How Much Does It Cost to Run Power to Land? (Land That Failed #5)

The video

What happened

This one passed all four checks. That is what makes it worth telling.

Access was fine. The county allowed it. The soil perced. There was room. By every test on the list, this was a good piece of land, and it was.

The nearest transformer was about four hundred feet down the road from where the home was going.

The utility will run service to your home. What they will not do is absorb an unlimited distance. There is a length they cover as part of connecting you, and past that you are paying by the foot — and depending on the run, that can mean setting poles, trenching, or both. It is not a small number and it is not negotiable once you own the land.

That figure arrived after the land was bought and the home was ordered. By then there was no version of the project that did not include it.

Nothing was hidden. Nobody did anything wrong. The four checks are the right four questions and this property answered all of them correctly. Power is simply not one of them, and the four checks are a floor, not a ceiling.

Call the utility that serves the parcel and ask two things. How far is the nearest transformer from where the home is going, and what exactly am I paying for. It is a free phone call and it takes five minutes.

The four checks

This property passed all four. It failed on something that is not on the list.

1. 1. AccessPassed

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

2. 2. ZoningPassed

   Will the county allow a manufactured home in this district?

3. 3. WastePassed

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

4. 4. RoomPassed

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

5. 5. What is not on the list: utility distanceFailed

   Power, water, and how far each one has to travel to reach you.