Scenario One: You’re driving in the country and see a sign that says LOT FOR SALE—LAKE VIEWS. Suddenly, the country life becomes an idea whose time has come. Stop right there: Do not impulsively sign a contract before you have all the facts. If the farmer selling the lake-view property or the apple orchard is suggesting that he’s got other suitors, put down a refundable deposit (typically about 5 percent of the purchase price) and ask for thirty days to make a feasibility study. Then check it out.

Scenario Two: You’re looking at a new house in a planned community. You’ve looked at thirty-nine models and this is the one. You’re getting pressure from the builder’s sales agent because the lots are going fast. Stop right there: Do not take this gambit. Put down a small refundable deposit (typically about 1 or 2 percent of the purchase price) for a seven-day lot hold. Then scramble and do your homework.

You may have ten reasons why you want to buy a particular piece of property. Here are ten good reasons that you shouldn’t:

1. Most sellers aren’t hayseeds who are unsophisticated about land prices. If the price seems unusually low, there’s probably a good reason. For example, the setting may be quiet and rural but the soils are unstable, so building on them will be expensive, or there are rocks lurking just below the surface. Before you close this deal, hire a geothermal engineer to take soil borings. In production-built subdivisions, as well, some lots will be cheaper than others. Some of the minuses that can lower the lot value: It is small or oddly shaped, it is adjacent to a noisy intersection, or it abuts the back of a shopping center or a busy highway.

2. The soils may be okay, but the logistics required to get equipment and materials onto the site are daunting, and these will jack up the construction cost. If the approach to your site is really steep, you could spend seventy thousand dollars just to construct a driveway and retaining walls. Get a builder to walk the site with you and assess the difficulty of building on it.

3. New regulations may have been enacted since the surrounding houses were built. Don’t take the presence of other houses nearby as assurance that building there will be a cinch. Zoning regulations, minimum lot sizes for a septic field, and the building codes may have changed since the other houses were built, and these changes could make the construction of your house much more difficult and expensive. Check with the local zoning office, building department, and, in the case of a septic field, the health department.

4. The view that will cost you thousands is rarely guaranteed. You’re buying the lot, not the view.

5. The spreading chestnut tree and other mature trees that make the lot so appealing may be diseased. Get an arborist’s evaluation before signing anything.

6. You want to build a new house in the same school district where you live now, so your children’s lives and the carpools won’t be disrupted. There aren’t any vacant lots so you want to buy one of those tiny fifties ranches, tear it down, and build a new house. Many residents who live in neighborhoods where this has happened have protested mightily, and in response your jurisdiction may have passed rules that severely limit what you can build. Look up the zoning regulations and consult an architect first (for more on this, see Chapter 6).

7. You don’t want a lake in your backyard with every downpour. In a production-built subdivision, all the lots may look the same, but some will be “collectors” of the runoff from five or six adjacent lots. To avoid this, engage a landscape architect to walk the subdivision with you and evaluate the drainage and grading of different lots.

8. Golf course communities are hot—all that greenery just outside your windows looks great. But you don’t want a steady stream of errant golf balls or chagrined golfers in your backyard, so learn enough of the game to get a lot where weekend duffers won’t spoil your home.

9. Don’t overlook those prosaic considerations such as street layout and traffic patterns. Many buyers like cul-de-sacs because there’s no through traffic. On the “feeder” streets that cul-de-sac owners use to reach their houses, however, you can have lots of traffic and speedy cars. And if you pick a lot directly across from a T intersection (a street dead-ends in front of your house), you will have a parade of headlights shining into your living room every night.

10. In the heat of a purchase, most buyers do not think about noise. And the source may not be very audible at the time you are looking. For example, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning are low-traffic periods at many airports. If the lot is on the edge of a development and abuts a highway, the sound may be most apparent at night, when the ambient noise level is low. Verify the existence and location of any potential noise source, then make arrangements to visit the site when the sound is loudest. The noise will be less intrusive inside your house, but you also want to be able to enjoy sitting in your backyard (for more on this, see Chapter 14).

choosingaproduction-builderlotwithalandscapearchitect’shelp

At the time you purchase a lot from a production builder, you’re likely to be looking at streets, curb cuts, and acres of brown dirt. The landscape is a mess, and there’s no way you can detect the subtle but important differences in drainage, grading, and soil types that distinguish one lot from another. Nonetheless, these subtleties can be critical, especially when the lot size is less than a quarter of an acre, as it is in most new-home subdivisions today.

drainage,grading,andsoils

You need to check the drainage to avoid purchasing a surface-runoff collector lot that becomes a small pond after every summer cloud burst. You need proper grading to prevent rainwater from seriously damaging your foundation. And the grading is not just a matter of getting the right slope—some soil types drain less well than others, and this can affect the grading requirements. Soil type is also a major determinant for what kind of trees will grow on a given lot. If you’ve got your heart set on lilacs in your new front yard, you don’t want to buy a lot where they won’t thrive.

