Skip to content
UNICOI HOMES

Before you buy

Let us walk it before you buy it.

If you are looking at a piece of land and trying to work out whether you can build on it — and what it would cost before a wall goes up — we will come walk it with you. Free, whether or not you ever build with us.

We have talked people out of lots. It is cheaper than the alternative, and a bad piece of ground can eat the difference between two of our plans before anybody pours anything.

We do not sell land and we take no part of the transaction. We just know which of these lots are worth what they are asking.

What we look at.

Access
Where a driveway can actually go, how long it has to be, and what it has to climb.
Slope
Whether the house sits on the ground or has to be carved into it — and what that costs.
Rock
How likely we are to hit it, and what it costs by the hour and the yard when we do.
Soils and perc
Whether it will take a septic system, and how big a field it needs.
Water
County water at the road, or a well — and how deep the neighbors had to drill.
Power
How far the nearest pole is, and whether it comes overhead or underground.
Setbacks and the build envelope
Where the house can legally sit, and whether the view survives it.

You get it in writing.

Not a sales call. A written page you keep: what the ground is, what the sitework on it would run, and whether we would buy it. Take it to the seller, take it to your bank, or put it in a drawer for two years. It is yours either way.

If the answer is that the lot is a bad buy, that is what the page will say. That happens often enough that it is worth saying out loud.

Tell us where the lot is.

Four things and we will get back to you. No plan to pick, nothing to decide.

No obligation and no drip campaign. Jim reads these himself and answers within one business day.

What the ground costs.

These are the lines the land itself decides. Every one is on our pricing page with the rest of the numbers.

Item Typical range What moves it
Driveway $5,000 – $30,000 Length from the road, slope, gravel versus concrete.
Clearing and rough grading $5,000 – $50,000 Tree cover, lay of the land, how much pad we have to make.
Well $10,000 – $20,000 Drilling depth. On county water a tap fee replaces it, usually around $2,000.
Septic system $7,000 – $12,000 Soils, perc results, and bedroom count.
Power service $0 – $10,000 Distance from the nearest pole, overhead versus underground.
Retaining walls $0 – $20,000 Depth of the cut. Flat lots often need none at all.

And rock, which is the one nobody will quote you. We charge $275 an hour for hammer drilling and $225 a cubic yard for rock removal, published, and not renegotiated in the driveway. Anyone quoting a firm number for that work before walking your land has either padded it heavily or plans to make it up later.

Already own your land? Then it is just a site evaluation — same walk, same written numbers. If you want to know what goes on the lot once it is yours, the five plans are priced on the site, and how a build actually runs is written out start to finish.