Tips on Site Plans · Land Home Package Investing

Tips on Site Plans

One thing that used to stress me out on every new land home package was the site plan.

I'd either overthink it trying to make it perfect, or just pay a GC to handle it for me.

It's also one of the most common questions I get from people looking to do their first deal, so I wanted to share some thoughts as I'm going through a site plan approval right now.

It's pretty easy to see that I have little to no artistic ability. I even get messages from the county asking me to clarify what my writing says since it's so bad sometimes.

But it gets approved, and that's all that matters!

A few things I've learned doing this:

Use a GIS or county map if your county has one. Some counties are fine with blank paper, but it looks a lot better on the GIS map. Other counties won't even look at the map if it isn't on a GIS map.

Clearly notate the size of the house, the driveway, the steps, and the distances to every corner and setback.

Show where the well and septic will go, with their setbacks marked.

And before you draw anything, walk the property with your team first. Make sure everyone is in agreement on the best way to set up this project. Once this gets approved, that's what you're locked into. Change it later and you're resubmitting and waiting on approval again. Even worse, if you get a site plan approved and then don't stick to it, you will have delays in getting permits, and might even need to redo parts of the job if the county doesn't agree with the changes. So any deviations from the approved site plan need to be confirmed by the county first.

I spent two hours on site today with my partner and a land clearer to figure out the best orientation for the home, so we're working with the land instead of against it. Once we agreed on it, we flagged the house together and I took measurements.

Submitted that to the county and got approvals on the first go. Now I move to the next stage and that one can only happen once zoning signs off on the site plan. Then it's septic permits and building permits, then we get started!

Moral of the story: don't overthink the site plan. And don't stress if your handwriting looks like mine.

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Tips on Site Plans