To assess these subtleties hire a landscape architect to walk the subdivision with you. Though landscape architects are generally regarded as “plant people,” their training and expertise also includes soils engineering, building design, and hydrology.

Another issue with production-builder lots that a landscape architect can check is the amount of topsoil provided. For healthy plant material and a decent lawn, a six-inch layer of topsoil is a minimum, but many builders provide a topsoil layer of only one or two inches. You can’t simply add another four or five inches of soil after you move in because this will disturb the developer’s final grading plan. To get the right amount of topsoil and the proper slope at the end, the rough grade must be adjusted during construction.

lotorientation

Lifestyle, personality, and energy consumption all come into play in choosing lot orientation and a landscape architect can help you factor these in. If you’re an early riser and always hit the ground running, east-facing bedrooms with the early-morning sun pouring in will be a good thing. On the other hand, if you’re a night person who likes to sleep in, you’d probably prefer a lot in which the bedrooms face north. If you love gardening and envision a huge vegetable garden in your backyard, make sure the back of the house faces south so that your garden will get enough sun.

Lots with the back of the house and the main living areas—the eat-in kitchen/family room with big windows and large sliding glass doors—facing south are optimal from an energy-consumption perspective, observed Nadav Malin, editor of Environmental Building News. With this orientation, the rear-facing kitchen/family room will get little direct sun in summer when the sun is high overhead for most of the day, and the space won’t heat up. This will make a significant difference in your cooling bill. In the winter, when the sun is much lower in the sky and its warmth welcome, the rooms will be warmer, and your heating bills less. Conversely, the worst lots from an energy perspective are those on which the main living areas will face east or west. In the summer these spaces will get direct sun, which will add to the air-conditioning load; in the winter they won’t get much sun at all. Between east and west exposures, west is worse, especially in areas where the summer temperatures are particularly high.

If you can’t pick a parcel that fulfills your orientation requirements, you can mitigate it with plant material. If your main living spaces face east or west, you can shade them from the summer sun with deciduous trees; judicious placement of deciduous trees will also shade south-facing rooms during the summer, but admit the sun’s warmth in winter. To shield north-facing rooms from blistering winter winds, Gazso recommends evergreens.

Until the trees get big enough to have any effect, you will have to put up with some discomfort. If you want the benefits sooner and you can afford it, you can plant more mature (but more expensive) trees.

When selecting a lot, it is also important to find out what the future plans of the builder and developer are. The site plan in the sales brochure may include only Phase I, but in two or three years the woods that adjoin your lot may be cut as Phase II begins.

You should also check the setbacks and possible easements for the lot you are considering. These may restrict the area in which you can construct a deck or other outdoor structures and affect your ambitious plans to build the same large deck you saw on the back of the furnished model.

To ensure that you have an adequate level of expertise for inspecting lots, make sure that the landscape architect you hire is registered and licensed. Not all states require landscape architects to be licensed, but licensure ensures a certain level of competence, training, and experience.

Most landscape-architecture firms do large-scale regional planning or commercial design work, but almost every town will have a couple of small offices that do residential work and advise buyers of new tract houses. Usually they will do this on a hourly basis.

landscapingyournewyard

After you’ve covered the basics—drainage, grading, and soils—there’s still the yard to deal with. If you’re buying from a production builder, he’s unlikely to provide much beyond what is required: “soil erosion measures,” which usually means grass, one or two small trees, and a few shrubs along the front foundation line.

Embellishing the builder’s meager efforts can create outside rooms that can be lived in some to most of the year, depending on where you live. Landscaping can also create views that will enhance the inside rooms and make them seem larger. There are also practical reasons for landscaping. Strategic placement of trees, hedges, and fences can provide privacy—increasingly an issue as lots become smaller and houses closer together. Trees also provide shade. If you can’t avoid a lot orientation that has the main living areas facing east or west, the rooms will really heat up in the summer. Shade trees will make these spaces much more pleasant and significantly reduce your cooling bills.

