- 1 week ago
A pretty field can hide expensive problems, and the fastest way to avoid bad land is to know what to check before you buy. Elias Yoder walks through the six essential checks every rural land buyer should make: access, soil, slope, water, the road view, and the wider view around the property. He explains why a parcel can look perfect from the road and still fail because it is landlocked, won’t perc for a septic system, sits on steep ground, or lies in a wet area or flood path.
Drawing on old farmer wisdom and modern map tools, he shows how to spot deeded easements, read street view, study satellite images, and look for nearby hog farms, junkyards, quarries, landfills, train tracks, and other factors that can change what a place is really worth. It is a practical land-buying guide for homestead planning, rural property research, and anyone comparing acreage before making an offer.
Created for viewers searching for how to spot bad land, rural land buying tips, septic perc test advice, landlocked property, flood zone checks, and homestead land selection. Ideal for land buyers, first-time acreage shoppers, and anyone who wants a clear land inspection checklist before signing papers.
Drawing on old farmer wisdom and modern map tools, he shows how to spot deeded easements, read street view, study satellite images, and look for nearby hog farms, junkyards, quarries, landfills, train tracks, and other factors that can change what a place is really worth. It is a practical land-buying guide for homestead planning, rural property research, and anyone comparing acreage before making an offer.
Created for viewers searching for how to spot bad land, rural land buying tips, septic perc test advice, landlocked property, flood zone checks, and homestead land selection. Ideal for land buyers, first-time acreage shoppers, and anyone who wants a clear land inspection checklist before signing papers.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00A piece of land can look just fine on the surface.
00:03Green grass, a row of trees, a pretty view from the road, and be a piece of land that
00:08will eat your savings whole.
00:10I have seen it happen to good people in this county, and I have seen it happen to English
00:15friends from the city who came out here looking for a place to start fresh.
00:19They drove past a FOR SALE sign on a Sunday afternoon, fell in love with the view, signed
00:26the papers a week later, and only then learned that the ground would not drain, or that there
00:31was no legal way to put a driveway in, or that the spot they had picked for the house sat
00:36right in the flood path.
00:38By then it was too late, and they were standing on land they could do nothing with.
00:43I told you in the last big video that if you want to build a free life on your own
00:47ground,
00:48the very first step is the land itself, and that the wrong piece of land can sink the whole
00:54plan before you start.
00:56Today I am going to teach you how to look at a piece of land properly, the way an old
01:01farmer looks at it, before you ever sign your name to anything.
01:05There are six things to check, just six, and if you learn them, you can walk a piece of
01:11land, or even sit at the kitchen table and look at it on the maps, and tell in about a
01:16minute whether it is good ground or bad ground.
01:19My name is Elias Yoda.
01:21I am Amish, and I farm in Lancaster County.
01:25My grandfather taught me how to look at a piece of land before you buy it, the same way
01:29his grandfather taught him, the same way most of my people learn it as children, by walking
01:35ground with someone older who points at the things that matter and the things that do not.
01:40Today I am going to walk you through those six checks, plain and simple, the way I would
01:46walk you through my own backfields.
01:48And I will tell you honestly, these are old questions farmers have always asked.
01:53The modern world has given us a few new tools to help check them from home before you ever
01:58drive out to the property, and I will tell you about those too, because any sensible person
02:03ought to use them.
02:04Stay with me.
02:05By the end of this, you will know the six things to look for, and you will not be a
02:10person who can be sold bad land.
02:13The first thing, the very first thing before anything else, is access.
02:18Can you get to the land?
02:20It sounds so simple it is almost silly to say it.
02:23But this is the question that traps more first-time buyers than any other, because access has
02:28two parts, and most folks only check one.
02:31The first part is what they call physical access.
02:35Can you actually drive there?
02:36Is there a road that touches your land, or a way to put a driveway in without crashing
02:42through a creek or a cliff or a swamp?
02:44You stand at the edge of the public road and you look.
02:47How would I get a truck onto this place?
02:50If you cannot answer that easily, you have a problem.
02:53But the second part, the one folks miss, is legal access.
02:57Do you have the right to cross whatever sits between the public road and your land?
03:02Because here is the trap.
03:03A piece of land may look like it touches the road on the map, when really there are a hundred
03:08feet of someone else's woods between you and the pavement.
03:12Or there may be a path that the neighbors have always used, but that path is on their deed,
03:17not yours.
03:18The neighbor can be polite about it for thirty years, and then sell to a new fellow who puts
03:23up a gate, and suddenly you cannot reach your own land.
