Lot Orientation When Building a New House

Drive by available lots to determine which ones face the direction required if your new house plan includes "green" technology, including passive or active solar elements. These features depend upon the angle of the sun in relationship to rooflines, and covered porch and patio areas.

View a detailed plat of the lot to decide if your house plan will fit. The lot you see from the street may look sizable, while the actual area available for building can be much smaller. Setbacks and easements restrict where you can build.

Choose a lot with a configuration suitable to special features of your house plan. If your house design includes a walkout or view-out basement, a lot that slopes may be necessary. Alternately, you may have to get permission from the developer or from a homeowner's association to raise the height of your house to accommodate these features.

Have the county building authority or a surveyor come out and determine the actual property lines before selecting a lot. If the lot already has neighbors, it's natural to use a visual boundary as the probable lot line. However, the neighbor may not be maintaining his lot all the way to the property line, or he may have planted that row of trees on the neighboring empty lot.