Update #3

Assessing the Lot

Anchor Team Members

Finding the perfect lot can feel like the “chicken or the egg” problem. Your lot influences the home design options and your desired home design influences the lot options. To avoid running in circles, we think of finding the correct lot in 5 steps:

Develop the "essentials" list

Find potential lots

Walk the lot in person

Perform due diligence

Purchase the lot

Develop the "essentials" list

To narrow down the list of potential locations, start by identifying your list of minimum requirements.

Note: Design of the home has not started yet. The lot purchase should be finalized prior to Schematic Design. The specific lot has a tremendous impact on design. These are high level location and design requirements.

Lot Essentials Checklist

This couple came to us with the checklist filled out.

Lakeside Story Checklist

Tip: Don't feel like you have to have this figured out before you first reach out.

This couple was experienced, having previously gone through a custom home build. Many homeowners reach out to us looking for assistance from our architects and designers to help clarify these decisions.

Find potential lots

This couple had also identified a potential lot prior to our initial meeting, but wanted our assistance in vetting the location. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, this couple was pretty prepared. The lot was located in Apple Valley with a lake front view.

If a potential lot was not already identified, we would have looked at various listings, developments, and assessed if a tear-down would be more economical.

Walk the lot in person

After the initial meeting with Barak (co-owner of Anchor Builders), the couple and Barak met on-site to assess the lot.

Barak Steenlage

Director of Sales / Co-Owner

“We discussed the impact of the lot on the design of the home: Slope of the lot, proximity to the water, site conditions. Sometimes a lot can be ruled out quickly just by viewing it in person.” – Barak Steenlage

For this home, the lot was not ruled out and proceeded to the next step.

Perform due diligence

There were many other factors that needed to be considered that didn’t involve a site visit.

Katy Dale, AIA

Senior Licensed Architect (MN)

Our lead Architect, Katy Dale, took charge and started performing background research on the site. If the site walk through is the quick visual check, this is the in-depth check to ensure the desired home design is possible.

Great news! This site also passed all detailed checks.

Purchase the lot

The location was great and all checks were passed! All i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. The couple was now ready to purchase the lot.

Anchor helped facilitate the loan process by connecting the couple with one our preferred lenders. Using a lender that is familiar with the steps of custom home construction makes everything smoother.

Tip: The cleanest way to purchase a lot for a new home is with a two-step close.

Close on the lot, then roll everything into the home loan after construction is complete. It is theoretically possible to obtain one loan to cover everything, but at this point in the process, we don’t know the full cost of the build.

The lot was purchased and we are on the next step.

Coming Up Next:

The fun part: Designing the home!