Landscaping can also increase the value—or at least resale prospects—of your house. “Rules of thumb are dangerous when applied to investments,” noted real estate appraiser William C. Harvey of Great Falls, Virginia. In his experience, landscaping is an “intangible” that can’t be quantified in terms of adding dollar value, but it definitely enhances resale prospects.

“Hardscape” items such as decks or terraces, however, both add to the value and make a house easier to resell. They’re aesthetic and functional, notes Martha Heric, an Urbanna, Virginia, real estate appraiser with a degree in landscape architecture. “They serve as a ‘transition area’ between the house and the yard; they’re also a place to put a grill and to sit down.”

If you’re handy and enjoy yard work, you can do most of the landscaping work yourself. The trick is knowing what to plant and where to plant it while avoiding costly and classic Harry Homeowner mistakes such as splurging on an expensive tree and then having to remove it later because it over-matured and invaded gutters or blocked windows.

Engaging a landscape architect to design a master landscape plan might seem extravagant, but it will probably save you money in the long run. As you work with your landscape architect, you’re likely to decide that some of your landscaping ideas are better left to the professionals. For example, you’ll learn that a four-to-five-inch-diameter tree can weigh seven hundred to one thousand pounds.

A master landscape plan will be tailored to your personal tastes, budget, and most importantly to your maintenance capabilities, both time-wise and money-wise. The cost to design a plan can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on your total landscape budget and how elaborate the design is.

Since minor changes to a floor plan can often make a dramatic improvement in a landscape plan, you need to develop a preliminary landscaping scheme before you sign a sales contract with your builder.

Modifying the builder’s standard floor plan may involve only adding additional doors to the rear of the house, so that the rear spaces are accessible to the outside and not landlocked. Installing a door in the breakfast area could be especially important, because if the door to the rear is too far from the kitchen, an outdoor eating area will be under-utilized. Other things to discuss with the builder before signing:

♦  Relocating the air-conditioning condenser so that it’s not in front of a window.

♦  Widening the front walk. Most builder’s provide one that is only thirty-six inches wide. Adding another twelve inches makes it easier for two people to walk side by side. If the front door has a wide stoop, a covered entryway, or embellishments such as columns or a large Palladian window, a wider walk also looks better.

♦  Adding a second walkway from the driveway to the house. Many visitors as well as owners pull up in the driveway and approach the front door from there rather than looping around to come up the front walk.

Although these details are important, the major portion of the master landscape planning will be designing the outdoor spaces around your house. Besides addressing your privacy concerns and shade needs, you also need to ask the same questions you posed to yourself when you looked for a house:

♦  Is your lifestyle formal or informal?

♦  Do you entertain a lot or a little?

♦  Do you have small children who still play in a sandbox?

♦  How much time do you want to spend maintaining your yard?

While the planting plan and outdoor hardscape items do not need to be finalized before you move in, you should have the master plan well worked out so that you can budget accordingly.

implementingamasterlandscapeplan

If you take the plunge and engage a landscape architect to design a master landscape plan for you, the time to start implementing it depends on where you live. In the Midwest and on the East Coast, you can afford to wait until the houses around yours are built. Then you will know exactly where the views are and where to plant a tree to block a neighbor’s garage wall or to keep you and the neighbor from staring at each other while doing the dishes. You may also find that your new neighbors are willing to share the expense of screening trees or a fence.

If you’re buying in the coastal regions of California, or other areas where a naturally sloped topography has been drastically recontoured, you may need to start right away. In California, the lot will probably look great when you move in. But the first rainy-season squall could bring soil-erosion problems if you don’t have adequate ground cover, advised landscape architect David Foote of San Luis Obispo. The erosion problems are caused in part by the way the slopes have been stabilized. The areas beneath and around the house have been filled and compacted to meet structural and seismic requirements, but this makes the ground hard as clay. Rainwater is not readily absorbed, so it runs down the slopes above and below your house, forming unsightly gullies. In addition, the same compacted soil may not drain well on the flat areas of the lot. These areas should be identified and corrected.

