One Acre Is Not One Acre of Buildable Ground (Land That Failed #4)

The video

What happened

One acre. That sounds like plenty of room for a home, and it usually is. Not this time.

Start at the property line, because the county does not let you build to it. Setbacks push you in from every side, and the number in front is usually different from the number on the sides and the back. That is the first bite.

Then the septic field, which has to sit where the soil works, not where it is convenient. Then the repair area — the spare ground the county requires you to hold in reserve in case that field ever has to be replaced. Two areas, both spoken for, neither of them available for a home.

Then the easement. A utility right-of-way ran corner to corner across this parcel, and you do not put a home on an easement.

What was left, after all of that, was a strip about thirty feet wide.

A doublewide is commonly twenty-eight to thirty-two feet wide. You can see the problem.

None of those subtractions were hidden. The setbacks are published. The easement was recorded. The septic areas come out of the soil evaluation. Every one of them was findable before the money moved, and nobody added them up.

Measure what is actually left before you pick a home. Not after.

The four checks

The same four questions on every episode. This property failed one of them.

1. 1. AccessNot the failure here

   Can the home physically get to the site? The road, the driveway, every bend, the width, what is overhead.

2. 2. ZoningNot the failure here

   Will the county allow a manufactured home in this district?

3. 3. WasteNot the failure here

   Will the soil take a septic system, or is there sewer at the road?

4. 4. RoomFailed

   What is left after setbacks, easements, the septic area and its repair area?