Land Q&A: Verifying Wetlands and Flood Risk Before Buying Land

Editor’s Note: This is the 13th in a question-and-answer series with land real estate professionals — land agents, mortgage brokers, auctioneers, attorneys, timberland professionals and more. There’s a lot of information about the national real estate market out there, but it’s tough to find answers to your specific land real estate questions — until now. LANDTHINK believes that a lot of the stress of buying, selling, and owning land can be reduced or eliminated with some simple information from some of the best in the land industry.

Landbuyer Question:

I’ve been looking to buy land for sale in Florida and I’m honestly a bit confused. When searching online, I found two properties that I was very interested in. Both of the properties looked great in the listing photos and the asking price seemed good, but then I started checking FEMA flood maps, wetlands inventory, county GIS, zoning info, and the USDA soil survey. It took hours just to piece everything together. Some of the information I found wasn’t even mentioned in the land listing, like flood zone AE, soil types with wet areas, and zoning details buried deep in county pages. All of this information is public, but it’s scattered across different websites and not exactly user-friendly. I even saw different acreage numbers depending on where I looked. How do you verify everything before making a decision? Do you rely on county records, the listing agent or just figure things out later? I would appreciate any suggestions you could provide.

Daniel Hautamaki, Land Broker, Farm and Forest Brokers, Licensed in FL, GA, and AL

Finding the right property can absolutely be a frustrating process, and I understand where this buyer is coming from. The sheer volume of information often required to make a good decision on a large purchase is daunting even when it’s easy to find, much less when you have to dig for it.

Real estate agents all have different approaches to marketing (and varying levels of knowledge and skill), and there are a variety of websites and sources to find land listings, all with different levels of information. It takes work to figure out if a listing is available, and then whether the description is accurate or complete, and then what else needs to be researched. It sounds like this buyer is already knowledgeable about where to find important information—that puts them ahead of the curve—but doesn’t solve the issue of having to spend their valuable time searching out answers.

There are a few options I can think of to help buyers speed up the decision-making process. The first is to do what this buyer has done: get educated on land and land-buying. There’s no substitute for being up-to-speed, and at the end of the day, it’s your money that’s being spent, so make sure you know exactly what you’re getting. Plus, the knowledge you gain while researching a purchase will be invaluable once you actually own the property.

Second, and related, make sure you know about available tools and how to use them. A listing description may not give exact acreage in the floodplain, but if there’s a listing map it may have GIS layers you can add to see and calculate flood or wetland areas. For example, on our company website, we include Land id maps, each of which has a Map Legend button that will bring up a list of layers you can add (i.e. flood, wetlands, soils, elevation, etc.). Even if the description doesn’t contain all the information you are looking for (sometimes agents leave out detail for brevity’s sake), other available tools may.

Third, contact the listing agent. Most successful land agents are busy professionals and sometimes aren’t immediately available to assist a buyer. But it’s our job to make sure you get the info you need to make a decision. A respectful email with clear, detailed questions goes a long way. It’s especially helpful for agents to know your intended use for the property so they can advise whether it is suitable. Agents can also help pose and answer questions you may not think to ask about a tract and which wouldn’t normally appear in a listing description.

Fourth, buyers can select their own agent representation. If you don’t have the time to research property, lack confidence, or believe the listing agent isn’t helpful, ask around for a reputable Buyer’s Agent to assist you. Just make sure that agent is skilled in the type of property you want to buy. Also, hiring reputable contractors to assist with due diligence (well and septic inspections, forestry assistance, etc.) may be necessary if your plan for the property involves improvements or added complexity.

Finally, depending on the purchase and the types of questions that need to be answered, be sure to understand the limits of real estate agents and when to consider hiring an attorney instead. Questions about the property characteristics are usually fair game for agents; but questions about title issues, contract terms, etc. may fall outside what the law allows agents to comment on.

There’s no doubt that buying real estate can be exhausting and frustrating. Knowing the right questions, tools and sources of information, and building the right team, will help things move forward much more smoothly.

Do you have a specific land real estate question for one of our professionals? Submit your question and we might choose yours!