Compounding the problem is the poor soil that characterizes most recontoured slopes. Frequently the soil that ends up in the top layer was originally twenty feet below grade. Before anything in it can grow well, the soil needs enriching, but few builders include this in the development of the lot. To know how much of which kind of nutrient to add, you need to do a soil test. And even after you add nutrients, the soil may not be great, so you’ll need a ground cover that is drought resistant and fast-growing in poor soil. Most people also want something that is low maintenance and colorful, Foote said.

After the ground cover is in, Foote would add shade trees, a must in the areas of California with hot summers. Since most lots in California are small, one shade tree in front and back should suffice, he said.

In the Midwest, soil erosion is rarely a problem. But summers can be long and hot, and you should start with shade trees, advises Ann Arbor, Michigan, landscape architect Barry Gazso. The bigger the tree you plant, the sooner you will benefit, but he says, “Speed costs money—how fast do you want to go? Most people can’t afford mature trees. If you initially plant smaller but less expensive trees, you will be looking at a lot of mulch for three to four years. But you will have a lot of nice healthy plants that will eventually mature.”

Deciduous trees that provide shade in the summer but shed leaves in the winter when the sun’s warmth is welcome are ideal. However, recent studies have shown that a mature tree’s trunk and branches still cut off about 50 percent of the sun. To get summer shade and winter sun on a southern exposure, you need to calculate where the tree shadows will fall in winter, then locate the tree so that sunlight can penetrate the windows, explains Nadav Malin. For eastern and western exposures, a shade tree is definitely a plus. But its placement is far less critical because the amount of direct winter sun that could hit the house is minimal anyway, Malin says.

At the same time you plant the shade trees, but before you’ve invested any time in yard maintenance, Gazso would install an outdoor sitting area. If mosquitoes are a problem, he suggests a wood deck with a roof and screens (similar to a screen porch but not as expensive) because an open wood deck cannot be used after sundown when the bugs come out. Gazso also points out that a roofed deck offers rain protection and shade.

Next on Gazso’s list would be the understory, smaller trees that reach a height of only ten to twelve feet, compared to twenty to twenty-five feet for a shade tree; these are primarily for privacy. But even smaller trees take some time to grow, and many owners of new houses want privacy right away. The quickest solution is a fence, but many homeowner associations have height restrictions on these. However, Gazso says he has never seen any rules about the height of trees and hedges. A ten- to twelve-foot hedge in front of a five-foot-high fence will soften the look and add five or more feet of screening.

In California privacy is even more of an issue than in the Midwest because lots are smaller, the houses are closer together, and, if the site is sloped, the owners above you can look right into your backyard. There are many plant choices for privacy; the trick is selecting one that is fast growing but won’t get too big. Foote recommends trees that reach a height of fifteen to twenty feet. They will provide privacy from owners above you, but they won’t block the view or throw undesired shade into a neighbor’s yard.

If you want a small outdoor sitting area, Foote advises identifying the sunny areas in the yard before building it. When the sitting area is complete, he would add some flower beds for color and fragrance.

Calling plants and shrubs the “frosting on the cake,” Gazso would plant them last, and he offers a word of caution on what appears to be the easiest part of the landscaping effort. Many homeowners plant them by the doors to see them better, but in the Midwest “you fight a swarm a bees.”

you’rebuyingthelot,nottheview

Every new home buyer wants an expansive and dramatic view out his or her windows, and some are willing to pay top dollar to get it. Unfortunately, these buyers don’t realize that when they buy a lot, the view does not automatically come with it. If view protections are not in place before their purchase, they will be at the mercy of their neighbors or their builder/developer not to build or plant anything that will affect it.

View preservation may not be a priority for these other parties. The neighbors may want privacy, so plant trees. Or they may need more room in their house, so add a second story. Or the developer may decide to exercise his right to build on land that was to remain open.

How can you avoid such a headache, not to mention potential loss in property value? In legalese, “Perform due diligence.” In laymanese, “Do your homework.” This may cost you something in legal fees, but nothing approaching the thousands of additional dollars you may be spending just to get the view. First, you need to check zoning restrictions on building height, applicable view ordinances, view protections incorporated into property titles, or, if you’re considering a purchase in a planned community, the Home Owner’s Association documents.

As you check the zoning regulations, keep in mind that as a general rule these are written with the welfare of the citizenry in mind, not to further aesthetics and protect views. Building height can be restricted if a housing development is in the flight path of a nearby airport, but not because hillside lots overlook a harbor.

