The buyer's guide to land due diligence.
Ten steps, in the order I run them, from first listing to closing table. Everything here is public record work you can do yourself — and the point at which most buyers decide they would rather have someone read it for them.
Read the deed before you read the listing
Pull the current recorded deed and the two or three before it. The legal description, the recorded easements and any reservations tell you what is actually being sold. A listing is marketing copy; a deed is the transaction.
Prove legal access, not just physical access
A driveway is not a right. Look for public road frontage or a recorded easement running with the land. If access is by a shared lane, find the maintenance agreement, or accept that there isn't one.
Pull the flood layer and the wetlands layer
FEMA flood zone and floodway, plus the National Wetlands Inventory. Both are free. Both routinely contradict the acreage story a listing tells, and floodway is the one that can take a building site off the table entirely.
Confirm the zoning and the permitted use
Zoning district, permitted uses, minimum lot size, setbacks and any overlay. In many states the future land use map matters as much as the current zoning. Ask the planning department what they would approve today, not what the seller was told years ago.
Find out how you get water and where waste goes
Public utility, well or nothing. Ask about the aquifer or basin, the well permit rules, and whether the county has any moratorium. If septic is required, check the soils and the county's record of past percolation tests, including the failures.
Check who owns what is under the surface
In many states minerals were severed generations ago. The surface owner can be left with a legal duty to accommodate someone else's drilling or mining. Get the severance chain, not just a yes-or-no answer.
Read every restriction in full
Subdivision covenants, conservation easements, agricultural preservation contracts, HOA documents, deed restrictions. Read them, not the summary. A restriction on manufactured homes or short-term rental can quietly end your plan.
Underwrite the taxes at your purchase price
The seller's tax bill is the seller's tax bill. Agricultural or preferential assessments can trigger rollback taxes when use changes, and in some states assessment resets on transfer. Ask what the bill becomes after you buy and after you build.
Price the real cost of getting to buildable
Driveway, culvert, power run, well, septic, clearing, permits, impact fees. Land is rarely expensive at the purchase price. It gets expensive between closing and the first slab.
Write the contingencies you actually need
Put the unresolved items into the contract: survey, perc, access, financing, permit feasibility. Every question you cannot close before you sign should be a way out afterward.
Before you make an offer
Deed, access, flood, wetlands, zoning, and a rough cost of getting to buildable. This is the round that saves you the earnest money.
During the option or inspection period
Survey, perc test, well and utility confirmations, restriction documents read in full, tax and rollback exposure, title commitment reviewed against what you were told.
Before you close
Re-check the title commitment exceptions, confirm every contingency is either satisfied or waived on purpose, and get written confirmation of anything a person told you over the phone.
The method behind all of this lives in my complete land due diligence guide, and a sample report shows the format the answers come back in.
Several of these steps change meaning depending on where the parcel sits. Start with the state page for yours.
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Land due diligence: the complete guide — my full hub of land research guides, from title and access to soils, zoning and cost.