Building a New House – Due Diligence and Closing on the Land

Between when the man we were buying the land from agreed to sell it to us and when we actually paid for the land, we had a due diligence period. (Building a New House – Buying Land)

Due Diligence

The Due Diligence period gives time for a title search, to make sure the man selling the land actually completely owns it. It also gives time to be very sure you haven’t made a mistake and you really do want this piece of land.

First thing, we confirmed that we were zoned okay to put up a house. Zoning told us with the zoning we had there, we could put in six houses. And pointed out most of the land is in flood plain. (Everybody points this out.)

We walked to the land at every time of the day, to be sure there was not some time of day when it might be noisy. Or there might be psycho neighbors. Mostly I walked the dogs there and wandered around. You can walk to the land through the neighborhood, but there is also a back way that follows Meadow Brook through the woods. I had walked that way so many times. It comes out right opposite this piece of land that I had never noticed.

Due diligence included eating a lot of berries.

We ate berries and explored around.

Things I found you are to check for in due diligence include:

• Grade
• Drainage
• Surroundings
• Noise

The grade is nearly level.  There is a brook bordering one edge of the land and another area that is a creek when it rains. Nothing was soggy. The view was pretty. They are building duplexes near the land, but they have put up a privacy hedge. The other bordering land is all in wedges, so they could never build too close to us, since the point would all be too close to their property lines. You can hear a few dogs barking, but my dogs bark, too sometimes. With good windows, they won’t keep us awake.

Mostly what you hear is birds. And the breeze in the trees. And the brook. I LOVE this land!

So, on June 29, 2017, we closed on the land.

The closing document is called U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT SETTLEMENT STATEMENT.

Closing involves paying for the land and some other fees.
Here is a list of the other fees involved.

• Settlement Charges to Buyer (Line 1400) $984.00
• Settlement Charges to Seller (Line 1400) $5,610.00
• City/Town Taxes 01/01/17 to 07/05/17 $65.28
• County Taxes 01/01/17 to 07/05/17 $80.18
• Settlement or Closing Fee to The Collie Law Firm $875.00
• Title Insurance to Attorneys Title Insurance Company $83.00
• Recording Fees: Deed $ 26.00; Releases $ 26.00
• State Tax/Stamps: Deed $110.00

Then we went to our land to walk around. It had started raining. Then it started flooding. And this is what we saw.

Oh no!

But as we drove home, we found it was flooded everywhere. It wasn’t just us. We had to back up and turn around because the water was too deep in some areas. The rushing water caught a heat shield under the Ford Escape and bent it back. My niece had water coming in the door of her hair salon.

So, now I hope we know the worst. It floods, but so does anything if it rains that hard. And it drained off. The water didn’t pool. And it doesn’t all flood. It floods in the area that is “flood zone”. Who’d a thunk?

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