We’re working with several folks right now to select a new site to build a house on. This is one of the most exciting and potentially stressful parts of the process, because it’s really just SHOPPING. Like house buying, we’re limited to the options that are available on the market at any given time, and in the current real estate market, that varies daily. In the Cincinnati area, there are currently about 150 public vacant land listings, another hundred available through the county, and countless other options that are either privately listed or potentially not listed at all. Some of these options have been sitting for weeks on the market, others only last hours. The ones that have been available for a long time typically have a good reason and require a specific buyer.
We’re not experts in real estate selling and buying, but we work closely with folks in the industry and have been adjacent to many deals over the years. Ultimately: location, location, location still rules. You’ll want to live where you want to live – especially if it’s a new custom home or business that requires your personal investment. But there is still a process that we can follow together that will help make some of the future steps smoother.
Our intention at Trilobite Design is to understand your goals and needs first and foremost. It is useful to weigh in on site specifics as they relate to sustainable or Passive House design, acoustic separation, and other obvious ways that the site and the building would interface. Ahead of a site search, I like to have a chat and understand what you’re expecting to get out of that connection. Juggling requirements like solar panels, gardens, parking needs, and outdoor living spaces all turn into reasons that a specific site will or won’t work better.
There’s also a whole host of “hidden” requirements that include building and zoning codes, municipal requirements, access to utilities, etc. One of the principle things we focus on is to understanding those external constraints really well and work within those guidelines. It’s almost always possible to push back on the city for zoning variances and other things to get around a requirement. But it takes time, money, and risk to pursue these. If the constraints are known upfront and followed, achieving a building permit without a variance is beautifully simple thing. I like to look and verify the zoning, setbacks, and uses allowed, and then createa quick sketch of the buildable area.
Reviewing specific sites then fall into a routine process of applying all of the critieria we’ve learned and built up against any new parcel or option. We evaluate them for the constraints and program requirements; you review them for location and budget. Sometimes this takes patience to wait out the market. And sometimes it requires the ability to change some goals based on any of the moving elements that will crop up. Having a good understanding of these first steps is valuable when starting out on the process, and engaging an experienced Architect is a great way to ensure that the next steps of design and construction all build off of a solid first step.
