Step 3

Choose a Lot that Suits Your Living Needs

Look for:

• The best views
• Good exposure to the winter sun
• Opportunities for natural summer cooling
• The direction of winter winds and summer breezes
• Slope of the site - the slope will influence construction cost, drainage and exposure to the sun
• Plants, trees, soil types and natural features
• Utilities connections such as power, sewer, water, phone, cable and gas
• Opportunities for vehicular and pedestrian access

Work with your architect to develop a simple system to rank the various lots in order of suitability to your living space needs, purchase price, and relative cost of site development. Select the lot with the highest overall rank. Your architect can now develop an estimate of site development cost to be included in the preliminary construction budget.

Final purchase of the lot should be contingent upon a soils report showing soils and subsurface conditions that are compatible with the proposed house. The soils report should be prepared by a registered professional soils engineer. Your architect can recommend several capable engineers and can make contractual and technical arrangements with the engineer of your choice.