The process of finding a lot was long for us. Many lots are not listed online, so they’re difficult to find aside from driving by. Thankfully, we enjoyed driving and looking (our two year old not so much). We found several candidates and made offers, but the market was exceptionally hot at the time, and we weren’t able to find anything at a price we considered worth it.
We had been searching several months, and had as hobbyists we knew the basic market well before we started searching. Although we had been wanting to do a complete custom build where we could really put our mark on the home and get our hands dirty, we happened upon a new neighborhood with a very reputable Atlanta developer. As hobbyists, we would often drive through neighborhoods, and it seemed like every one we liked was developed by this company. With nice 2-acre plots and a final build advertised in our price range, we thought it might work, and set up a meeting with the builder. After a couple of meetings, it became obvious that we were not going to reach an agreement on a price that I thought was doable, and I began to meet with other area builders to see if I was being unrealistic.
After getting estimates from several other builders, I began to see that I was indeed close on the price I thought we could pull off, and quickly began to see that our relationship with the original developer was not going to continue. I sent them an email to let them know that I loved their neighborhoods, but I didn’t believe their price was in line with what I wanted to do. They graciously replied that they did have a lot left that they were trying to sell out right in a neighborhood they developed before the housing crash. We had been in this neighborhood previously, and considered it our “dream” neighborhood. Two to 4 acre lots with large country-style homes. It would fit perfectly with what we wanted to do.
Since we considered it essentially perfect, we overspent our $100,000 budget and went under contract at $120,000. We knew this would impact our build either by delaying until we could save more money or cutting back, but this neighborhood was ideal, and the lot was great—until it wasn’t.
I called our a soil engineer to perform the test for county septic. He came out and commented on all the holes previously dug. We had noticed them before, and joked that they looked like someone was looking for a place to bury a body, but never considered them much. The soil engineer noted that they were all shallow and suggested that a soil test had previously been done. He suggested that we not waste my money, and see if the developer or county had a copy. They both did, and the previous test revealed that the soil was very shallow and hit bedrock at 36-48 inches—not deep enough for a good basement dig based (because of the slope) or a traditional septic. My builder sent out one of his guys to stake out where we would place the house and septic and how we would grade in order to help estimate the additional cost the soil prep was going to be because of the shallow bedrock. After discussing what we wanted to do with the yard and doing some digging on our own, my builder came back with an additional $46,000 in soil prep, grading and septic.
We were still in due diligence, so I went back to the seller and asked them to shoulder the cost with me by reducing the purchase price to $90,000. They countered at $100,000 which was our absolute max. Any more than that and we would have walked away, but we were excited to accept the $100,000 offer and closed a month later. Now that we finally had 3.09 acres in a great neighborhood to call ours, it was time to finalize our building plans.
