The land market has cooled significantly since its 2021 to 2023 peak. According to the USDA's August 2025 Land Values Summary, national cropland values grew 4.7% in 2025 — a notable deceleration from the double-digit annual increases seen in several states just two years earlier. Transaction volume tells the clearer story: some regions have seen up to 30% fewer sales, and Texas rural land activity remains below pre-pandemic levels. The USDA Economic Research Service notes that lower-quality land has begun to see values level off, while land with clearer fundamentals — better access, documented water rights, confirmed zoning — has continued to hold value.[^1]
In a slower, more selective market, the cost of getting a parcel wrong doesn't get papered over by appreciation. That makes the five checks below more consequential, not less.
These aren't opinion-based suggestions. They reflect what county planning departments require to issue building permits, what federal agencies map and regulate, and what institutional acquisition checklists from real estate law firms identify as the primary risk categories in any land purchase.
1. Legal Access and Boundaries
A parcel without legal access cannot be developed, financed by most lenders, or resold at fair value. Legal access means one of two things: direct frontage on a public road, or a recorded easement granting the right to cross another owner's land to reach the parcel. Verbal agreements and informal paths are not legal access.
When an easement exists, the specifics matter. Does it cover vehicle access, utility installation, and construction traffic — or only foot traffic? Is it appurtenant, meaning it transfers to future buyers with the land, or is it personal to the current owner? An easement that disappears when the seller sells offers no real protection.
Boundaries are a separate check. Thompson Coburn's institutional acquisition checklist places the ALTA survey and the title commitment at the top of the due diligence document list — specifically because boundary accuracy, recorded easements, and encroachments are foundational to every other determination that follows.[^2]
County lot validation processes reinforce the same principle from the regulatory side. Fairfax County's lot validation process draws a hard line between a "valid" lot and a "buildable" one: a parcel can be legally recognized and still fail to qualify for a building permit if it doesn't meet minimum yard, floodplain, and setback requirements under the zoning ordinance.[^3] Most counties have an equivalent process. Understanding that distinction before you close is the difference between buying land and buying a problem.
No road frontage plus no recorded easement equals a landlocked parcel. Most lenders won't finance them. Most buyers won't purchase them. The listing price rarely reflects that reality.
2. Zoning and Entitlement Feasibility
The zoning designation tells you what the county has decided is appropriate for a parcel. Entitlement feasibility tells you whether you can realistically get approval for what you want to do with it. These overlap but are not the same thing.
The base zoning is only the starting point. Overlay districts — conservation zones, watershed protection areas, agricultural preservation designations — can impose restrictions that go well beyond what the base zone suggests. A parcel zoned for agriculture with a watershed overlay may face strict impervious surface limits that make a conventional residential build impossible without variance approval.
County planning departments issue formal zoning compliance letters that state the applicable zoning, any approved variances or conditions, whether existing development complies with the ordinance, and whether there are pending zoning violations or applications affecting the parcel — documents that lenders, purchasers, and title companies routinely request before a transaction closes.[^4] The listing description is not a legal determination of what can be built.
Institutional checklists include the zoning compliance certificate along with any recorded covenants, conditions, restrictions, and easements as first-tier diligence items — because these documents together determine whether the intended use is legally permissible and whether any private agreements further constrain what the buyer can do.[^5]
3. Utility and Water Feasibility
The gap between assumed and actual utility access is one of the most consistent sources of budget surprises in raw land. The cost to connect to infrastructure is a direct development expense, and the distance to that infrastructure is what determines the cost.
Electric grid connection in rural areas depends on distribution lines, not transmission lines. Transmission infrastructure — the high-voltage corridors visible from the air — cannot be tapped by a property owner. Distribution lines serve residential and small commercial connections, and extension costs vary by provider and distance. Some rural electric cooperatives charge per-foot fees that can add five figures to a project budget for a parcel more than a half mile from the nearest line.
