Read the lot before anyone draws it.
These are the public maps and records we open first when someone sends us an address. Together they show a lot's flood zone, its design wind speed, what the soil will take, which rules govern it and which office issues the permit. All of them are free to use, so you can size up a lot yourself before you buy it.
- The site analysis
- Orientation and exposure
- The sun's path, the prevailing wind and the direction weather arrives from.
- Flood zone and elevation
- The flood zone and the height the living floor has to clear.
- Wind exposure category
- The design wind speed, and how open the ground around the lot is to the wind.
- What the lot allows
- Setbacks, utilities, drainage, and any rule or historic district that applies.
Start with the parcel as the county records it.
Before anything else, a lot needs a boundary, a deed and a recorded plat. The county map and the Register of Deeds show all three, along with any easement or covenant recorded against the land.
County parcel viewer
The lot lines, acreage, parcel number, owner of record, zoning and tax record.
Use it for Checking the lot lines and who owns it.MapRegister of Deeds
Recorded deeds and plats, the chain of title, and any easement or covenant on the land.
Use it for Finding easements and covenants on the lot.LookupGeneral resources
The flood map decides how high the house sits.
In a flood zone, the flood map decides how high the living floor sits, and that height shapes the stairs, the parking underneath and how the house meets the ground. Look up the zone and the base flood elevation for the lot itself.
Look up the wind speed the house is built for.
The design wind speed for a lot decides how the roof, the walls and the windows are built and tied down to the foundation. One tool gives the engineering values for an exact spot; the other is the code the house is built to.
Built to the Physics of the Coast explains why a coastal house is built to a different structural standard.
Near the water, CAMA has a say too.
Near the ocean, a sound or a marsh, part of a lot can fall inside one of the state's Areas of Environmental Concern, and building there takes a CAMA permit as well as the town's. Check the setbacks from the water, how fast the shoreline is eroding and where the wetlands are.
Find out whether the lot has sewer or needs septic.
A lot either ties into public water and sewer or relies on a well and a septic system. Check which, and if it is septic, what the soil will allow, before the house is planned around it.
Environmental health and septic
Who evaluates the soil for a septic system, what the permit costs and how to apply.
Use it for Requesting the septic evaluation.PortalWater and sewer service
Whether public water and sewer reach the lot, and which utility runs the line.
Use it for Checking whether water and sewer reach the lot.MapGeneral resources
Read the sun and the slope from your desk.
Where the sun crosses, where the shade falls, which way the wind blows and how the ground slopes all shape a house before there is a floor plan. All four can be looked up before you visit.
The zoning ordinance says what fits on the lot.
Setbacks, the height limit, how much of the lot a house can cover, any tree rules and what can be built at all come from one ordinance, and one office applies it. Find both for the lot you are looking at.
County development ordinance
Zoning districts, setbacks, height limits, lot coverage, tree rules and what each district allows.
Use it for Reading the setbacks for the lot.DocumentPermits and inspections
Who reviews the drawings, who inspects the framing, what a permit costs and how to file it.
Use it for Finding the office that permits the house.PortalGeneral resources
Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender Counties each publish their own development ordinance, and inside town limits the town's ordinance applies.
Check what else is on record near the lot.
A storm evacuation zone, a planned road project, a historic listing or protected habitat nearby can all bear on a lot without showing up in its zoning. Each is on public record, and each can be checked before you buy.
Know what the house will cost to insure.
The flood zone, the wind speed and how the house is built all show up again in what it costs to insure. Start with the FORTIFIED standard, then the coastal insurance pool, the state rate filings and how flood premiums are set.
Check with the office that issues the permit.
Flood maps get revised, ordinances get amended, and an online map can lag behind the record it draws from. What can be built is decided by the code in force today and by the lot itself. Where a public map and the permitting office disagree, the office is the one to call.
Tell us about the lot you are looking at.
Send the address or the parcel number and what you hope to build there. Our site analysis starts from these same public records, then adds a walk of the lot and its survey or recorded plat. You keep the written analysis whether or not we build the house.
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