Know what you're buying
before the clock starts
Buying land is the largest purchase most people make with the least information. Septic, access and utilities decide whether you can build — and all three are answerable today, in minutes.
Three questions decide whether this is a dream lot or a very expensive mistake
Will the soil take a septic system?
Do you have legal access, or a handshake?
How far is water, and who pays to bring it?
What you get back
Answers about the specific parcel you are under contract on — not general advice.
What to offer
An open, target and walk-away range built from comparable sales — so you know where the number stops making sense before you are emotionally committed to the land.
Whether the soil takes a septic system
Septic suitability from USDA soil survey data. This is the answer that most often turns a dream parcel into a non-starter, and almost nobody checks it before going under contract.
Whether you can legally get to it
Road frontage, public versus private access, easements and landlocked status. A handshake with the neighbour is not access.
How far the utilities are
Distance to electric, water, sewer, gas and fiber — because the answer decides whether your build budget is realistic or fiction.
Whether it floods
FEMA flood zones plus North Carolina's preliminary panels, which show map changes that have not taken effect yet but almost certainly will.
What to check first
A four-item due-diligence checklist in priority order, so the clock you are on gets spent on the questions that can actually kill the deal.
Blank means “not checked” — never “all clear”
The worst thing a land report can do to a buyer is tell you a parcel is clean when it simply was not checked. So environmental findings, foreclosure status and moratoriums come back blank when they were not screened — and blank is shown differently from clear, on purpose.
It is the difference that matters when you are about to sign. Bring the report to your agent or attorney — it is the same work they would spend a week assembling.
Run the parcel you're under contract on
Two analyses free, no credit card. Shopping several parcels? Scout is $19/month for ten.