Everything You Need to Consider for Your Custom Home’s Site Selection Process

Hi everyone! My name is Sheri Scott, and I’m the founder and principal architect at Springhouse Architects. This past year, I started Springhouse Structures, which is our building arm for residential projects. I’ve also created Springhouse Collaborative, where anyone involved in (or considering) a new construction home can ask questions, learn from experts and find their path. I welcome everyone!

Today, I would like to talk about site selection for a custom home. We're going to talk about when to select it, what's important to consider, potential pitfalls to keep in mind, and my past clients’ experiences. I’ll also tell you a few stories along the way. Let’s dive in!

What do I need to know before choosing a lot for my custom home?

You have this great vision of a home, right? That's why we're in this process—to create a home you love. In order to do that, you need somewhere to build right now.

It's a strange kind of world, at least here in the Midwest where Springhouse is. In 2008, there was so much land and people were developing all the time because of the huge boom and the huge bubble. When the bottom fell out, everyone went away, and all of the development stopped. Since then, we've (kinda) taken all the businesses back, people are building again and everyone has gobbled up all of the available developed lots. Now we're in a situation where people are hungry for developed lots to build on.

Being a residential architect, I love helping people choose their site. There are so many things that play into the design of the home simply based on what site you choose—specifically the high-level cost for some of the unique features of the lot. Even more specific than that? Sun orientation. I’ve had so many clients regret the lot that they chose because of sun orientation. We’ll come back to that!

As far as when to choose your site, it's early on in the process, so a lot of people actually choose a site and hold on to it for a couple of years. Obviously, you will have that site ready before you go to an architect to design a home, which is perfectly fine. True, if you're building a custom home, there are a lot of different things we can do to design to the light that you already have. Ideally, though, you want to engage an architect or designer or builder before you choose the lot. There are a number of reasons for this:

Location, Location, Location

It's a common term because it's real. It holds weight, and it’s very important—your neighborhood, your city, your state, whether it has trees or farm land, etc.

Amenities, Privacy & Lifestyle

You want to know how close you are to the grocery store or school systems, where you are in your life, and what amenities you want. What level of privacy do you desire? What lifestyle do you want? Do you want your neighbors within 10 feet of you? Do you want to be able to say hi when you’re taking out the garbage? Or do you want to be out on 20 acres? Do you mind driving 30 minutes to get groceries? These are all things to consider before choosing a lot to build on.

Builders & Lot Ownership

Is there a builder tied to the lot? In development, sometimes an unencumbered developer will develop a building site. When that happens, they get to decide who builds there, because they own the land, and they're selling the land. They may tell you to bring your own builder (you'll sometimes see this on signs)—which means pretty much anybody can build.

This is pretty common where I live: developers will develop the lot, and it’s either a builder that has developed the neighborhood or a developer that has association with builders, or they know the high-end builders they want to be there. They know the quality of homes they want in that neighborhood. In this case, they’ll have what's called a ‘closed builder list.’ You’ll need to inquire about this very early on when you're looking for lots. Drive through a neighborhood and call—if there's an HOA, a developer, or a realtor, this should be one of your first questions for them. Another thing to consider are lots for sale that builders own outright. If that’s the case, you’re less likely to bring your own builder, but you could still pursue it. If it's the perfect lot for you, call the builder—they may be ready to get rid of that lot and possibly sell it to you outright.

Covenants

For residential neighborhoods, a covenant is a rule governing the use of property. It may also refer to a formalized promise or agreement in a deed concerning the use of the land, where the purchaser of land will follow certain restrictions associated with the land.

Covenants have been a stumbling point for me throughout my career. If you follow Springhouse, you'll see that we're in the Midwest between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, where many of our clients are looking for a more modern custom home. However, we design every style, because I believe that architectural design has to do with scale and proportion, not necessarily how you finish a railing or how many columns you have.

Anyway, I had a client last year who came to us with a very specific house she wanted. We designed it, we were all in love with it. After preliminary design, we submitted it for approval to the HOA because they do have rules—but sometimes they’re very vague. For example, they may specify a minimum 612 roof pitch. Well, that's pretty steep for a modern home, although it's perfect for traditional architecture. There's nothing wrong with having a 612 10 1212 pitch, but this particular client wanted pretty close to a flat roof. So, the HOA, in all of their own right and authority, turned it down. We then redesigned it into a super steep pitch, with the floorplan still intact, which ended up being a very vertical design. And, again, we all fell in love with it! It was still a modern home—we pretty much checked off everything on both the client’s and the HOA’s list, and when we turned it in, they still rejected it. The covenant made it so that this was still within their right to accept or reject any design. Eventually, the client ended up taking that second design and buying a new lot, and it worked out! She has a beautiful setting in a truly unique neighborhood that welcomes different designs. This neighborhood still had their covenants, too, but they were more open to non-traditional architecture.

Be sure to look at the covenants, understand them (if you can), and if there are people already living in that neighborhood, don’t be afraid to drive around and ask how someone else’s process went. Ultimately, you have to roll with the punches. If you have a good designer and architect, you can redesign and still have a very beautiful home that meets the neighborhood’s requirements.

Sun Orientation

When I'm designing a house, sun orientation means everything. I need to know how you live, and how you want the sun to move through your house during the day. Are you daytime people? Are you nighttime people? Do you wake up with the sun? Do you always get up and leave before the sun even rises? Do you want your master bedroom on the eastern side? Typically, more private rooms are in the back of the house, and more public rooms are in the front of the house, facing the street where people can maybe see inside (you probably don’t want people looking in your windows where you're laying on the couch and hanging out watching TV).

My absolute favorite sun orientation for the rear of the house is southeast. Southern orientation is going to give you the most sun during the day—you can see it moving all the way across, and having it turn just a little towards the east gives me morning sun, which I love waking up to. I also like sleeping in until the sun comes up, which is a little tough this time of year in January, but when you're headed a little bit more towards the east—and especially if you design your master bedroom to go on the eastern side—then you're going to get that morning light. Some clients have said it's more important for their kids to get eastern light, so they're waking up with the sun in a more natural rhythm. That being said, there's no such thing as the wrong sun orientation, but it’s great to be aware of it.

Here’s a little story for you: one of my clients bought a lot, held on to it for two years, and then bought a second lot beside her for her mother. They were super committed to staying on this lot, but she wanted her house in full sun all day long—all of the public spaces, her bedroom, everything. But the back of her house was facing full north, so she wasn’t getting a ray of sunshine in that house at all. So, we ended up designing a house that was long and thin, which gave her sun from the front all the way through. We even took the family room and turned it at a slight angle so it would gather the western sun and some of the southern sun. It ended up being a beautiful space (one of my favorite houses, actually).

Cost

There are so many factors to consider when it comes to your housing costs—and it has a lot to do with the lot that you choose. There are so many things that can ramp up the cost of building a house (think: clearing of trees and underbrush, additional structures, getting rid of water, cost of retaining walls, etc). Naturally, all of this needs to be figured out before you buy the lot. Even if you choose a lot that you know will have design considerations and additional expenses, at least you’re going in with a well thought out plan.

All of your site selection questions, answered.

Although we covered a lot in this post, you may still have some inquiries about the site selection process for your home. Whether you’re involved in the custom home process now, or even just considering it, join our free Facebook group—we’ll help you answer any questions you might have! Also, feel free to invite anyone that you think would benefit from this collaborative. You’ll not only get advice from me, but from other people who have been through this, too. See you there!