Due Diligence

Land Buyer’s Lab

Rural land is sold with a straight face and bought with crossed fingers. This is the 10-point screen we run before a client wires money — pointed at your tract. Two minutes, honest answers, and your red flags surface before closing instead of after.

The 10-Point Screen

1. Legal access: Does a deeded easement or public road frontage give you LEGAL (not just physical) access?

Landlocked parcels sell at brutal discounts for a reason. A driveway you've 'always used' is not access — record an easement or walk away.

2. Boundary survey: Has a licensed surveyor marked the corners within recent memory?

Tax maps and mowing lines are not boundaries. Fences in the wrong place for 20+ years can become the boundary in some states — in your favor or against it.

3. Floodplain & wetlands: Have you checked FEMA flood maps and the USFWS wetlands inventory for the build site?

FEMA's Map Service Center is free. Wetlands can freeze your building plans regardless of what the seller 'never had a problem with.'

4. Septic feasibility: Will the county issue a septic/perc approval where you want the house?

No perc, no house — in unsewered country this is THE kill-switch. Make the contract contingent on soil evaluation.

5. Water: Is there a proven well, public water at the road, or documented well yields nearby?

Neighboring well logs (often public) tell you depth and yield odds before you drill a $15k dry hole.

6. Power distance: How far is three-phase or single-phase power from your build site?

Utilities quote line extensions per foot; a quarter mile can cost more than the land. Get the number in writing before closing.

7. Title exceptions: Have you READ Schedule B of the title commitment — every easement, mineral reservation, and covenant?

The pipeline easement and the 1962 mineral reservation live here. 'Standard exceptions' is where surprises hide.

8. Mineral estate: Do you know whether the minerals were severed — and who holds them?

A dominant mineral estate can bring a drill pad to your pasture. See our Mineral Rights Desk for the full workup.

9. Zoning & covenants: Do county zoning AND any private covenants allow your intended use (shop, mobile home, animals, business)?

Covenants outrank your plans even in 'no zoning' counties. Get the recorded restrictions, not the agent's summary.

10. Past use & environment: Any sign of dumping, old tanks, dip vats, orchards (arsenic), or industrial history on or beside the tract?

You inherit environmental conditions with the deed. Historic aerials (free from USGS/county GIS) show what was there in 1970.

How To Verify Each One (Free)

Almost everything above is checkable from a laptop before you ever pay for professionals: the county GIS parcel viewer (boundaries, aerials, sometimes easements), the register of deeds online index (chain of title, reservations, covenants), FEMA’s Map Service Center (flood zones), the NRCS Web Soil Survey (septic suitability hints), your state’s well log database, and historic aerial archives for past use. What that stack can’t do is read a title commitment like a lawyer, perc a hole like a soil scientist, or price the risk like someone who buys land for a living — which is where the checkbook comes out, and it’s the best money in the deal.

Buying something serious? Acquisition due diligence — title review coordination, GIS workups, site constraints, and honest go/no-go calls — is a ShotRock service line. Start a conversation before the earnest money goes hard.

Educational content, not legal advice. Real estate law is state-specific; closing without a lawyer in a judicial-review state is its own red flag.