Next, check for municipal view ordinances. Though uncommon, they do exist in some areas. A number of communities in the San Francisco Bay area, for example, have ordinances that explicitly address tree growth. “Typically, the underlying presumption of such ordinances is that the view seeker pays for restoration and maintenance of the view, but the ordinances do not guarantee that views will be restored,” stresses Dennis Yniguez of Berkeley, California, who is both an arborist and an attorney who has represented owners in view disputes.

You should also get a preliminary title report. The deed to the property may say something about view protection and restrictions on neighboring properties. An informal agreement with adjoining property owners about tree pruning, though assuring, is not binding and may not carry over to you after you purchase the property.

Should no view protections be uncovered, you might consider buying the neighbors’ “view rights,” suggests Miami attorney Dennis Haber. Similar in principle to selling mineral rights, some localities allow property owners to sell their right to go up. If such a last-ditch approach is not possible, you have to accept that you may at some time in the future lose your view—property owners in your view corridor own their air space, and they can put in it what they want.

If you are considering a purchase in a planned-community development with a Home Owner’s Association, read the association’s “Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions” document. In most cases, when you buy the house, you agree both to accept the established conditions and to waive your right to dispute them in the future. The CC&R may or may not include specific view protections, a blanket height restriction for trees and houses, or a dispute resolution process. Since the CC&R can sometimes expire, be sure to note how long it will be enforced.

The mere fact that you are paying extra for a view in a planned community does not ensure its preservation. Buried in the fine print, the CC&R document can state words to the effect, “If we want to build something next door that could affect your view and we do so, you can’t say we’re depriving you.”

Buyers considering a house in a golf-course community should read the CC&R with particular care. Assuming that the golf course will be a permanent feature is reasonable, but not always correct. In some golf-course communities, the Home Owner’s Association assumes ownership and maintenance responsibilities for the golf course. But the CC&R can state that if the majority of homeowners don’t want to continue doing this, the golf course can be sold off. Since the majority of homeowners in many golf-course communities don’t play and may tire of paying for all the upkeep, this is not a hypothetical scenario.

In other golf-course communities, the developer/builder sells the lots and houses but retains ownership of the golf course. Should he decide to sell it in the future, what happens? He may not be obliged to sell it to another golf course operator. To find out if the developer has placed any restrictions on himself in this regard, you need to check the CC&R documents, the sales contract, the property deed, and the deed for the master plan of the community.

Should you uncover no view protections in a CC&R or otherwise, are you tempting fate to proceed with the deal anyway? If the only threat is vegetation, and if you can acknowledge that the other homeowners’ desire for privacy is legitimate, you can probably work out a solution over the back fence. This will not only save you thousands in legal fees, it will also help create an air of cooperation over other potentially contentious issues such as barking dogs or noisy parties, attorney Yniguez says.

The back-fence solution can involve inexpensive pruning of a few shrubs and trees, but if large trees must be removed or replanted, it can cost thousands. As the view seeker, you may have to foot the bill, but Yniguez points out that when a number of neighbors are concerned about the view, the cost can be shared.

lotswithlotsoftrees

If you are considering a lot for its trees, bring in an arborist to assess them. Arborists specialize in the long-term care, disease, and insect-infestation problems of established, mature trees, whereas landscape architects are more concerned with tree selection and planting. An arborist can determine which trees are worth saving and where you can build without damaging them. Since these decisions will impact both the shape of your building envelope and how the builder organizes his equipment and supplies on the site, you should call in an arborist before you buy the lot. If many of the trees are diseased or the effort to save them will leave you with a minuscule building pad, you may want to keep looking.

If the arborist determines that the trees are healthy and there’s sufficient area to build without damaging them, you should engage him to advise your builder on which trees to save and where to put his equipment. If you don’t, you may regret it later. Most home builders, though well meaning, do not know much about the care and preservation of trees on a job site. And most trees that are damaged in this way die slowly. By the time the tree dies—from two to twelve years after the house is finished—most people don’t make the causal connection.

You may be surprised at the arborist’s evaluation of the trees on your lot that are worth saving. As a general rule, mid-sized trees are more likely to survive the stress of construction intact than older, larger ones, which may actually be entering a stage of decline and will die no matter how conscientious your builder is. “People design landscaping and even entire houses around declining trees when in some cases they would be better off to remove the tree and plant a new one after the house is built,” observes arborist Yniguez. Even if it’s the right decision, though, cutting down an old tree can still be heartbreaking.

