Obviously, we want to help you to avoid making the wrong land investment. The earlier you can bring us in on the process of finding your desired land, the better. We enjoy evaluating land and potential teardown opportunities so you can build your dream home. We can also provide sitework estimates based on the lot or teardown that we are evaluating.
A few of the areas we will look at…
First, we can help you navigate the zoning requirements in the town you want to live in. Some important considerations include limitations on how large the home can be or what the floor-area ratio can be. There also are setback requirements that dictate how far your home needs to from the edge of your property line.
Checking out utility availability can also make a big difference later on, especially since some utility options can be more expensive than others in the long run. Depending on the location your water will come for city water or well water. If your property requires a well, we can look at surrounding wells to find out the availability quantity and water
We can help determine the costs involved if your home will be connected to city sewer or will require a septic system. Septic systems work great but typically cost much more than tying into city sewer.
When it comes to wired utilities, we will evaluate electrical, cable and telephone lines coming into your home. We can help determine if they can be underground or if they have to be overhead and the costs involved to connect to them.
The last thing anyone wants is a flooded basement or a muddy puddle in your yard as large as a pond. This can become a major issue if land contours aren’t considered at your potential building site.
We will help ensure the topography of your land slopes away from where the house will be placed so rainwater can drain in the right direction.
We also will look at your soil’s water table and what the percolation rate is, which is how fast the soil can absorb water.
We help evaluate the possibility of using a gravity footing drain or a sump pump to aid with drainage. Ideally, we want gravity fed drainage systems.
Over the years, we have helped guide many of our clients’ decisions based on the potential issue of flooding. A few years back, we worked on an 8-lot subdivision in Mystic. The new houses were going to end up being in a flood zone. However, we were able to work with FEMA to make key alterations to the house designs. By raising the house foundations and bringing in fill around those foundations, we successfully got those eight homes rezoned to be outside of the flood zone, and we were able to re-map the flood zone using FEMA’s LOMA application – a Letter of Map Amendment – for that area. This allowed the homeowners to have full basements and not need flood insurance.
In short, drainage is such a critical component to think about before you buy any lot. We are happy to evaluate the best drainage scenario for your desired lot.
Choosing the wrong plot of land can suddenly turn an affordable dream home into a money pit. To avoid that from happening, we can help you estimate what sitework will cost on a particular lot. For example, we will look at:
Those are just a few of the things I look at. Sometimes if ledge is a concern, we may suggest raising the foundation slightly to avoid the blasting costs and rock removal. With that, we can bring in general fills to the landscape around the foundation.
For one of our recent clients, we helped the family save thousands of dollars on the purchase of their lot. We knew upfront we would need to bring in extra fill to avoid blasting costs and we got those expenses subtracted from the purchase price of the lot.
Estimating building costs isn’t an exact science, but turning to a properly experienced builder like Reagan Homes can make a huge difference. We can give you hard numbers on what it will cost to build from the concrete up, but we can’t do that with building costs related to the land. We don’t know exactly what we’ll find, until after we start digging. With land, those numbers can’t be fully set in stone. However, we can still provide fairly reliable estimates when it comes to the sitework budget. Most often, we are able to keep our clients within their budget range.
When you’re ready to begin looking at land for your future home, the team at Reagan Homes is here to help. We’re passionate about helping you live in your dream home! We understand that it can be intimidating to think about building a home from scratch. But when you partner with us, you can rest assured that you have the best professionals in the business on your side.
Our comprehensive approach to land development and custom homebuilding lets us stand out from the competition. From start to finish, we will help you every step of the way.
To learn more about what to look for and which questions to ask when looking at a property, CLICK NOW to download our free report, “7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Selecting Land for Your New Home.” In the report, we review the importance of issues that might otherwise never cross your mind, issues that will allow us to work together to find your very own slice of heaven.
And then, when you’re ready to start your home building journey, or if you’d like us to help you evaluate a piece of land, call us at (860) 962-6250 to schedule your complimentary, no-obligation virtual consultation or click the button below.
You Can Live In Your Dream Home!
Reagan Homes is CT’s design-build company committed to efficiently building or remodeling your dream home with our expert guidance and team.
While many people feel like renovating their existing home or building a new home is too confusing and too challenging, at Reagan Homes, we help make renovating your existing home or building your new custom home efficient, rewarding and fun. We understand that with our proper guidance and with our expert team we can definitely renovate your existing home or build your beautiful custom home. We recognize that you are truly investing in bringing your family and friends into your dream home to create timeless memories that will last a lifetime.
