Buying a residential lot that has a slope to it.

[Chris L.]

There is a lot for sale in a well loved community and I thought of buying it and holding it or possibly building on it and selling the property. The owner is selling their home and wants to sell the lot with the home at a discount. If they are unable to sell the lot with the home they will be selling the lot by itself for about 7k over the tax value. I’m wondering how to price out the land and if it’s worth buying. The lot is about .28 acres and  has a hill so the driveway would be at the high point of the lot and if a house is built it would be at the low point of the lot so I am concerned about water. There are a few other 2 story homes (2300-2900 sq ft) built next to the lot that have the same slope though so it may be okay. The lot is also full of trees , so some of them would need to be taken down. I know that the houses around it are selling in the 330 -420 k range depending on the size of the house and the lot is being sold for about 50k. I was thinking of building and reselling. Is it more costly to build on a slope with trees to remove and are there more concerns? I have never done this before and I was wondering what the first steps would be or how to determine if it’s worth it to purchase to build. Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Daniel Siapin]

Tom has validity, but it's quite a stretch IMO. I'm an arborist and also building a couple homes on slopes, with trees. We're talking a quarter acre here, how many trees can there be! Root removal might possibly be required, but I doubt it. And I doubt back filling.

So if I was bidding this project: a ton of big tree removals, with stump grinding, and soil backfill, on a slope to accommodate space for a 3000sqft home, $25,000 would be more than enough.

I've done tree removal projects like this before in Los Angeles, typically under $5000.

I'm not convinced there's any way this could cost more than caisson work.