The Land Report

The Very First Step

Many of our clients come to us with little more than a dream to design and develop a property in the country.

And not much else.

• They have a budget in mind and a desire to work with HUTS.
• They may not have a specific town in mind, just a loose vision for the type of setting they imagine.
• They don’t have a land parcel purchased or under agreement, and they don’t have much confidence on how to search for, evaluate or purchase the right lot for their goals.
• Poking around online or chatting with realtors hasn’t been much help.
• Finding land is often the biggest roadblock in the journey from imagining a future property and actually setting the course to getting the place you imagine. HUTS is consistently creating and improving our offerings to help get over that roadblock.

Today, we’re introducing The Land Report, a weekly newsletter from HUTS that’s the best resource yet for potential clients that want to design and develop a property, but don't have a land parcel.

What’s the Problem with Finding the Right Piece of Land?

Typical real estate listing sites are just not designed to source and evaluate land parcels. A few blurry photos of trees taken from the road are not the solution.

Why did we create The Land Report? Put simply, finding the right piece of land is hard. Working to develop the wrong piece of land can be a real struggle. We know from years of experience.

The existing resources to find land just aren’t very good.

When it comes to land listings, Trulia, Zillow, Redin and other aggregators often show fuzzy images with little context. It’s difficult to tell what makes one photo of a tree on one listing better from a similar photo of a tree from another.

The listing descriptions provide little guidance on how you can or can’t use the land. The challenges that may need to be overcome aren’t detailed and the opportunities to unlock the parcel's potential value aren’t defined.

The list price alone doesn’t accurately reflect the true cost or difficulty of developing the property, which will usually require a well, septic, driveway, power, and re-grading, at a minimum.

Usually, the listing agent has very little relationship to what you do with the parcel after it’s purchased. They won’t be involved in the design of the place or working through the development or construction, so beyond a commission, there’s not much incentive for them to get the parcel choice right.

Trying to research and look at every single parcel is a time-consuming and expensive strategy. Trying to compare all of the parcels with limited information - price, location and acreage - won’t get you closer to having a vision for the property or a feasible development plan. And, taking a bunch of unstructured trips to walk parcels is a great way to spend thousands of dollars on travel and lodging, but not really narrow down your choices.

It's a problem.

How is HUTS Making the Search for Land Better?

HUTS is a design and development company, so our clients are looking to buy raw land with the intent to design and develop it. Land parcels, then, are the first step in a process of land improvement, design, development and ultimately creating a new place, whether it’s a residential property or a hospitality destination.

The Land Report curates the top buildable land listings, picked by our HUTS land teams and design studio, and offers exclusive insights into the potential opportunities for the development of those land parcels. Get an insider's perspective on how HUTS would approach building on each parcel and the motivations driving our development decisions.

Cool. So, What's So Great about The Land Report?

A whole lot, like:

Curating the Options

A snapshot of our ongoing land sourcing master list.>

While HUTS has current home design and development projects across the country, we have a concentration across upstate New York, along the Hudson Valley and Catskills region. Each week, we research every available parcel in these areas, collecting the 12 - 16 that we believe are the best fit for our current and potential clients.

We organize and tag these parcels in a structured database and provide notes on what makes each challenging, what makes each a compelling starting point for a property development.

With our land, development and design teams, we choose the top 4 to include in The Land Report for our subscribers, along with context, land improvement estimates and early design sketches for how we would develop each parcel.

Provides Context

Every listing featured on The Land Report provides details on the following factors:

• Estimated costs for land Improvement projects
• List of required land improvement projects based on the current condition of the parcel
• Commentary on the project level of the lot (easy, medium or hard)
• Feedback about what makes the lot special
• Details about the town features and local attractions
• HUTS’ design vision for the lot within the context of our standard plans and development philosophy

Defines a Vision

For each parcel, we create sketches that capture our design and development concept for the parcel.

In each listing, we present our development vision for the parcel, outlining a potential approach in detail. We draw inspiration from our Standards plans and ongoing projects to provide a clear visualization of future development possibilities. To enhance your understanding, we include site sketches and illustrations that evoke the concept.

Outlines the Challenges and Opportunities

Understanding the potential work and opportunities of each land parcel based solely on some pictures of trees is difficult, if not impossible. That's why we leverage GIS software, licensed fixed-wing aerial photography, LIDAR, and rely on our extensive knowledge of rural land development to analyze each lot's specific challenges, characteristics, and opportunities, presenting our findings in a user-friendly format.

Our perspective grows out of evaluating 1000s of land parcels for our clients, and for ourselves, over many years and projects. We look forward to sharing this perspective with you in our weekly newsletter, and welcome you to consider becoming a subscriber as the first step on your home design and development journey!