Buying Land to Breaking Ground – How To Speed It Up and What It Cost
We bought our land over a year ago and are just now breaking ground on our home build. In the beginning, this process seemed very challenging and unknown to us. It still does at times, but now looking back, we wish someone had told us the information shared below before we embarked on our self-build home journey.
I hope you find some benefit from our mistakes and wins, along with how to speed up the general process.
Make sure you read the whole article to find out the price we paid for engineering services and applications/permits at the end.
This isn’t a complete post encompassing all the due diligence steps you need to complete when you find land, but rather a next step for when you find land you want to build a house on but haven’t yet or just closed on the land.
If you are interested in learning about how to find land to build a house on and complete the due diligence yourself, check out this post 8 Environmental Research Tools Your Realtor Won’t Tell You
What Can I Do to Start the Home Build Process Before I Close On Land and Avoid Delays?
Contact at least two local engineering firms to complete your due diligence. You will need an engineer to complete a boundary survey of your land and (if applicable) a septic and well design.
How to speed up your home build process? Start the engineering work before you close on the land, with seller approval.
Starting this engineering work before you officially own the land is totally normal in the real estate world—think due diligence and home inspections when you buy a house.
The boundary survey does not disrupt the land, but the soil pit for the septic system can be invasive, especially if the land is not cleared. The engineer will stake out your property boundaries, determine the elevation, slope, and grade, and note any other defining characteristics like wetlands and easements. These characteristics can either make or break the ability to build a home or require a lot more work and money to make your dreams possible.
For the soil pit testing, the engineer brings a small excavator to your property and usually digs a 4×4 hole for the soil testing within the same area of your future septic system. The size and depth of this hole can vary, so you should ask beforehand. The engineer uses soil testing to determine how deep the septic system and drainage field need to be. The size of your house in terms of bedrooms and bathrooms determines how big the septic system needs to be.
Keep in mind: If the seller doesn’t agree to the soil septic system testing before the closing and you still purchase the property with the intention to build a house, it is possible for the engineer to deem your property unsuitable for a septic tank.
Unsuitable site conditions would be soil type, elevation, depth to water table, space available, etc. Don’t worry if that happens; there are remediations like a mounded septic system that might be able to be used.
What to look for an engineer when starting a home build?
- Bundles your desired services together
- Offers a formal proposal
- Has a quick turnaround time
- Specializes or does a lot of residential sites/work.
Ideally, a boundary survey, septic and well design, and grading plan would be completed by the same engineer. In the application and approval process these services are dependent on each other.
By offering a formal proposal, it is providing a scope of work and services you can agree on. A formal agreement is used to prevent being shortchanged on work.
A quick turnaround time is important to speeding up the time it will take you to close on your land and break ground.
Larger firms tend to focus more on larger commercial projects and will put your residential work on the backburner.
Our personal experience: During Fall 2023, the land purchase was finalized. We started to contact engineers to complete our site work. The engineer we went with had a 12-week turnaround time. After completing the work, it took two months to get final approval for our septic and well. Part of the delay was, approval came from the county and state health departments. We recommend completing due diligence before closing on land to speed up your waiting time
What Types Of Applications And Permits Do I Need To Build A House?
Before you start down the never-ending path of applications, forms, and permits, you need to have your home floor plan and building layout completed with architectural drawings.
This is where a pole barn style home became attractive and convenient to us. Pole barn homes are post-frame construction, not like traditional stick-built homes. The strength of the building in post-frame homes are in the exterior walls, which favor open floor plans. A simple roofline is known to be a feature of post-frame homes, allowing the architectural drawings to be easily created
To learn what specific applications, forms, and permits are needed to build a house, the local government office should be visited in person. That office might feel like a second home at times. Remember to be friendly! They are going to be the ones completing and approving your paperwork.
In the event that you cannot go in person, the specific applications, forms, and permits should also be online. Our local township had a printable checklist we followed. Each township, city, and county is different, so it is best to get that information right from the source.
Nonetheless, you will need to submit certain applications for approval before they will even look at the other permits. The applications we had to focus on first were:
- Zoning approval
- Septic and well approval
- Soil conservation
- Grading approval
- RES energy standards
At last, once the local government grants approval for all of those applications, it is time to submit your technical permits. An example of technical permits would be:
- Building
- Electrical
- Fire
- Plumbing
Those documents estimate the quantities and materials it costs to build your home.
How to speed up the permit process? You can complete these permits as soon as you have your floor plans and building layout complete.
You want to make sure they are accurate because it is what the building inspector will reference when inspecting your home.
What Do The Permits Cost When Building A Home?
- Boundary Survey of 7 cleared acres in South Jersey in Winter 2023: $7,200
- Septic system and well design for a 3 bed 1 bath house: $5,500
- Well application: $500
- Pineland Commission Exemption: $250
- Escrow: $1,000
- Development fee: 1.5% of estimated home value
- Permits: $1,950
After being in the permit phase for over a year, it is convincing that half the time spent during a home build is completing paperwork and waiting for all the necessary approvals. Going into this journey, I knew building a home took a long time. I thought we could be the exception because we were doing this ourselves. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Have you built a home before? What did you wish you knew about the process before you broke ground?
Your Realtor Won’t Tell You This- 8 Environmental Research Tools
Doing environmental research or due diligence before you purchase your home or land is your responsibility.
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