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Subject
Land selection and acquisition
How to evaluate a parcel before you buy it
In short
Evaluating land in Colorado means answering four questions before the offer: is water legally and physically available, what will the site cost to make buildable, what will the jurisdiction approve and how long will it take, and what can the finished product sell for.
- How to choose land for a custom home in ColoradoWhat to check before buying a Colorado home site, from water and access to grading, slope, and the season you visit. Written from 41 community engagements.
- What water costs on a Colorado parcelTap fees, well permits, and augmentation plans explained for Colorado land buyers. Water usually decides what a parcel can support.
- The site work budget nobody shows youGrading, soils, utilities, driveways, and drainage are where Colorado land budgets break. What to price before you buy, and who should price it.
- Why you should look at land in FebruarySnow load, plow routes, sun angle, wind, and access all reveal themselves in winter and hide in summer. How to evaluate a Colorado parcel in the hard season.
Land is where the irreversible decisions get made, and it is where buyers spend the least analytical effort.
The four questions, in order
Is water legally and physically available? In much of Colorado water sets the density ceiling before zoning ever does. A tap from a district, a well permit with adequate allowed use, or nothing.
What will the site cost to make buildable? Grading, drainage, utility runs, and foundation type driven by soils. This is the largest source of unbudgeted cost in Colorado land.
What will the jurisdiction approve, and how long will it take? Setbacks, height, coverage, and the review timeline, which varies enormously by county and municipality.
What can the finished product sell for? For a developer this determines yield. For a homeowner it determines whether you are building something you can eventually leave.
The order matters
Each question can end the conversation. Establishing water first avoids paying for a soils report on a parcel that will never support the density you need.
The seasonal argument
Visit twice, in different seasons. Summer shows you the site. Winter shows you the access, the wind, the sun angle, and what the drive is like. Buyers who visited once, in July, are overrepresented among owners who regret the purchase.
Getting help
Site feasibility is a technical question and it deserves a technical answer. Our team includes a licensed professional engineer, which means a parcel can be assessed for what it will demand while a client is still deciding whether to make an offer. Our land acquisition work is built around that sequence.
References
Where writing in this subject rests on an outside authority, it is one of these.
Written and reviewed by Jason August, President and Employing Broker, Colorado license ER.040029060.ยท