03:26That is real, I have seen it happen, and people lose the whole value of what they bought because
03:32of it.
03:33So you make sure the right to cross is in the deed.
03:36They call that a deeded easement, or sometimes a recorded right of way, and it has to be written
03:42down properly and filed at the courthouse.
03:44A handshake from the neighbor is worth nothing once that neighbor is gone.
03:48If a piece of land has no road touching it, and no deeded easement, it is what they call
03:54landlocked.
03:55And unless you can buy your way across someone else's ground, it is worth almost nothing,
04:00no matter how pretty it looks.
04:01If you do have road frontage, meaning your land actually runs along the public road for
04:06some distance, that is a great blessing.
04:09The more feet of road frontage, the better, because if you ever wanted to split that land
04:14into two or three pieces and sell some of it later, you can.
04:19And that turns one piece of ground into several, and what you paid for the whole becomes a small
04:25thing.
04:26Access first, always.
04:29No access, no land worth buying.
04:32The second thing is the soil, and here is where the costliest mistake of all hides, because
04:38you cannot see this one with your eyes from the road.
04:42The reason soil matters so much, especially out in the country, away from the city's sewer
04:47pipes, comes down to a single word, septic.
04:51If you are going to build a home out there, the wastewater from that home has to go somewhere,
04:57and out in the country, it goes into a septic system in the ground beside the house.
05:02And a septic system only works if the ground beneath it will drink the water.
05:07If it will let the water trickle slowly down through the soil and away.
05:12Some ground does this beautifully.
05:15Sandy, well-drained soil, the kind that water disappears into after a good rain.
05:21Other ground does not.
05:23Heavy clay that turns to gumbo when wet, or low ground, where the water table sits a foot
05:28below the surface, will not take a septic at all.
05:32And here is the cruel part.
05:34The bad soil and the good soil can look exactly alike from the road.
05:39You cannot tell which is which by looking at the grass.
05:43The way you check is what they call a percolation test, or PERC test for short.
05:48You dig a hole, fill it with water, and time how fast it drains.
05:53The county health department, or a soil scientist, does this, and they charge you a few hundred
05:59dollars to do it properly.
06:01And they will tell you with a piece of paper whether the soil will support a septic or not.
06:07Why does this matter so much?
06:09Because a piece of country land that can take a septic might be worth $50,000.
06:14The very same piece of land, identical to the eye, that cannot take a septic might be worth
06:21$8,000.
06:22The same trees, the same grass, the same view.
06:26But one will let you build a home, and the other will not.
06:31That is real, and I have watched it happen.
06:34So here is the rule.
06:36Never close on rural land you intend to build on until you have a PERC test in your hand
06:42showing the soil will support a septic.
06:45Most contracts will let you make the PERC test a condition, meaning if the test fails,
06:50you walk away and get your money back.
06:53Use that.
06:54It is the single most important piece of paper in the whole purchase.
06:59And one more honest piece of news.
07:01A septic system itself, when you build it, will cost you somewhere from $6,000 to $20,000,
07:08depending on the type.
07:09Build that into your plan.
07:12It is real money, but a one-time cost, and you will never have a sewer bill again.
07:18The third thing is the slope.
07:21How steep is the ground?
07:23Walk it.
07:23Or look at it on the satellite picture, where the elevation lines are drawn close together
07:28for steep ground and far apart for flat.
07:32Flat ground is cheap to build on.
07:34You set your foundation, you dig your well, you run your driveway, and the ground cooperates
07:41with you.
07:41Steep ground fights you at every step.
07:44The foundation costs more.
07:47The driveway has to be cut into the hillside.
07:49The septic field has to be engineered for the slope.
07:53Water runs off and takes your topsoil with it.
07:56A little slope is fine, even good, because it helps water drain away from the house.
08:02But somewhere past 10 or 15 out of every 100, slope becomes a real expense.
08:08And past that, it becomes a serious one.
08:11There are folks who build on mountain land, beautiful land, with views you cannot get anywhere else, and
08:18they make it work, but they spend a great deal of money making it work, and you need
08:23to know that going in.
08:26Here is the simple farmer's check.
08:28Walk the spot where you intend to put the house.
08:31If you would not want to push a wheelbarrow across it, neither will the truck pouring your
08:36foundation, and neither will the water running off your roof.
08:41Look around at the other houses in the area.
08:43Are they built on slope like yours, or are they nestled in flat pockets that someone else
08:50already noticed were better?
08:52If everyone else is on the flats and your spot is on the steep, you should ask yourself why.
08:59The fourth thing is water, where it goes and where it stays.
