What inspections do I need for a land purchase?
Instead of buying an existing Albemarle County country home or Central Virginia farm you may want to find a parcel of land and start from scratch building things exactly to your taste. You may think that all yyou need to do is to find a pretty property and put it under contract…Not so fast, you may want to do your due diligence before closing.
When writing the contract, you should ask for a study period. Think of it as a home innspection for the land. This will give you time to make sure that the property will be suitable for your intended use.
The first thing that you may want to have is an environmental study. In this study the environmental expert will look at old aerials and satelite pictures of the parcel as well as property records. They may see an old hole on the property, that they will want to examine to make sure that nothing toxic was buried there. Or they may see an old dwelling on the property and will want to look for the existence of buried fuel tanks. Or they could find an old apple orchard and would want to test the soil for chemicals.
Next you will want to do a soil and perk test, just like you would need if you were buying a building lot. It is important to know that the land around your prospective house site will support a septic field.
Finally you might want to actually drill a well before you purchase the property. That way you make sure that you are satisfied with the water availability. You might spend $10,000 drilling a well, but this is a lot less than the thousands of dollars you will spend to purchase your future farm.
When you are investing in a future Virginia farm it pays to have a study period.
If you are looking for land to turn into a Central Virginia farm, Charlottesville horse farm, or a private country home there are some lovely large parcels of land offered for sale in our Central Virginia counties.
Copyright 2013 by Pam Dent all rights reserved “What Inspections do I need during a land purchase?“
Pam Dent
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