More than a sale.

02Buying land

What we look at before you buy.

Land is where most of the risk lives, and most of it is visible if you know what to look at. These are the questions I walk through with clients before an offer goes in, so the surprises show up on paper instead of at the building permit desk.

Some of these answers belong to a surveyor, an engineer, or the county, not to me. My job is to help you see them early, ask the right questions, and price them into your offer.

Access

Legal, physical, and year round. A parcel you cannot reach in February is not the parcel you thought you bought.

Utilities

Power distance and the cost to extend it, existing easements, and what the neighbors actually did.

Water

Well viability, depth, and flow, and what nearby well records show. Records are history, not a guarantee.

Septic and soils

Perc tests, groundwater, and how the county reviews wastewater on that specific parcel.

Zoning and covenants

What you are allowed to build, minimum sizes, setbacks, HOA rules, and rental limits.

Slope, soils, and foundation

What the ground does, how the lot drains, and what the foundation will need.

Surveys and corners

Where the lines actually are, and what easements cross the property.

Cost to develop

Driveway, power, water, septic, excavation. The part of land buying that surprises people.

03New construction

Build something that lasts.

Building in the Gallatin Valley is a budget exercise as much as a design one. Land, site work, foundation, framing, envelope, and finish all move the number, and the decisions that matter most happen long before the first shovel.

I have worked alongside local general contractors building homes here, so I know what a realistic budget looks like, where allowances tend to go sideways, and what a builder's schedule actually means. Whether you come with plans, a builder, or just an idea, we can put real numbers against it.