Just bought 6 acre of land. Now what???

[two_bit_score]

Our county permits are to make sure that you actually build on your property not part of the neighbors. They do however keep an eye on your septic as its being installed

Those permits are to keep track of improvements on the property for the property tax assessment.

 

[two_bit_score]

Prices now are $210k to $240k in the newer planned developments for similar constructed and sized homes.

Congratulations on your land purchase! Looks like you have a fresh canvass to create something special. Enjoy it and post pictures so we can enjoy your journey!

 

[Torvy]

We opted for a custom metal building on wood frame. We are also only a few months from completion. Our retirement plan was always to be done working when our youngest graduated HS. That was this past May. I wish we could sue China for the money and stress they have cost us. We are at least a year behind and over $100k over budget.

I could not live in a manufactured home after living in a 'real' house. Better to scale back extras. We looked at new manufactured and they were all too cheaply built. By the time you upgrade, they are nearly the cost of a real home.

We are lucky, our county has few regs for building. Trades know how to build in code, but they also know which code info is just an arbitrary number and which are valid. For instance: we don't like the wasted space under sinks. Our preference is for a cabinet to the top with a 6-8" drawer on bottom (also less bending as we age). Code on the plumbing would have prevented this due to height of the drain pipe. The few additional inches are meaningless in reality, but code had to pick a number. No code means we can make rational decisions with the advice of trained experts.

 

[Yander]

We bought a modular home in 1998. It was an All-American modular and we really liked it.

What we found, while searching, was that there is a big difference between a modular home and a manufactured home.

There's also a big difference in price.
The modular home is essentially a stick built home built inside of a controlled factory setting.

A manufactured home is also but a lot of times the specs are different such as the floor joists, the roof rafters, windows, and other things.
A lot of the modulars have a 6-in outer wall as opposed to a regular 4-in wallet most stick bilt homes have.

That was 24 years ago so I know things change. I don't know what is out there right now but keep all of those things in mind and do your homework.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Definitely check with your town or county building official for any zoning restrictions etc. In my town, you can't build a barn, shed or accessory building without first building a residence. They have minimum size requirements for how small a house can be, foundation requirements, RV's can't be lived in full time etc. Your builder will guide you, but have a conversation with the building official. I'm on good terms with mine, and that made building my barn a very smooth and easy process.

I ran into same issues with rural property I bought in VA.

 

[2manyrocks]

Just to clarify, there's a difference between deed restrictions that are set aside in a deed of record that prohibits certain uses of a property like "no junk yards" versus zoning and building codes imposed by the local county/city/state. If you have property that is totally free from restrictions, zoning, and building codes, then by all means build what you want while you still can.

 

[riptides]

My county is like a secret police government. They are unbelievably strict in rules and regulations on buildings and land use. Especially so if you are in agricultural/rural zoning.

So you have state stuff, then local county stuff to deal with here in VA.

On the bright side of things, we are so backwards that change has not really run us over like it has neighboring counties.

I think the OP is beyond all the restrictions and whatnot, so congrats, good for you, and I'd go with a barndominion. More options for futures, IMHO.

 

[Tinhack]

Yikes, I didn't have any restrictions when I moved here. The only deed incumbrance was if I drilled and struck oil, I had to share it with the seller. I kept all mineral rights. I put in the septic system, planted electric poles, put in water lines and put in a driveway. The only regulations I had to abide by were the state highway entrance of my driveway and the electric company for the first pole distance for my meters. I'm not within the boundaries of any city and no HOAs for my property. The county had a population of about 40,000 when I moved here. It about 49,000 now. Lots of new developments have sprung up. Mostly city slickers from San Antonio. The drive up to the big city used to be about 17 minutes (most of it is 75mph Interstate). And I can get same-day or next-day deliveries from Amazon.

 

[Yander]

I have mixed feelings about no building codes whatsoever. In our last house a lot of 5 acre lots sold off of a field. I bought one of those five acre lots.

A local stick builder bought three of them. And a supposed roofer from Columbus bought two.

The roofer was building a house for him and his mom so two houses.

The local contractor that was building the other houses got to know him and was looking at the house as he was building it. He had no jack studs in his windows. His roof joists were far to small for the span he was doing.

Within about 6 or 8 years both of those houses look like they needed to be condemned. I'm leaving a lot of details out about the problems with the build. My point being just those two houses have really run that neighborhood down.

 

[ovrszd]

Yikes, I didn't have any restrictions when I moved here. The only deed incumbrance was if I drilled and struck oil, I had to share it with the seller. I kept all mineral rights. I put in the septic system, planted electric poles, put in water lines and put in a driveway. The only regulations I had to abide by were the state highway entrance of my driveway and the electric company for the first pole distance for my meters. I'm not within the boundaries of any city and no HOAs for my property. The county had a population of about 40,000 when I moved here. It about 49,000 now. Lots of new developments have sprung up. Mostly city slickers from San Antonio. The drive up to the big city used to be about 17 minutes (most of it is 75mph Interstate). And I can get same-day or next-day deliveries from Amazon.

I can't confirm this because I never chased an answer. But I think my County has a restriction on how close my sewer effluent can be to my property line. Otherwise, no one cares.

I live in a large County with 8,000 residents. I'm 75 minutes from a "City".