01 / Vacant Land
A Blank Piece of Ground Isn't Necessarily a Blank Slate
Vacant land can feel like the ultimate freedom.
You look at an open parcel and start imagining the house, barn, shop, pasture, driveway or whatever else you want to build there.
That's exciting.
But before I start designing the dream, I want to understand the property we actually have.
How is it accessed?
What is the terrain like?
What utilities are nearby?
Where would water come from?
How would wastewater be handled?
What does the zoning allow?
Are there recorded easements or covenants?
A vacant parcel may give you options, but I would never assume the absence of buildings means the absence of restrictions.
02 / Homes With Acreage
The House Is Only Half the Property
With a traditional house, most buyers naturally focus on the home first.
Bedrooms. Bathrooms. Kitchen. Roof. HVAC.
With acreage, I want to look at the house—and then keep walking.
What is the rest of the land doing?
How is it accessed?
Is it fenced?
Where is the well?
Is there septic?
Are there outbuildings?
Is the acreage usable or mostly steep terrain?
What maintenance comes with the property?
A home with ten acres is not simply a house with a bigger lawn.
The land is part of what you're buying, and it deserves its own due diligence.
03 / Legal Access
Being Able to See the Property Doesn't Automatically Tell You How You Legally Reach It
Access sounds obvious until it isn't.
I want to know how the property connects to a public road and what gives the owner the legal right to use any private road, shared driveway or access route along the way.
If access crosses somebody else's land, I want to understand the recorded documents behind it.
If several owners share a road, I want to know how maintenance is handled.
If a listing simply says “private road,” that's the beginning of the question—not the answer.
Access is something I want verified in the records, not assumed because there are tire tracks going to the house.
04 / Road Access & Maintenance
Who Takes Care of the Road When It Snows?
This is one of those wonderfully practical rural-property questions.
Is the road public or private?
Who plows it?
Who grades it?
Who pays when it needs major work?
Is there a written road-maintenance agreement?
How steep is it?
What is it like in winter or during heavy weather?
A beautiful property at the end of a private road can be exactly what somebody wants.
I just want them to understand what comes with that road before it becomes theirs.
05 / Wells
“There's a Well” Is Not Enough Information for Me
On a rural property, I want to know more than whether a well exists.
I want the permit number.
I want to know what the permit allows.
I want to know whether records exist for the well and pump.
I want to understand what uses are actually permitted.
And if somebody's plans depend heavily on water—livestock, irrigation, another residence or something else—I want those questions investigated before the purchase depends on an assumption.
Colorado's Division of Water Resources maintains well-permit records, and the permit file is where I would start.
EXPLORE WATER & WELL RESOURCES →
06 / Septic
What's Underground Matters Too
A rural home may not be connected to a municipal sewer system.
If it uses an onsite wastewater or septic system, I want to know what is there and what records exist.
Where is the tank?
Where is the soil treatment area?
How old is the system?
What is it designed to serve?
Has it been maintained?
Are there local inspection or transfer requirements?
And if you're thinking about adding bedrooms, another residence or other improvements, could that affect what the system needs to support?
Septic isn't usually the reason somebody falls in love with acreage.
It's still something I want understood before closing.
07 / Rural Utilities
Don't Assume the Utility Box Is Just Around the Corner
Rural utilities can look very different from one property to another.
One parcel may already have electricity, gas, internet and a working well.
Another may require significant work just to bring basic services to the building site.
I would want to understand:
- electricity
- natural gas or propane
- water
- wastewater
- internet
- phone/cellular coverage when important
And on vacant land, I want to know where those services actually are—not simply whether they exist somewhere in the area.
Utility availability and the cost of extending service should be verified with the applicable providers.
08 / Zoning
What You Want to Do With the Land Matters Before You Buy It
When someone tells me what they want from a property, zoning becomes a much more useful conversation.
Do you want horses?
A large shop?
A second residence?
Agricultural use?
A home business?
Boarding?
Events?
Future subdivision?
Those may all involve very different rules.
I never want to look at acreage and assume that owning more land automatically means having more permission.
If a planned use matters to the purchase, it needs to be checked against the applicable zoning, land-use rules, covenants and permitting requirements.
