Land For Sale
- $1,595,000
St. Louis Road, Middleburg, VA 20117
Everything you need to know about buying and selling land in Northern Virginia
Hi there! My name is Jonathan Kennedy. I am an Accredited Land Consultant and the Principal Broker of LandReady Real Estate based in Leesburg, Virginia.
I created this website to share the knowledge I have gained from 10+ years of buying, selling, and investing in land and representing buyers and sellers in more than $40M of land sales in Northern Virginia. Thank you for visiting!
I offer this information freely but hope that if you are interested in buying or selling land in Northern Virginia, you will offer me the opportunity to earn your business.
On this website, you will find in-depth articles on the blog and additional long-form information products available for free download. One of my most popular downloads is this guide I created to help prospective buyers weigh the pros and cons of buying land and building a new construction home versus buying an existing home.
>> START HERE <<
If you are thinking about buying land in Northern Virginia, you should be aware that the process for buying land is very different from the process for buying a house.
Be sure to hire an agent who has good experience with land sales and knows how to protect your interests!
Here are some key differences between buying land and buying a house:
1. In Northern Virginia, the contract for land sales is different from the contract for home sales.
Offers to buy land in Northern Virginia are typically submitted on the Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS approved Sales Contract for Unimproved Land. This is a different form than is used for submitting offers on houses.
The agent who represents you should have experience writing and submitting offers using the Sales Contract for Unimproved Land, as it contains important clauses, such as the Study Period Contingency, that apply specifically to the sale of land.
2. Contingencies and contract timelines are different for land sales than home sales.
Whereas a typical home sale involves an inspection contingency, the land sale equivalent is the study period contingency. Notably, the study period contingency covers a much broader scope of due diligence activities than a home inspection contingency.
The purpose of the study period is for the buyer to determine — through whatever studies and tests the buyer deems necessary — whether the land is suitable for the buyer’s intended use. Often, this involves soil evaluations, surveys, wetland delineations, geotechnical studies, and related investigations.
In contrast to home inspection contingencies, which are often completed within 7 days from the acceptance of the sales contract, study period contingencies can run considerably longer. For a straightforward land purchase involving the sale of land for the purpose of constructing a single family home, the study period may be as short as 14 to 30 days. For more complicated purchases involving commercial developments or land subdivisions, the study period can easily exceed 90 days.
Your agent should be able to advise you which due diligence studies to complete before you make the final decision to close on your land purchase and how much time to negotiate for your study period.
3. Land due diligence requires expert opinions from a broad range of consultants.
During the course of a typical home purchase, you might hire a home inspector, a pest inspector and, if necessary, a structural engineer, a plumbing contractor, and an HVAC contractor. In contrast, a land purchase requires an entirely different set of consultants, including civil engineers, environmental consultants, soils scientists, surveyors, and others.
Much as an experienced home buyer’s agent should be able to refer you to home inspectors and related contractors, an experienced land buyer’s agent should be able to refer you to the various consultants who will help you perform due diligence on your land purchase.
Ideally, your agent should have preexisting relationships and experience working with the consultants they recommend. Completing land due diligence thoroughly and on schedule requires effective communication between all parties involved. If your agent can connect you with a full team of consultants, the due diligence process will be much less stressful and more efficient.
4. Estimating land value and determining an appropriate offer amount requires professional knowledge of construction costs.
If you are buying land in Northern Virginia for the purpose of building a home, then you must know (1) the likely value of the newly built house and (2) how much it will cost to build the house. If you do not know these two pieces of information, then it is impossible to know whether you are paying an appropriate price for the land.
If you intend to build a house in an area with no nearby new construction home sales, then estimating an appropriate offer price for the land is even more challenging. Without nearby new construction home sales, it is more difficult to determine what your newly built home will be worth and – by extenstion – how much to pay for the land. In these circumstances, you may need to apply a “new construction” premium to recent resale home sales to arrive at an estimate of new construction home values.
While most real estate agents can perform a comparative market analysis to estimate the value of an existing home, very few understand the costs involved in building a home (engineering, site work, vertical construction, construction loan interest carry, etc.). Without this knowledge, it is next to impossible to work backwards from a new construction home value to a residual land value (i.e., the price you should pay for the land).
I have personally invested in several new construction home projects, and I understand the time and costs involved in taking a site from raw land to finished home. I’d love to put my experience to work for you!
5. Financing a land purchase is different from financing a home purchase.
Whether you are buying land for recreational use or to build a new construction home, financing a land purchase can be more complicated than financing a traditional home purchase.
