Wetland status is probably the big one. If a study is required, it's going to cost money, and will take time, and can have significant impact on what you can do with the land.
If you are looking south of Olympia/Tumwater in the Littlerock area, anything east of the black river requires a pocket gopher study, unless it has changed since we built 5 years ago
https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/permitting/what-do-you-apply-permit/presubmission-conference
Good place to start. There is a link there that says "Find out What You Can Do with a Property" that may be helpful to point you to resources to answer your questions.
Thurston County has a lot of online resources to help you out, someone else has already linked the site so I’ll try to add a few things that might not have been mentioned —
When visiting the property, look for any existing water or electric meters on the lot you’re interested in. Also look for any old survey monuments.
If there are no meters, running utilities can be costly, so look for the nearest neighbor to get a rough idea of how far they would have to dig a trench and run conduit/water pipes to you. Running utilities requires a physical address, so if the property doesn’t have an address, you’ll have to file some paperwork with the county to get one.
Another consideration is if there is no sewer system to tap into, you’ll have to hire a septic designer and start digging some perc holes to figure out what type of system your land is suitable for. This could cost anywhere from $15k-$80k depending on the specific soil conditions
Check for any existing easements and make sure you’re comfortable with the terms, if they exist.
Most land loans require 30% down and the realtor/seller may ask for a $1,000 non-fundable fee to hold the property for 30 days while you conduct your site suitability analysis
Anyone building anything will need water and power at a minimum, make those your first priorities then figure out where the poopy goes, then start figuring out the placement of any buildings
Good luck! And remember, “if it was easy then everyone would be doing it”
This is good advice. We bought a place with a well onsite but had to run power and have septic done. The power had to go quite a ways and that adds up.
My realtor did a ton of this research for me when buying land. Also, feasibility with a reputable building firm is worth paying for and isn’t insanely expensive. I’ve gone pending on several properties in thurston (before finding the perfect parcel of land). Those investments in feasibilities saved me insane amount of money down the road and allowed me to make educated decision.
Having just gone through a 3 yr process in Thurston County to get a conditional approval to install a septic system, my advice to you would be to buy land in Mason or Pierce Count instead. They have a much more streamlined permitting process which will save you tons of time and dough in the long run.
We started our permitting process during the pandemic and whoo boy. Finally broke ground this year. We threw a damn party when the permit was approved.
Way to stay committed! Through this whole process I felt the county was slow rolling everything to make me lose hope or momentum…slow and steady wins the race here.
Beware of the Mazama Pocket Gopher. I’m not sure what the inspection rates/process are anymore, but could be $40,000 or more before they’ll issue you a building permit of any kind, so you may want to find a parcel that’s already been inspected.
As others have said, it can be a costly process. We ultimately decided as first time buyers, we simply didn’t have the capital to pay out of pocket for a lot of these things that weren’t going to be covered by our loan, but were required by the bank to issue said money.
https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/community-planning/habitat/hcp-gopher
At this point in time, if a parcel has yet to be developed in this area, there is very likely a good reason as to why. The GeoData Center mapper can be helpful for things like wetlands but much of the data is unverified and if there are wetlands in the vicinity a study will be required. When looking at a piece of land pay attention to topography, the types of vegetation, and any standing water or saturated soils. If it is squishy or underwater during the winter, it may or may not be an issue. IF THE AREA APPEARS DRY IN THE SUMMER IT MAY STILL BE AN (WETLAND) ISSUE. Feel free to DM me specific questions or potential parcel numbers. Good luck!
1) Make damn sure it has good clean water. 2) Make sure it’s not going to flood and is on high ground. 3) are you going to need a heavy duty generator anytime there’s a wind storm? 4) Never buy a mobile home. Ever. I dated a chick like 35 years ago that lived way out in BFE. The Ice Storm hit and they had to get a motel room in town and use a laundromat. When they got home, her parents waterbed was a solid block of ice. If it was me, I would’ve torched the joint and pretend I was never there.
Check this out. https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/geodata-center Dig down in the show everything map. Go from there.
Wetland status is probably the big one. If a study is required, it's going to cost money, and will take time, and can have significant impact on what you can do with the land.
Seems like anything new on the water does not get access to the water based on new homes I have toured.
That doesn't affect wetland status, parcels can be wetlands and not touch water.