Besides the infirmities of old age, trees can be diseased or hazardous. A diseased tree may or may not be treatable, but a hazardous one that has obvious signs of imminent structural failure should be taken down right away.

After an arborist has analyzed a site and designated the trees to be saved and how much of the surrounding ground must remain undisturbed during construction, the area left for building the house may be drastically reduced or oddly shaped. This is another reason to engage an arborist before you get very serious about a particular floor plan.

Most of the damage inflicted during construction affects trees’ roots, which are much more extensive than most people realize. Some of the roots can be cut without harming the tree, but how much depends on both the tree species and the soils on your lot. Locating the utility trenches for gas, water, and sewer lines so as not to damage the roots can be especially tricky.

The roots have both structural and metabolic functions. When the structural function is compromised—usually by cutting roots too close to the trunk—the tree may eventually fall over. When the metabolic function is compromised, the tree may slowly starve. Most new-home construction causes the latter problem.

Even when roots are not disturbed, trees can be damaged during construction when heavy equipment, trucks, and stockpiled materials excessively compact the soil. This prevents roots from getting water and oxygen and will eventually kill a tree. The only way to prevent such severe soil compaction is to designate a staging area for vehicles and stockpiled materials.

Since most builders are not acutely aware of such protective procedures and prohibited areas of operation, you should have your arborist meet with your builder early on. When all the logistical concerns are addressed beforehand, the builder won’t feel impossibly restricted during construction, and he’s more likely to be supportive of your concerns.

Once the trees to be saved are identified, and a protective zone for each tree designated, your arborist should specify where materials can be stockpiled, and where machinery can or can’t drive. These stipulations should be included in your contract with the builder. To ensure that trucks and equipment are kept away from the trees, fence off the area.

Even with all these measures in place, you still need to be vigilant, since some subcontractors may not be as careful as your builder. “The favorite place to change oil on a bulldozer is in the shade of the nicest tree,” observed arborist James Biller of Arlington, Virginia.

Should you need to take out any trees before construction starts, an arborist can advise you on selection and siting of appropriate replacement trees to be replanted after the house is finished.

When engaging an arborist, what credentials should you look for? The first requisite is experience. The late Irving Humphrey, an arborist in Los Angeles, worked with trees for nearly sixty years, and, by his own account, “Looked at about a million trees.” Few can match this, but you do need someone who has had extensive experience with trees in your area for at least four years.

In every state but New York, which has a licensing requirement, anyone can call him- or herself an arborist. However, the designation Registered Consulting Arborist indicates that the arborist belongs to the American Society of Consulting Arborists. Requirements for membership include extensive arboriculture education, experience, and rigorous peer review. A more widely held credential with fewer requirements is Certified Arborist, which is granted by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) in Savoy, Illinois. (See Resources for more information on how to find an arborist.)

golf-coursecommunities

When you start to think about where you want to live in your new house, next to a golf course may not even be on your list. But looking out over the broad, green expanse of a golf course from the comfort of one’s living room has proved to be such a sellable idea that golf-course communities are springing up all over the country. Chances are there’s at least one in your market.

But bear in mind that golfers are part of the package. To have a pleasant time alongside their activities, avoid lots that adjoin a fairway in the “landing zone”—the area where the tee shots land. If your house is there, you will get lots of balls in your yard, golfers retrieving them, and the occasional broken window. Since most golfers can’t hit the ball straight, and most are right-handed, most tee shots will veer to the right. This means that houses on the right side of the fairway will have more problems with errant golf balls. For this reason, some golf-courses communities are now designed with houses on the left side of the fairway only.

The landing zone will not be an issue on every fairway. A golf course will have par-3, par-4, and par-5 holes. The par-3 ones are shorter and easier, and most golfers can hit their tee shots relatively straight. The par-4 and par-5 holes are longer, and most tee shots will land about halfway down those fairways. Lots adjoining these fairways that are closer to the tee or to the green will have fewer golf-ball problems than in the landing zone. The lots with the fewest golf-ball problems and the best views are the ones around the greens.

