Footprint The Land When you're searching for lots of land to build on you should start by looking for deals.  If you've found a few possibilities one of the next things you need to do is footprint the land.  If you've already decided that you want a house with a pool then you'll need enough room for it.  If you want a single story house, ranch style, and you want and a pool and and at least 4 bedrooms in your house you're going to need a lot of land.  Thinking about these things will help you to determine which plots of land will work for your needs.  Another reason to do a mock up of your home to be so you can footprint it on your proposed lot is to see if there will be elevation issues.  If you're proposing to build on a hill because you want a view you're going to have other limitations.  You might not be able to spread out your home in a ranch style fashion and may be force to build multiple floors.  If a good portion of your home will be having over a hillside then you'll need to factor in the extra costs to build supports for the home.  You may even find out that you can't build on the lot in the manner that you want and be forced to either drastically change you home design to work with the land.  So as you approach this step I would say figure out what type of person you are.  In a prefect world you won't have any limitations and you can build your home how you want, as high as you want, and as far out as you want.  If you have limitations, figure out is your a home design works to fit the land type person, or if you're more of a find the lot that will allow you to build the house of your dreams.