When beginning down the path to your dream custom home, it's essential to find the right property. The characteristics of the land will influence the overall design of your home. The size of the lot will impact the size of your home, and which of our plans are the best options. If the lot is sloped, you may consider a daylight basement, or additional foundation. Are the utilities already connected, or do you need to account for those during site development? All of these considerations will be important during your search for the perfect parcel of land.
But how do you find that place?
PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
Defining Your Ideal Plot
Consider your budget: the location of your home will determine your property taxes, school district, utilities, building requirements, and commuting options. Determining your must-haves is a purely personal decision—but one that deserves a lot of consideration. Perhaps the country view outweighs the travel time—but, perhaps not. Making a list of your willing trade-offs is an exercise worth doing.
Once you have your goals in mind, your local Adair Pro Team would love to connect you with a trusted real estate partner; someone who focuses specifically in land sales. This real estate agent will be able to provide a wealth of information about the properties you’re interested in: available utilities, zoning, access, and the size and location of building envelopes. Let them know what you’re looking for, and they’ll make sure you have access to the latest listings.
Pro Tip: "Make an offer right away, the best lots go quickly. Don't worry about whether it's the right property for you, we'll help you determine that during your due diligence period."
- Chuck Wines, Home Ownership Counselor, Mid Willamette Valley
A word to the wise: this process takes time. Finding a great location at your desired price point is worth every minute you’ll spend in research. Remember: your custom home is a lifetime investment, and by owning your own land you’ll have equity from the outset. In 2019, Adair customer’s average equity position equaled 25%!
Professional Property Evaluation
Once you do find a great property, your local Adair Pro Team is available to help evaluate the proposed site. Between making an offer and closing on the lot, your due diligence will determine whether or not this is the land for you. Important first steps, include:
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• Schedule a professional property evaluation
• Visit with the local jurisdiction to order to research unknowns specific to this piece of land
• Call Adair for a home planning meeting to make sure your budget is still in alignment
Adair Homes is happy to provide a complementary Property Evaluation and home planning meeting at no charge. Why? Because we feel it is a critical step in determining your total project cost. Site development costs can be surprising—and include things like water, power, sewer or septic, roadway, excavation, building permits, and more. Overlooking site development costs can sink your project from the start.
"My clients learned a lot while visiting the site with one of our preferred excavators who took the time to shoot the grade for us - what looks relatively flat had over 9' of slope, this helped them situate the home on a better spot on the lot that will cost a lot less to develop - same views, less slope!”
-Johanna Siebert, Home Ownership Counselor, Southern Oregon
But...if we’ve come this far, and your budget is still on track...congratulations! You’re more than halfway to your new custom home, and we hope you’ll join the 21,000-plus families Adair has had the privilege of helping put down roots in their dream homes.
More Tips from an Expert
Eager to get started in the hunt for you perfect property? Check out this video for more finding land tips, including where to start your search.
About Adair Homes
With 50-plus years in the industry, Adair’s long term commitment to treating each customer with honesty, integrity, and respect has paid off, 21,000 customers strong and counting.
At Adair Homes, our mission states: it is our privilege to build our customers the home they have always dreamed of. We believe in providing the greatest value for our customer’s dollar and finding innovative ways to value engineer homes. We believe that we can offer an outstanding customer experience that is both enjoyable and rewarding—and offer this one-of-a-kind customer experience as the largest on-your-lot builder in the West. For more info, get in touch with us here or call 1-844-518-7072.