Water requires separate attention, particularly in the West. In prior appropriation states, water rights are legally distinct from land ownership — they are severable, transferable, and sometimes already sold before the current owner acquired the parcel. Buying land without confirming water rights in those states is a material risk. Where water comes from a well, soil composition and depth to groundwater determine feasibility before a well is ever drilled.
Septic feasibility is a function of soil conditions, which is why utilities and site conditions are sequential checks rather than parallel ones.
4. Physical Site Conditions
Slope, soil, and drainage determine what a parcel can support and what it will cost to make it work. Listing photos show the best version of the land. Physical data shows the version you actually build on.
The USDA NRCS publishes soil survey data covering more than 95% of the nation's private land through the Web Soil Survey, and explicitly states that soil surveys help homebuyers, developers, and land use planners identify soil-related hazards and limitations affecting home sites — including suitability for septic systems, construction, pipelines, and whether soil is seasonally wet, shallow to bedrock, or prone to flooding.[^6]
Hydric soils — those formed under saturated conditions — are a flag worth noting before any other site analysis. They indicate potential wetland conditions, which trigger federal permit requirements covered in the next section. Beyond wetlands, shallow soils over bedrock limit well drilling depth and drain field capacity simultaneously.
Slope directly affects construction cost. Sites with significant grades typically require engineered foundations, retaining structures, or cut-and-fill work that adds meaningfully to any project budget. Hillshade analysis reveals what satellite imagery flattens: drainage channels, north-facing slopes that hold moisture, and terrain features that affect both buildability and site work costs.
5. Title, Environmental, and Entitlement Risk
This category covers two connected risks: what is recorded against the title, and what federal agencies have mapped or regulate. Both can block development, trigger mandatory costs, or affect lender willingness to finance.
On the environmental side, FEMA maps Special Flood Hazard Areas on Flood Insurance Rate Maps. FEMA defines Special Flood Hazard Areas as land subject to inundation by the flood event with a 1% annual chance of occurrence — the event commonly called the 100-year flood. Properties in Zones A and AE carry mandatory flood insurance requirements for federally backed mortgages.[^7] That insurance requirement affects carrying costs and, in some markets, whether coverage is available at practical cost at all.
Wetlands carry a separate federal permit obligation. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requires a permit before dredged or fill material may be discharged into waters of the United States, including wetlands — covering fill for development, infrastructure, and other activities. Permits are reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers or an approved state program.[^8] A parcel with jurisdictional wetlands is not automatically unbuildable, but the permit process adds time, cost, and uncertainty that needs to be understood before closing.
On the title side, institutional acquisition checklists require the full declaration of covenants, conditions, restrictions, and easements alongside the title commitment — because conservation easements, utility easements, and deed covenants can constrain what you build and where, and none of them appear in a listing description.[^9]
These two categories share a common trait: the problems they reveal are typically non-negotiable. You can renegotiate price after a soil report. You cannot negotiate your way out of a FEMA flood zone designation or a Section 404 wetland permit requirement.
The Order Matters
Run these in sequence. Legal access first — a parcel you cannot legally reach eliminates the need to evaluate anything else. Zoning second — an impermissible use is a non-starter regardless of site conditions. Utilities and water third — because connection costs determine whether the economics work. Physical site conditions fourth — slope and soil set the development cost floor. Title and environmental risk last — a final screen on the constraints that are hardest to catch early and most expensive to discover after closing.
Sources
[^1]: Farmland Value. USDA Economic Research Service [^2]: Due Diligence Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions. Thompson Coburn LLP [^3]: Lot Validation | Land Development Services. Fairfax County, Virginia [^4]: Zoning Compliance Letter | Planning Development. Fairfax County, Virginia [^5]: Due Diligence Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions. Thompson Coburn LLP [^6]: Soil Surveys Can Help You. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service [^7]: Flood Zones. FEMA [^8]: Permit Program under CWA Section 404. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [^9]: Due Diligence Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions. Thompson Coburn LLP