For one thing, if you already have a mortgage on another home, then you will have to determine if you can afford to carry a land/construction loan while keeping your existing mortgage in place. If not, then you can either buy the land outright or reduce your current debt obligations to the extent necessary to qualify for a land loan. In some cases, this could mean selling your existing home and living in a rental property while you build your new home.
Another major difference between land and conventional home loans is that underwriting requirements (debt-to-income ratios, minimum down payments, etc.) for land and construction loans tend to be more strict.
Construction loans typically cover the cost of the lot and the construction costs. They run for the duration of construction (normally 12-18 months) and convert into a permanent loan upon completion. During construction, you will make interest-only payments based on the amount you have drawn for construction.
Importantly, few lenders will lend on land unless it is tied to a construction loan. Therefore, if you do not plan to build on the land immediately and cannot afford to purchase the land outright, then you may have a hard time finding a lender who will give you a loan. The exception is specialty lenders, such as Farm Credit of the Virginias, that sometimes finance raw land outside city limits.
For more information on financing a new construction home, check out this blog post on the subject.
As you search for land for sale in Northern Virginia, be sure to hire an agent with the right experience!
The best land agents will…
- Use the appropriate contract to adequately protect your interests;
- Help you understand which contingencies to include in your offer, which studies to perform during your study period, and how long to request for your study period;
- Introduce you to a team of land consultants (engineers, environmental consultants, etc.) who will help you evaluate the site and ensure you have a thorough understanding of the site’s strengths and limitations;
- Understand new construction costs and timelines to help you plan and budget for your project; and
- Help you evaluate new construction home values and work backwards to arrive at the maximum amount you should pay for the land.
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The data relating to real estate for sale on this website appears in part through the BRIGHT Internet Data Exchange program, a voluntary cooperative exchange of property listing data between licensed real estate brokerage firms in which McEnearney Associates participates, and is provided by BRIGHT through a licensing agreement. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than McEnearney Associates are marked with the IDX icon, and detailed information about each listing includes the name of the listing broker. The information provided by this website is for the personal, non-commercial use of consumers and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing. Some properties which appear for sale on this website may no longer be available because they are under contract, have Closed or are no longer being offered for sale. Home sale information is not to be construed as an appraisal and may not be used as such for any purpose. BRIGHT MLS is a provider of this home sale information and has compiled content from various sources. Some properties represented may not have actually sold due to reporting errors. Some real estate firms do not participate in IDX and their listings do not appear on this website. Some properties listed with participating firms do not appear on this website at the request of the seller. Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this website appears in part through the BRIGHT Internet Data Exchange program, a voluntary cooperative exchange of property listing data between licensed real estate brokerage firms in which McEnearney Associates participates, and is provided by BRIGHT through a licensing agreement. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than McEnearney Associates are marked with the IDX icon, and detailed information about each listing includes the name of the listing broker. The information provided by this website is for the personal, non-commercial use of consumers and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing. Some properties which appear for sale on this website may no longer be available because they are under contract, have Closed or are no longer being offered for sale. Home sale information is not to be construed as an appraisal and may not be used as such for any purpose. BRIGHT MLS is a provider of this home sale information and has compiled content from various sources. Some properties represented may not have actually sold due to reporting errors. Some real estate firms do not participate in IDX and their listings do not appear on this website. Some properties listed with participating firms do not appear on this website at the request of the seller. Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.
BRIGHT(MRIS/Trend) data last updated at November 6, 2024 1:21 PM ET
Welcome to LandReady Real Estate!
Jonathan was professional, efficient, and helpful during our land sale. He has our strong recommendation.
Meet Jonathan Kennedy, Accredited Land Consultant specializing in land for sale in Northern Virginia
Jonathan Kennedy is the Principal Broker of LandReady Real Estate, an Accredited Land Consultant, and two-time recipient of the Realtors Land Institute Apex Producers Award.
Having represented his clients in the sale of more than $40M of land in Northern Virginia, Jonathan has a proven track record of representing buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia land sale transactions. Clients range from individuals searching for land for sale in Northern Virginia to local home builders, national developers, and land owners who are interested in selling their land in Northern Virginia.
In addition to representing land buyers and sellers, Jonathan has been buying, selling, and investing in real estate since 2013. He owns investment properties in three states and develops land and new construction homes in Virginia and West Virginia.
When he is not working, he enjoys day-tripping through the Northern Virginia countryside with his wife, Anne, and their dog, Gunnar.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my website and learn more about me and my business. I’m excited to work with you, and I can’t wait to hear from you! Give me a call at 202-750-4050 or email me at Kennedy@KennedySellsVA.com.
– Jonathan Kennedy, Accredited Land Consultant & Principal Broker, LandReady Real Estate & Land Brokerage
