FInding Your Lot or Land

Let's Start Looking

We've talked about what you want to do with the land, the areas you'd like to focus on, your budget, your timing, and the features that matter most. Now it's time to start looking.

Land searches can produce a lot of possibilities. The goal isn't to visit every property that appears on a screen. It's to narrow the choices, identify the ones that deserve a closer look, and then go see what the land is actually like.

The Search Begins

There are plenty of ways to search for lots and land in Jasper and throughout North Georgia. As you're browsing, save the properties that catch your attention and send them to me. If you have the MLS numbers, even better.

More importantly, tell me why you like them. Maybe it's the acreage, view, creek, location, road, price, privacy, community, or something in the photographs that caught your eye.

Your list gives me a visual picture of what you're responding to. Sometimes buyers begin with one idea in mind and, after looking at a group of favorites, we start seeing a completely different pattern. That's useful. It helps me refine the search around what you're actually drawn to rather than what we originally thought you might want.

If you'd like another set of eyes on the search, I can also create a customized MLS search and look for properties you may have missed.

Narrowing the List Before We Go

Land buyers may browse through dozens or even hundreds of listings before narrowing them down to the handful they actually want to visit.

Before we spend a day driving across North Georgia, I'll help you weed through the list using the information we have available. We may look at location, maps, aerial imagery, plats, restrictions, terrain information, road access, community information, and anything else that helps us identify obvious mismatches.

This isn't the same as formal due diligence. We're simply trying to decide which properties are worth getting in the truck for.

Maps Don't Tell the Whole Story

Maps, aerial imagery, plats, and contour information can be extremely useful when evaluating land online, but they only tell part of the story.

A property that looks perfect on a map can feel very different once you're standing on it. The opposite is also true. I've seen mountain lots that don't make much of an impression from the road but become far more appealing once you walk into them.

Online information helps us narrow the search. Seeing the property in person is where we begin finding out whether it actually feels right.

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Planning Our Land Tour

Send Me Your List Ahead of Time

Once you've narrowed down the properties you'd like to see, send me the list ahead of time whenever possible.

That gives me time to locate the parcels, review the listing information, check available maps and plats, look for gate or access issues, and plan a route that doesn't have us zigzagging across North Georgia all day.

From your perspective, the day should feel fairly simple. That's because I've already done some homework before we meet.

Finding the Property

Vacant land isn't always easy to find. Some parcels don't have a street number, GPS may drop us in the wrong place, signs aren't always permitted, and one wooded lot can look remarkably similar to the wooded lot next to it.

I use the information and mapping tools available to help us identify the property and make sure we're looking at the right parcel before we start wandering around in the woods.

Ride Together or Separately?

Many buyers find it easier to ride with me, and I'll admit...I love a copilot. It gives us time to talk between properties, compare what we've seen, and adjust our thinking as the day goes along.

If you'd rather drive separately, that's fine too. Just plan on following me whenever possible because...

GPS is a wonderful invention...until you're in the mountains.

Mountain roads, gated communities, unmarked parcels, and questionable GPS directions can make finding land interesting. I'd rather lead the way than spend half the day trying to figure out where everyone went.

Plan on Getting Out of the Car

I strongly encourage buyers to walk at least a short distance into a property whenever conditions allow. Mountain terrain can be deceiving from the road. A slope that looks steep through the windshield may feel completely different once you're 20 or 30 feet into the property and actually standing on the land.

Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Bring a bottle of water, and depending on the season and where we're going, you may want bug spray too. I usually keep some with me, but you're welcome to bring your own.

North Georgia land, unfortunately, does not come with sidewalks.

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Looking at the Land

Once we're standing on the property, the search becomes much more useful. This is where photographs and maps turn into something you can actually see and feel.

What Are We Looking At?

As we walk the property, I'll help you pay attention to the things we can reasonably observe. That may include how the land transitions from the road, general terrain, access, neighboring properties, privacy, views, creeks or other water features, visible utilities, and areas that appear more usable than others.

We may also notice things that raise additional questions. That's normal. At this stage, we're deciding whether the property deserves to move forward in your search, not trying to answer every technical question on the spot.

Things such as exact boundaries, soil suitability, septic approval, engineering, legal access, well performance, and whether a particular building plan will work are questions we can research further during due diligence if you decide to pursue the property.

Don't Judge the Property From the Road

This one is worth repeating because mountain land can fool you.

A wooded property may look steep, dark, or unimpressive when you're sitting in the car. Walk in a little farther and you may find that the terrain changes, the property opens up, a view appears, or the land simply feels completely different.

Not every property gets better once you walk it, of course. But I've seen enough good land passed over from the road to know it's worth taking a few extra steps before making up your mind.

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Comparing Properties

Find the Property to Beat

After you've looked at several wooded lots, the details can start blending together surprisingly quickly. Instead of trying to remember every property at the end of the day, I like to use a simple process of elimination.

Your first property becomes the property to beat.

When we visit the second one, ask yourself:

"If I had to choose right now, which one would I buy?"

Whichever property wins becomes the new property to beat.

Keep doing that with each property we see. Instead of comparing six or eight parcels in your head at once, you're only comparing the property you're standing on to your current favorite.

By the end of the day, you've usually narrowed the list considerably without turning every wooded parcel into "that one with the trees."

When One Starts Rising to the Top

If a property keeps beating the others, that's when we slow down and take a closer look at what we know, what we still need to find out, and whether you're ready to consider making an offer.

If it doesn't feel right, we keep looking. Finding land sometimes takes a little patience, but the goal isn't simply to buy something. It's to find the property that makes sense for what you want to do.