Congratulations, You're a Landowner! Now What?

Whether you’re using your land for farming, building your dream home, or weekend recreation, it feels good knowing you have something to call your own. Often, undeveloped land comes with unique challenges before you can maximize its usage. To help you get a head start, we’ll walk through some of the most common first steps to understand and transform your property in all the ways you want.

What to Do After You Buy Land

When the excitement of finding the perfect plot of land finally wears off, you might realize you’re not quite sure what to do next. Even a single acre can be intimidating in size and scale. Fortunately, these seven simple steps will help you get on the right track.

Spend Some Quality Time

Before you dive into projects, spend some time familiarizing yourself with the land. There are all kinds of things you can only learn from being hands-on. Factors like which areas get the most sun, which direction the wind blows, or where water runs after a storm are all important to understand for decisions around how you’ll best utilize your property’s potential.

Mark Property Lines

As you explore your land, it also presents a good opportunity to mark your property lines. While it’s likely the land was surveyed during the buying process, it may not have any physical markers to indicate boundaries. Creating these markers helps make easy decisions around where you can plant or build.

Certain properties may also have rights-of-way or easements that allow others to cross the property or provide access to utility workers. Often this information can be found in your property deed or tax description, but may impact elements of land usage.

Check Zoning Restrictions

Thinking of raising livestock on your land? Growing crops? Or maybe you want to operate a business? Understanding zoning laws is critical to understanding how you can use your property. These laws are established by local governments and dictate everything from how tall of a structure you can build to the number of animals you’re permitted to own. Typically you can find zoning maps for your land online from a local government website.

Explore Services & Utilities

If you’re planning to build or live on your land eventually, you’re likely going to want running water and electricity. Depending on where your property is located, this can be as easy as calling the utility companies and getting the necessary hookups. However, those in more remote or rural areas may need to drill a well, install a septic system, or even pay to have power lines extended to the property. These systems can be a significant factor in the overall cost of development. Of course, you can always explore the possibility of going off-grid as well.

Learn From Your Neighbors

While there’s a lot you can learn from exploring your land, some things can only be learned from experience. Take the time to stop by and introduce yourself to your neighbors. They often have valuable insights into the area ranging from which service providers are the best to time-saving back roads routes. Plus, you never know when you might need a helping hand if you get stuck in the snow or remember you left the garage door open.

Clearing & Clean Up

When you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work, clearing and cleaning up the land is the best place to start. Tasks like removing fallen trees and other large objects or mowing down overgrown brush gives you a clean slate to work from. As your vision starts to take shape, you may even want to install a simple dirt or gravel driveway to make access easy as you start to bring in other materials and equipment.

Make a More Detailed Plan

Now that you have a thorough understanding of your land, you can really hone in on the details and how you can get the most out of it. One fantastic resource for this is the Landowner’s Planner. This free guide walks you through everything you need to consider to successfully start and manage life on your rural property.

Connect With Yanmar

At Yanmar, we want to help you get the most out of your land. From equipment like tractors and UTVs to our library of educational resources, we’re here for you every step of the way. Please don’t hesitate to connect with us online or give us a call at 678-551-7369 for any of your needs.

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