In addition to balls landing in your backyard and golfers retrieving them, airborne golf balls can seriously limit your backyard activities. “Balls come from all crazy angles,” golf-course architect William Newcomb of Ann Arbor, Michigan, says. “You could get hit by one. If you want to put a play structure for kids or you want to entertain in the backyard, this can be a problem with any lot adjoining the fairway. It will be worse if your lot is in the landing zone.”

When a house is continually bombarded with golf balls, a netting will solve the problem. But to work, it must be a big net—about twenty-five feet high and stretched across the back of your lot. If the fairways were wider and the houses were set farther back from the lot line, nets would rarely, if ever, be needed, and home owners would get only the occasional ball in their backyard. Unfortunately, Newcomb says, the developer usually allocates more land for the residential parcels so he can sell more lots.

This being the case, what distances from fairways and lot lines are acceptable? The minimum distance from the midpoint of the fairway to your lot line should be 150 feet. From your lot line to your house is usually about 30 feet, for a total of 180 feet. If it’s less than this, Newcomb says, “You’re vulnerable to getting golf balls on your house, in your house, and on yourself.”

Besides golf balls, another drawback to golf-course life is unwanted noise. The electric golf carts are not noisy, but the mowers and other equipment used by the maintenance crews are. Typically the crews start at daybreak, which in the summer in some places can be as early as 5:30 A.M.

Golfers can be noisy too. They chat at the tees, where golfers congregate waiting to play. And voices carry on golf courses, especially if someone yells when he makes a great putt. Golfers also play all day. During the height of the golf season, foursomes tee off from sunrise to sunset. In Florida, the high season is in winter and it’s dark by 5 P.M., but in Michigan, high season is mid-summer and then players are on the course until 9:30 P.M., noted Larry Hirsh, a golf-course consultant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

To get an idea of how many golfers will be passing by on a daily basis, ask the developer. Every golf course is different, but during high season, two to three hundred players on a busy day is not unusual, according to Hirsh.

All those golfers can make privacy an issue, but golf-course architect Cal Olson of San Juan Capistrano, California, said that golf-course design can ameliorate this. “If your house is relatively level with the course, you will have less privacy and less view. But if you’re four to eight feet above the course, you can look down and the golfers can’t see in your yard. If you’re six feet above, you won’t see the golf carts.”

If you could engage him to help you pick a lot, Barry Gazso, a landscape architect in Ann Arbor, Michigan, would be ideal. He has designed site plans for production-built subdivisions all over the Midwest and has advised buyers on lot selections. He also speaks from personal experience—ten years ago he bought such a house himself.

When inspecting a lot, Gazso generally starts with the drainage. He studies an entire block or section, not just the one lot a buyer is considering. Frequently, and legally, rainwater from several adjoining lots may collect in a drainage swale on one lot. In some jurisdictions, water from four or five houses can collect in a sixth yard. If this is your lot, you will have a small pond or even a flowing creek with every heavy downpour.

Since a swale—basically a ditch—can be very shallow, it is hard for most laymen to see it, but a swale’s location can be critical. In some jurisdictions a swale can be as close as ten feet to the house, which can affect the feasibility and location of an outdoor deck or patio.

A swale cannot be eliminated from an otherwise satisfactory lot, because this will cause problems for the adjoining properties. However, you may be able to get the builder to relocate a swale or, as Gazso did himself, get the builder to install an underground drainage line that will carry the rainwater to the storm sewer in the street.

Next on Gazso’s checklist is the drainage around the house. If the ground slopes away from it, the drainage is “positive.” But, if the ground slopes toward the house, a condition that can severely damage the foundation if left unchecked, the drainage is “negative.”

When a site is nearly flat, as it is in many new subdivisions today, the difference between having positive and negative drainage can be small. A 1 percent slope is inadequate, a 3 percent slope sufficient, and a 4 percent more than enough. Slope describes a vertical drop in feet per hundred horizontal feet; a 1 percent slope means the grade drops one foot over a distance of one hundred feet and looks basically flat; a 3 percent slope is discernible to the practiced eye. If the slope is less than 3 percent, Gazso advises adding a clause to the sales contract stating that closing (when the property is legally conveyed to you) is contingent on the builder’s correction and a landscape architect’s approval of the final grading of the lot.

The builder will have a set of engineered site plans that locate drainage swales and indicate the proposed slope around each house, but Gazso emphasizes that the actual conditions of a given lot can differ significantly from the plans, so buyers should always check them.