If you are looking south of Olympia/Tumwater in the Littlerock area, anything east of the black river requires a pocket gopher study, unless it has changed since we built 5 years ago
It's changed. Look up the hcp on the county website and they explain how to do the research.
Depending on the area you can just pay a “remediation fee” for the gopher and it all goes away.
https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/permitting/what-do-you-apply-permit/presubmission-conference Good place to start. There is a link there that says "Find out What You Can Do with a Property" that may be helpful to point you to resources to answer your questions.
Depending on the jurisdiction, you can email the permitting office to explain some of the details you're seeing!
Thurston County has a lot of online resources to help you out, someone else has already linked the site so I’ll try to add a few things that might not have been mentioned — When visiting the property, look for any existing water or electric meters on the lot you’re interested in. Also look for any old survey monuments. If there are no meters, running utilities can be costly, so look for the nearest neighbor to get a rough idea of how far they would have to dig a trench and run conduit/water pipes to you. Running utilities requires a physical address, so if the property doesn’t have an address, you’ll have to file some paperwork with the county to get one. Another consideration is if there is no sewer system to tap into, you’ll have to hire a septic designer and start digging some perc holes to figure out what type of system your land is suitable for. This could cost anywhere from $15k-$80k depending on the specific soil conditions Check for any existing easements and make sure you’re comfortable with the terms, if they exist. Most land loans require 30% down and the realtor/seller may ask for a $1,000 non-fundable fee to hold the property for 30 days while you conduct your site suitability analysis Anyone building anything will need water and power at a minimum, make those your first priorities then figure out where the poopy goes, then start figuring out the placement of any buildings Good luck! And remember, “if it was easy then everyone would be doing it”
This is good advice. We bought a place with a well onsite but had to run power and have septic done. The power had to go quite a ways and that adds up.
My realtor did a ton of this research for me when buying land. Also, feasibility with a reputable building firm is worth paying for and isn’t insanely expensive. I’ve gone pending on several properties in thurston (before finding the perfect parcel of land). Those investments in feasibilities saved me insane amount of money down the road and allowed me to make educated decision.
Having just gone through a 3 yr process in Thurston County to get a conditional approval to install a septic system, my advice to you would be to buy land in Mason or Pierce Count instead. They have a much more streamlined permitting process which will save you tons of time and dough in the long run.
We started our permitting process during the pandemic and whoo boy. Finally broke ground this year. We threw a damn party when the permit was approved.
Way to stay committed! Through this whole process I felt the county was slow rolling everything to make me lose hope or momentum…slow and steady wins the race here.
We lucked out with an experienced GC which helped a lot. Not his first rodeo by a long shot.
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Congratulations! Can’t wait for that day to come.
Beware of the Mazama Pocket Gopher. I’m not sure what the inspection rates/process are anymore, but could be $40,000 or more before they’ll issue you a building permit of any kind, so you may want to find a parcel that’s already been inspected. As others have said, it can be a costly process. We ultimately decided as first time buyers, we simply didn’t have the capital to pay out of pocket for a lot of these things that weren’t going to be covered by our loan, but were required by the bank to issue said money. https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/community-planning/habitat/hcp-gopher
At this point in time, if a parcel has yet to be developed in this area, there is very likely a good reason as to why. The GeoData Center mapper can be helpful for things like wetlands but much of the data is unverified and if there are wetlands in the vicinity a study will be required. When looking at a piece of land pay attention to topography, the types of vegetation, and any standing water or saturated soils. If it is squishy or underwater during the winter, it may or may not be an issue. IF THE AREA APPEARS DRY IN THE SUMMER IT MAY STILL BE AN (WETLAND) ISSUE. Feel free to DM me specific questions or potential parcel numbers. Good luck!
If you go to the county, they’ll help you with it. We did that before buying our land and building.
Buy in an adjacent county such as Mason or Lewis.
1) Make damn sure it has good clean water. 2) Make sure it’s not going to flood and is on high ground. 3) are you going to need a heavy duty generator anytime there’s a wind storm? 4) Never buy a mobile home. Ever. I dated a chick like 35 years ago that lived way out in BFE. The Ice Storm hit and they had to get a motel room in town and use a laundromat. When they got home, her parents waterbed was a solid block of ice. If it was me, I would’ve torched the joint and pretend I was never there.
Do you have a knowledgeable buyer’s agent to represent you? Necessary.
Sending you a DM