Before You Buy Land: Who to Talk To and What to Check

1. Find the right property

Start with what the parcel is zoned for and what it's physically capable of, not just the price per acre. A cheap parcel that can't perc, has no legal road access, or sits entirely in a floodway isn't cheap once you account for what it would cost to fix -- if it can be fixed at all.

Pull the county GIS/parcel viewer before you ever tour a property. Most counties now publish parcel boundaries, zoning designation, floodplain overlays, and often soil survey data online for free. It won't answer every question, but it will rule out obviously bad parcels in five minutes.

2. Get the right agent

A generic residential buyer's agent often hasn't handled a raw-land closing and won't know to ask about perc tests, easements, or mineral rights. Land deals are a specialty -- look for someone who specifically works land, not just someone with a real estate license willing to write the offer.

3. Get a survey

A licensed survey establishes the actual boundary lines, confirms the acreage you're paying for, and reveals encroachments or boundary disputes before they become your problem. Industry guidance generally recommends a survey for any parcel over about 5 acres, or any parcel where the boundary matters for what you intend to build -- which, for most buyers, is every parcel.

A survey is not the same as a title search, and neither substitutes for the other -- you need both.

4. Confirm easements and access

A title company or attorney's records review should surface every recorded easement affecting the parcel -- utility easements, shared-driveway easements, conservation easements, and access easements. The single most important thing to confirm is that the parcel has legal, deeded access to a public road. A parcel with no recorded access easement across a neighboring property is landlocked, and resolving that after the fact can be expensive, slow, or in some cases impossible if a neighbor simply refuses to grant one.

5. Check zoning before you assume anything

Zoning determines what you're legally allowed to do with the land -- residential zoning generally prohibits commercial activity and often restricts livestock, home businesses, or additional dwelling units. Call the county planning or zoning department directly and ask about your specific intended use; don't rely on the zoning map's category name alone, since the same designation can carry different allowed-use lists in different counties.

6. Test whether the property can actually support building

If the parcel isn't on public sewer, it needs a septic system, and a septic system needs a passed perc (percolation) test before the county health department will permit it. Make a passed perc test a contingency in your purchase agreement, not something you discover after closing -- see our national guide to perc tests for the full process and typical costs.

7. Confirm septic feasibility

A passed perc test is necessary but not sufficient -- the county health department or its equivalent still has to approve a specific septic system design for the site, based on soil type, lot size, setbacks from wells and water bodies, and slope. See our national guide to septic systems.

8. Confirm water access

If there's no public water line, you'll need a well, and well feasibility (depth, yield, water quality) varies enormously even within the same county depending on the local aquifer. Ask neighboring landowners about their own well depth and yield before you buy -- it's the fastest real-world signal you'll get. See our national guide to well water.

9. Check flood, wetland, and drainage risk

FEMA flood maps and a state or federal wetland inventory (jurisdictional wetlands fall under the Clean Water Act and can sharply restrict what you're allowed to build or clear, regardless of local zoning) should both be checked before you buy, not after. A parcel that's technically buildable but requires an expensive wetland permit or extensive fill work is a very different financial proposition than the listing price suggests.

10. Understand what it takes to physically get onto the property

Clearing, grading, culverts, and driveway construction are real line-item costs that vary hugely by terrain, and they're easy to underestimate when you're looking at a wooded or sloped lot on a listing photo rather than standing on it.

11. Line up financing before you need it

Raw land is financed very differently from a house. Lenders treat undeveloped land as higher-risk collateral, so raw-land loans commonly require 30-50% down and carry higher interest rates than a conventional mortgage -- industry estimates put typical raw-land rates in roughly the 7.5%-9.5% range as of 2026, though this varies by lender, location, and credit. See our national guide to land financing and raw land loans, including the USDA and other programs that can apply for specific uses.

12. Get insurance figured out

Vacant land itself typically only needs basic liability coverage, but once you start building, or if you place a structure (even a camper or barn) on the property, your insurance needs change. Ask an agent what triggers a change in coverage before you assume you're covered by default.

13. Do your due diligence on a real timeline

Most purchase agreements for land include a due-diligence period -- a window, negotiated up front, during which you can complete surveys, perc tests, and title review and walk away if something disqualifying turns up. Don't let a seller pressure you into a due-diligence period too short to actually complete a perc test or septic evaluation, both of which can take weeks depending on county scheduling.

14. Read the deed for restrictions

Deed restrictions (sometimes layered on top of, and independent from, county zoning) can prohibit things zoning would otherwise allow -- manufactured homes, certain fencing, livestock, or minimum square footage requirements are common examples in platted subdivisions and some rural developments. See our national guide to deed restrictions.

15. Make an informed offer

By the time you're ready to make an offer, you should be able to answer: what is this parcel zoned for, does it perc, can it get a well, does it have legal access, is any part of it in a floodplain or wetland, and what will it cost to physically get a driveway and utilities onto it. If you can't answer all of those, that's what your due-diligence period and your land specialist are for.