lots of places in a house.  Areas to save money on a house are lighting fixtures and plumbing fixtures.  You don't NEED to go to a high end lighting or plumbing store.  Lowes or Menards will have everything you need and be reasonably priced.  For plumbing fixtures that are going INSIDE walls (such as shower fixtures) go high end.  You don't want to be ripping them out in a couple years.  But, faucets and lights you can go with builder grade and then just upgrade in the future.....if you decide you want to.  

Don't cut corners on flooring.  You don't have to buy the most expensive but do NOT try to cheap out on those areas.  Floors take a lot of abuse and need to last.  

Spend extra money on insulation.  Cut corners somewhere (put in a lower efficiency HVAC system for example) but spend extra on insulation.  Insulation will always pay off (within reason) and will save you money as long as you live there.  A high end HVAC system will still have to be replaced one day.  

BEFORE you go talk to the builder, know what you want.  A good builder will have good ideas and will help you out....but don't meet a builder and tell him "I want to build a house".  You need to know what you want and how much you can afford.  

Start thinking about things NOW.  I've been planning my house for the last 4 years....and still find myself having to make some decisions.  Know what your heat/AC source will be and pick out 2-3 brands that you will consider.  What kind of water heater will you install....natural gas, propane, electric....and what brand do you want?  Where do you want the house controls to be...electric panel, water distribution panel, sewer/septic lines, HVAC system?  What kind of insulation are you using?  

You say you want a 1700 square foot house with a full basement.  That's a 3400 square foot house.  Any guesses what you'll pay for a house that size in your area?  You might be in for sticker shock!  


Just some random thoughts.  We are in the final planning stages before starting our new house and it can be overwhelming some times.  We had a great plan but when I got estimates, we had to make some choices.  Ended up deleting the basement....would love to have one but it just added too much cost.  We are now planning to build on a crawlspace.

I anticipated that a fully finished house may be out of my budget. My plans are an unfinished basement with rough in bathroom. First floor 1 finished bathroom with porcelain tile, 1 rough in master bath. Slate tile in kitchen, fossilized bamboo in the living room.  I also plan on having a wood cook stove in the kitchen. I'll get prices for the house with everything finished and strip away things I don't need right now till I can get it under budget if it goes over.

Planning on 3 bedrooms.

I'm planning on having the first floor concrete with radiant floor heating. So all the bedrooms I will just have finished in acid washed concrete.

I'm planning on a max budget of 200k for the house and 125k for the land.

My local credit union will give loans for raw land. I wouldn't need a loan with my inheritance, but I need to buy the land now and wait for my inheritance to use for the down payment on the house.

My cousin and uncle are electricians, so at least they will help out with wiring. Also hoping to get Amish workers because they are usually cheaper.

Things that might raise the price a lot that I want and can't/won't strip away are a fireplace, natural stone veneer siding(full or partial depending on cost. My father was a mason for 30 years so he can do this with my help) and a standing seam metal roof.

Houses in this area new construction run from 110 sq ft. to 130 a sq ft. granted that is with half acre lots.

200k is going to be a heck of a stretch for what you're looking for. Also, Amish are not cheap- they're honest and hardworking people that produce great quality work. A lot of times you have to really pay for this.

Amish are good, but they are cheaper since they don't pay some taxes/ insurance.

Can you elaborate on what you think it will cost for what I described and why you think that? Honestly if you have some insight I'm open to it. Keep in mind while not Perry county, this is a low cost of living area also, certainly not south east pa type prices.

Probably a stupid question, but I'm guessing ICF is a pricier option than more traditional building options? I'm not really familiar with them, did a little reading and watched some videos. Seems like potentially a nice option, though I can see some drawbacks.

Yes ICF is pricier, but you get it back in lower utility bills. I hear about 5% price increase, but I'm budgeting for 10%. There is a structural engineer near me who built his by himself with no formal training. It goes up fast. The only drawbacks besides price I know of is possibly mice/bugs getting into outside insulation. Building in the woods where I want to Termites are a problem and if I stick built I'd always be fighting them. I'd say the benefits outweigh the cons. Less Fire/Wind/Insect/noise issues, should be cheaper on home insurance, and absolutely cheaper with utility bills.

http://commonsensehome.com/living-in-a-concrete-bunker-2/ This is a good blog and has a 6 part blog about building an ICF house.

The local Concrete place sells FoxBlocks type of ICF

You have some VERY expensive wants/must haves in that house.  Nothing wrong with that.  However, unless you plan on doing a LOT of the work yourself, then I would plan for the higher end finished square foot cost.  If houses in your area are costing $110-130 per square foot, you're looking at $374,000-$442,000 finished cost.  

Interesting. I'll be reading that link, thanks.

I mostly like the idea. The only drawbacks I'm thinking of right away is it would be difficult if not impossible to ever make changes, but I'm not really an addition kind of person and hopefully I'd have the floor plan laid out the way I want it correctly from the start.

Yeah the Stone veneer is going to rape my wallet. I'm assuming 30k for roof, 30k for Stone veneer materials(no labor needed), and 5k for fireplace/chimney(no labor needed).

I have no idea how much the shell will cost. I will lay tile/flooring and do drywall myself, cousin for electrical. Wish I knew a plumber.

FWIW, I'm a land broker, feel free to shoot me a Pm sometime if there's anything I might be able to help with. I office out of Des Moines but cover basically the whole Midwest and have experience across just about every property type and scenario you could imagine. Not trying to solicit business, just want to help out if I can.

Just found out 7 acres of the land I want is in a 100 year flood zone(but not area I'm building in) not that I trust Fema maps. How much does that devalue the land?

Depends on your intended use and regulations that for the area that govern flood zones.  MANY jurisdictions place restrictions on areas adjoining 100 yr flood plains also so you had better know your laws.

I will say it again - get a lawyer.

I would think much of that floodplain is including the wetlands anyway.

I don't know what you used to get that number, but I can overlay floodplains over that aerial for you and give you a fairly precise number.

Are you able to hook up to sewer or will it be on a septic system?. If it is septic then it will need to be away form wetlands. 500ft minimum if I recall correctly but don't quote me.