Home/Land Acquisition
Land & lotsDangers of dirt
Unexpected utility costs. Abnormal soil conditions. Poor site planning. Three problems that live underground, cost five figures each, and are almost always discovered after the land is bought.
The lot is the one decision in a custom home you cannot undo. You can change the cabinets, move a wall, finish the basement later. You cannot move the house to better ground.
So before you sign anything, let us walk it. It costs you nothing and it is genuinely easier for us to give you good news early than bad news late.
What we check
A site review takes us about an afternoon and covers the things that decide your budget.
Grade and walkout potential
Whether the lot supports a walkout or daylight lower level — the cheapest finished square footage you will ever buy — and how much fill or cut the house will need.
Soils
Whether you are looking at standard footings or engineered footings, over-excavation and replacement. Parts of this metro will surprise you.
Drainage
Where water goes in a hard Iowa rain, what drains toward you from uphill, and what grading, tile or retaining will be needed to keep it away from the foundation.
Utilities
What is at the street and what it costs to connect — or, on an acreage, well, septic sizing and approval, propane, and how many hundreds of feet of power run you are buying.
Setbacks and covenants
The buildable envelope after setbacks and easements, plus square footage minimums, roof pitch and exterior material rules, outbuilding limits, and whether an architectural committee has to approve your elevation.
Access and driveway
How you get equipment in during construction and how you get a car out in February. Long or steep drives are a real line item, not a detail.
Platted lot or acreage?
They are different projects with different budgets, and the gap is bigger than most people expect.
A platted lot in an Ankeny, Waukee or Grimes development typically carries $25,000 to $50,000 of site work: excavation, backfill, final grade, driveway and seeding, with utilities at the street.
A rural acreage more often runs $70,000 to $150,000 once you add a well, a county-approved septic system, a long driveway, and a power service run measured in hundreds of feet. The land is cheaper per acre and the site work is not.
Neither is wrong. But you should know which one you are buying before you make the offer, not after.
Still looking for land?
We track available lots across the Des Moines metro and acreages in the surrounding counties. Tell us what you want the house to do and roughly what you want to spend, and we will point you at ground that actually supports it.
Already own the land?
Even better — and lenders frequently count it toward your down payment. Send us the parcel and we will scope the site work as part of your build budget rather than leaving it as a mystery allowance.