09 / Current & Possible Use
What the Land Is Doing Today and What You Want It to Do Tomorrow Are Different Questions
A property might currently be pasture, vacant ground, agricultural land, residential acreage or something else entirely.
That tells us something about how the property is being used today.
It doesn't automatically tell us every use that would be allowed tomorrow.
I want to separate:
What is happening here now?
from
What would I like to do here?
Then we can investigate whether the zoning, water, access, covenants, improvements and other property-specific factors support that plan.
10 / Easements
Somebody Else May Have Rights Connected to Your Land
An easement can give another person, utility, government entity or neighboring property certain rights to use part of a parcel.
That does not automatically make an easement a problem.
Rural properties often have perfectly normal easements for access or utilities.
What matters is understanding what exists.
Where is it?
Who benefits from it?
What does the recorded document say?
Does it affect where you want to build or how you want to use the property?
I would rather know about an easement while evaluating the land than discover it while planning the barn.
11 / Surveys
The Fence Is Not My Definition of the Property Line
When boundaries matter, I want something better than “the seller thinks the corner is over by that tree.”
Existing survey documents may help us understand the parcel, but if a boundary question is important to the purchase or future improvements, that is a job for the appropriate records and a qualified land surveyor.
This becomes especially important when you're thinking about:
- fences
- driveways
- buildings
- easements
- setbacks
- acreage discrepancies
A few feet can become very important when that's where you wanted to put something.
12 / Boundaries
The Parcel Map Is a Starting Point, Not a Fence Post
Online assessor and GIS maps are incredibly useful for understanding a property.
I use them too.
But I don't want a buyer treating a screen image as if someone physically surveyed the ground for their transaction.
If the exact boundary matters, verify it appropriately.
This is particularly important on acreage where old fences, roads, neighboring uses and natural features can make the physical property feel different from the legal parcel.
13 / Soils
Dirt Is Not Just Dirt
This is one of my favorite land questions because soil affects far more than most buyers initially think.
Different soils can affect things like drainage, plant growth, erosion, pasture, water movement and some types of development.
The USDA's Web Soil Survey is a great place to begin understanding mapped soil information for a parcel.
It is not a substitute for property-specific engineering, septic, geotechnical or agricultural work when those are needed.
But it can help us ask much better questions about the ground underneath the property.
EXPLORE SOIL & LAND RESOURCES →
14 / Water Rights
Seeing Water and Owning the Right to Use Water Are Not the Same Thing
Colorado water deserves its own conversation.
A creek, ditch, pond or irrigation equipment on a property does not tell me by itself what water rights are actually included or how that water may legally be used.
I want to know what rights, permits or agreements are actually associated with the property and whether the buyer's intended use matches them.
Colorado administers water under a priority system, and water rights can involve property-specific documents and records.
If water materially affects why someone wants the land, I would rather bring that question forward early.
15 / Mineral Rights
Buying the Surface Doesn't Automatically Answer What Is Happening Below It
Surface ownership and mineral interests can be separate.
That means I don't want to assume that buying the land automatically means acquiring every mineral interest associated with it.
If mineral ownership matters to a buyer, the question needs to be investigated through title, recorded documents and other appropriate records.
Depending on the location and concern, state oil-and-gas records may also provide useful information about regulated energy activity near a property.
This is another place where I would rather verify than guess.
16 / Fencing
Acreage Can Come With a Lot of Fence
On a larger property, fencing can become a real piece of the ownership picture.
I want to know:
- what type of fence exists
- what condition it is in
- where the gates are
- how much cross fencing exists
- whether the fence appears to follow the legal boundary
- what neighboring livestock or land uses may matter
“Fully fenced” can sound like a simple listing feature.
On forty acres, fixing that fence can become a very different project than replacing a suburban backyard fence.
17 / Agricultural Considerations
Agricultural Land Is More Than a Look
A property may have pasture, fields, livestock facilities or other agricultural characteristics.
I still don't want to assume that means every agricultural activity somebody has in mind is automatically allowed or practical.
I would want to understand the existing use, soils, water, access, fencing, structures and applicable local rules.
If the buyer's plan depends on farming, livestock or another agricultural operation, we should evaluate the property around that actual plan.
The question isn't simply:
“Is this agricultural land?”
It's:
“Can this land support what you're actually trying to do?”
