Land Due Diligence Checklist: 25 Things to Verify Before You Buy

When you buy a house, a system does part of your homework for you. There is an inspection, an appraisal, seller disclosures, and a lender who will not fund the loan until the file is complete.

Vacant land has almost none of that. Nobody inspects it. Disclosure rules are thin. If you pay cash, no lender checks anything. The work falls to you, and it has to happen before closing, while you can still walk away.

This checklist covers the 25 things worth verifying. You will not need every item for every parcel. A lot in a subdivision with sewer needs less than forty raw acres at the end of a dirt road.

Access and boundaries

1. Legal access. The parcel must touch a public road or have a recorded easement to one. A track that people have always used is not a legal right. Get the recorded document. See easements explained.
2. Physical access. Confirm you can actually drive in, in every season. Ask the county road department or the state transportation department whether a new driveway entrance needs a permit and a culvert.
3. Boundaries. Find out whether a survey exists and how old it is. If there is none, or the corners cannot be found, order one. See how to find property lines.
4. Acreage. Compare the acreage in the listing, the deed, and the tax records. Listings round up. If the price depends on the acreage, make the survey the final word.

Title and legal

5. The real owner. The name on the recorded deed should match your seller. If several people own the land, or the owner has died, every owner or heir must sign.
6. The title commitment. Open a file with a title company early and read the commitment, including every recorded document behind every exception. See title insurance for vacant land.
7. Liens and back taxes. Mortgages, judgments, and unpaid property taxes attach to the land and follow it to the new owner unless they are paid at closing. The title search finds them.
8. Easements across the land. Locate every utility, access, drainage, and pipeline easement, and see where each one falls relative to where you would build.
9. Mineral, timber, and water rights. Earlier owners may have kept or sold these separately. Reservations show up in the deeds and the title commitment. If someone else owns the minerals, find out what rights they have to use the surface.

Zoning and restrictions

10. Permitted use. Call the planning and zoning office and ask whether your specific plan is allowed: a site-built house, a manufactured home, an RV, livestock, a business, a short-term rental. Ask for the answer in writing or by email.
11. Whether the lot is buildable. Zoning sets minimum lot size, road frontage, and setbacks. Make sure that a house, a well, and a septic system all fit once the setbacks are drawn in.
12. Deed restrictions and associations. Subdivisions often carry recorded covenants that are stricter than zoning, along with owner association dues. Read the recorded covenants, not a summary.
13. Special classifications. Ask the assessor whether the land has an agricultural or timber tax classification and what happens to the tax bill if you change its use. Check whether a conservation easement limits development.

Soil, water, and septic

14. Septic approval. With no public sewer, a home needs a septic system, and the county must approve the soil. Make your offer contingent on approval for the number of bedrooms you plan. See what a perc test is.
15. Water. If public water is not available, you need a well. Call two local well drillers and ask about typical depth, yield, water quality, and cost in that immediate area. Many states publish well records you can search for nearby properties.
16. Soils. The free USDA Web Soil Survey rates each mapped soil for septic systems, building sites, and roads, and notes soils that flood or pond. Use it to screen parcels before you pay for testing.

Flood, wetlands, and environment

17. Flood zone and floodway. Look up the parcel on FEMA's maps and see where the high-risk zone falls relative to the building site and the driveway. See how to check if land is in a flood zone.
18. Wetlands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's free Wetlands Mapper is a useful first look. The agency cautions that its data "should not be interpreted as representing the presence, absence, or extent of wetlands" covered by federal, state, or local law. Filling wetlands generally requires a federal permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which regulates the "discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands." If the land has low, wet ground where you want to build or put a road, hire a wetland consultant before you buy.
19. Environmental history. Walk the whole parcel looking for dumping, old drums or tanks, stained soil, and the remains of buildings. Ask the seller and the neighbors what the land was used for.
20. Slope and drainage. Study the contour lines in the county map viewer and then walk the land. Steep ground raises the cost of driveways, foundations, and septic systems. Note where water runs and where it sits.

Utilities

21. Electricity. Find the nearest power line and ask the utility for a written estimate to extend service to your building site. Line extensions are priced by distance, and the quote can be large enough to change what the land is worth to you.
22. Internet and cell service. Check your phone on the property itself, at the building site, not at the road. Ask neighbors which internet providers actually work there.

Money

23. Property taxes. Get the current tax bill from the county, confirm nothing is past due, and ask how the bill will change after the sale or after you build. After closing, give the tax office your mailing address. Vacant land has no mailbox, and tax bills that never reach the owner are how people lose land.
24. The development budget. Add up written quotes for the driveway, clearing, well, septic system, and power. On raw land the total can rival the purchase price, so it belongs in your decision about what to offer.
25. Financing and insurance. If you are borrowing, confirm the lender will lend on this specific parcel. Access, zoning, and septic status all affect that answer. See land loans explained and the land loan calculator. If the building site is in a flood zone, get a flood insurance estimate for the home you plan.

Who to call

Office names vary from state to state. These are the usual ones.

Keep notes on every call: the date, the person's name, and what they said. For anything your decision depends on, ask for an email confirming it.

Build it into the contract

A checklist is only useful if you have time to work through it and the right to leave if you find a problem. Write both into your offer:

• A due diligence period long enough for the survey and the soil evaluation. Ask the surveyor and the health department for their lead times first.
• Specific contingencies for title, survey, septic approval, and access, not just a general inspection clause.
• The right to enter the land for testing, with the seller's written permission. Contact 811 before anyone digs.
• Your deposit held by a neutral party, such as a title company or an attorney, never by the seller directly.
• A clear exit. If you cancel within the period for a reason the contract allows, the deposit comes back to you.

The bottom line

Start with access, septic, flood zone, and zoning, because any one of them can end the deal. Work through the rest during a due diligence period that your contract protects. Most of the answers are free, and what you pay for tests and a survey is small next to the cost of owning land you cannot use.