Buying land to build a home: a practical lot checklist

Start with your house, not the listing

A lot is only a good fit in relation to a specific project. Before evaluating the property, write a one-page brief with three lists: requirements, flexible preferences, and bonuses. This prevents an attractive view or low asking price from distracting you from a basic mismatch.

Have an address already? Start with Build Eastside's free property feasibility study to screen the lot before paying for a full professional study.

• Requirements: approximate living area, number of floors, bedrooms, garage spaces, accessibility needs, ADU or multigenerational space, and a real maximum budget.
• Flexible preferences: basement or no basement, attached or detached garage, yard size, house orientation, and rooms that could shrink or move.
• Bonuses: a particular view, extra privacy, mature trees, a larger yard, or future expansion space.

The checklist is universal. The rules are local.

Every lot should be screened for the same basic questions: legal status, zoning, house fit, access, utilities, terrain, critical areas, trees, title restrictions, daily livability, and all-in cost. The numerical answer must come from the jurisdiction that regulates the property. Do not carry a setback, height, FAR, lot-coverage, or critical-area rule across a city boundary.

Use the city guide directory to open the zoning, height, tree, view, critical-area, ADU, and permit resources available for the property's jurisdiction.

Build Eastside's feasibility study applies reviewed residential rules and public parcel data in Seattle and 14 Eastside cities. It remains an early screen: surveys, title, utility confirmation, city interpretation, and professional studies may still be necessary.

1. Can the lot fit the home you want?

The tax-record lot size is not the same as the usable building area. Setbacks, height, lot coverage, floor-area limits, easements, critical areas, buffers, trees, driveway geometry, parking, and outdoor space all compete for the same land.

Open the property's jurisdiction in the zoning and setbacks guide directory and follow its official sources. A nearby house is not proof that the same design can be approved on this parcel.

• What is the exact zoning, and is the parcel a legal building lot?
• What building footprint and total floor area could fit after required setbacks and other constraints?
• Does the likely house height work with the existing grade, especially on a sloped site?
• Can the driveway reach the house at a practical grade while preserving parking and emergency access?
• Which title easements, plat restrictions, or private covenants cross the likely building area?
• Which on-site or neighboring trees may affect the house, driveway, excavation, or construction access?
• If critical areas or buffers are present, does the jurisdiction use gross lot area, net or adjusted lot area, or a separate protected building envelope for its floor-area and coverage calculations?

2. What is the land asking you to build around?

Topography often changes the design and cost more than the lot area does. The important question is not simply whether the property slopes, but where the house, driveway, utilities, drainage, and construction equipment can go without excessive excavation or risk.

For mapped slopes or environmental constraints, use the city-specific critical-area and site guides and treat public maps as a screen rather than a survey or professional determination.

• How many feet does the land rise or fall from the street to the likely house location?
• Would the concept require a daylight basement, tall foundation walls, retaining walls, shoring, or large amounts of soil export or import?
• Where does water collect or flow during rain, including runoff from uphill neighbors and the street?
• Are steep slopes, wetlands, streams, flood areas, erosion hazards, landslide hazards, or their buffers mapped on or near the lot?
• Do the soils or prior grading suggest that a geotechnical engineer should review the site before purchase?
• Can workers, concrete trucks, cranes, and excavators actually reach the work area without relying on a neighbor's land?

3. Are utilities truly available and practical to connect?

A utility main near the property is not the same as a usable, adequately sized connection. Ask each provider to identify what exists, who owns it, whether it can serve the proposed home, and what extension, upgrade, easement, or lead time may be required.

The final site plan must coordinate existing and proposed utilities under the local city's requirements. Start with the jurisdiction guide directory and ask each utility provider for an address-specific answer.

• Water: Is there an existing meter and service line? If not, where is the main, is a street cut needed, and are connection or system charges expected?
• Sewer: Is there an existing side sewer, where and how deep is it, and can the new house drain to it by gravity?
• Stormwater: Where can runoff legally go, and could the project require detention, infiltration, pumps, or substantial drainage work?
• Power and gas: Is service overhead or underground? Would the project need a new pole, transformer, trench, vault, easement, or service upgrade?
• Communications: Which internet providers actually serve the address, and where would conduit enter the property?
• Street and access: Will utility work, a new driveway, sidewalks, frontage repair, or work in the public right-of-way add a separate permit and construction scope?

4. What will it feel like to live there?

Feasibility is not only a code exercise. Visit the lot on a weekday morning, during the afternoon commute, after dark, on a weekend, and during rain if possible. Stand near the likely main-floor and upper-floor locations rather than judging the experience from the highest corner of the site.

A scenic outlook is valuable, but do not assume it is protected. Use the local view and tree guides to separate a current condition from an enforceable right.

• Views: What is visible from the likely finished-floor elevation, and does the view depend on trees or an undeveloped neighboring lot staying unchanged?
• Sun and privacy: Which rooms and outdoor areas receive useful light, and where would windows face a neighbor's windows, deck, driveway, or yard?
• Noise and activity: Listen for traffic, schools, parks, aircraft, commercial loading, emergency routes, construction, and mechanical equipment at different times.
• Neighbors: Look for uphill drainage, retaining walls, large trees near the boundary, shared driveways, fences, and signs of future additions or redevelopment.
• Power infrastructure: Note poles, overhead lines, transmission corridors, transformers, substations, and utility easements. Decide whether the sight lines, sound, access needs, and proximity work for you before buying.
• Daily life: Test the actual walk, drive, school route, transit access, cell signal, deliveries, and winter access rather than relying on a map pin.

5. Compare the all-in project cost, not just the land price

Build a lot-specific budget before deciding what you can pay for the property. Keep known quotes separate from allowances and unresolved risks so a low placeholder does not look like a real price.

• Property purchase, closing costs, financing, taxes, insurance, and the cost of carrying the lot during design and permitting.
• Survey, architecture, structural engineering, civil engineering, arborist, geotechnical, environmental, energy, and other consultants.
• Demolition, hazardous-material work, tree work, clearing, erosion control, excavation, soil export, shoring, retaining walls, and drainage.
• Water, sewer, stormwater, power, gas, communications, driveway, right-of-way, and frontage work.
• House construction, permits, utility and impact fees, sales tax, temporary services, landscaping, and move-in work.
• A contingency sized for what remains unknown. The more unresolved the site, the less useful a small generic contingency becomes.

6. Turn the unknowns into a purchase decision

Use a simple traffic-light scorecard. Green means verified and acceptable. Yellow means the issue can probably be solved but still needs a written answer, concept, study, or price. Red means the lot does not support a requirement, exceeds the budget, or cannot be verified before your decision deadline.

A useful feasibility result does not need a fully designed house. It should show a realistic building and driveway concept, the major constraints, a site-work strategy, an all-in cost range, and a short list of items that remain unverified.

If the early screen leaves important city questions, use the local pre-permit help guide to find available meetings, staff contacts, and official resources. Contract terms and deadlines should be reviewed with your broker or attorney.

1. Write the project requirements and maximum all-in budget before touring lots.
2. Screen public records, zoning, mapped constraints, permit history, utilities, and title documents.
3. Walk the property at several times and photograph the street, boundaries, grade changes, drainage, trees, utilities, neighbors, and views.
4. Ask an architect to test a realistic concept, then bring in a surveyor, civil engineer, arborist, geotechnical engineer, or utility provider where the screen identifies risk.
5. Get written answers or allowances for every yellow item and reject any red item that conflicts with a true requirement.
6. Make the final price reflect the remaining cost, time, and uncertainty rather than hoping those risks disappear after closing.