09:03The people who do this for a living call it the environmental check.
09:08You stand on a piece of land in dry weather, and it looks fine.
09:13Come back after three days of rain, and you may see a very different picture.
09:18Water collects in low spots.
09:21Streams that ran small in summer run high in spring.
09:25Whole patches of ground that looked like meadow turn out to be wetland.
09:30Soft ground that holds water year round, where you cannot legally build, cannot legally fill, cannot
09:38legally cross with a driveway, by laws meant to protect those places.
09:43And the laws are serious about it.
09:46The other thing is the flood plain.
09:49Every county now has a map showing the areas the rivers cover when they flood.
09:54flood.
09:55What they call the hundred year flood zone, the area that gets wet roughly once in a long
10:01lifetime.
10:02You do not want to build in that zone.
10:05You do not even want most of your land in that zone, because flood insurance is costly,
10:11and the bank may not even lend on a house there.
10:14There is a worse one called the flood way, which is the river's actual channel when it
10:20runs high, where you cannot build at all by law.
10:24So here is the simple check, and any good soul can do it.
10:29Visit the land after a hard rain.
10:31Walk it then, not on the sunny, dry day the seller wanted you to come.
10:37Look for the wet spots.
10:38Look at where the water sits.
10:40Look at where the ditches run.
10:43Then, back at home, look up the wetlands map and the flood map for that county.
10:48They are free online, both of them, on the county website or on the federal mapping sites
10:54that the English World has put up.
10:56If you see big blue patches on your land on those maps, you do not just shrug and assume
11:02it is fine.
11:03You ask and you confirm, and you walk away if you must.
11:08Land with a small creek running through one corner can be a wonderful blessing.
11:13Land that is mostly wet ground is a piece of paper you will not be able to do much with.
11:19The fifth thing is what the place looks like from the road, what the city folk call the street view.
11:26Now you may say, Elias, I am driving out to walk every piece of land I am serious about,
11:32and good for you, you absolutely should.
11:35But before you make a trip of two hours each way to see ten properties,
11:40the English have given you a tool that lets you stand on the road in front of just about any
11:45address in this country
11:46and look around, without leaving your kitchen.
11:49They call it street view, and it is one of the genuinely useful modern things,
11:54because it shows you what neither the listing photos nor the satellite picture will,
11:59what your daily view looks like when you pull out of the driveway.
12:03Here is what you are looking for.
12:06Is the road in front of the place pretty?
12:08Are the neighboring houses cared for?
12:11Or is the place across the road piled with junked cars, broken machinery,
12:16and a tarp that has been blowing in the wind for ten years?
12:19Now, I am not going to speak ill of a man for what he keeps on his own ground.
12:24That is his business, and I would not want anyone judging mine.
12:28But if you are going to live there for the next twenty years,
12:31and pull out of your driveway every morning, that view is your view.
12:36You should know it before you sign anything.
12:39The same goes for power lines running overhead,
12:42a busy road right at your door, a cell tower, a billboard,
12:46a noisy industrial yard down the lane.
12:49Things that the listing photographs were carefully framed to leave out.
12:54The road view tells the truth.
12:56This is one of the modern checks where the new tool genuinely helps.
13:00Sit at the kitchen table, pull up the address on the street picture, look around,
13:05and if it looks fine, then make the trip to walk the ground in person.
13:09If it does not look fine, you have just saved yourself a day's driving
13:13and the disappointment of falling in love with a place you should not buy.
13:17The sixth thing is what sits around the land.
13:21The satellite view.
13:22The bird's eye look down.
13:24Now stand back.
13:26Way back.
13:27Zoom out and look at what is within a half mile, a mile, two miles of the place.
13:32Because the land you are looking at can be beautiful, and the land right next to it can ruin it.
13:37What are you looking for?
13:39The big things first.
13:41Hog farms, large operations that hold thousands of pigs in one tight space.
13:46These are real working farms doing real work, and I respect a farmer, but I will tell you plain,
13:53you do not want to build your home downwind of one.
13:56The smell on a hot, still summer day will keep your windows shut for weeks at a time,
14:02and there is no fixing it after you have moved in.
14:05The same goes for big poultry operations, large dairies, and feedlots.
14:10Find them on the picture.
14:12Note which way the wind generally comes from in that region.
14:16If the operation sits upwind of your land, that is a serious mark against the place.
14:21Look for junkyards and scrapyards.
14:24They show up clear as day on the bird's eye picture,
14:27all the metal and color where there ought to be field or trees.
14:31Look for quarries, which throw dust for miles when the wind is right.
14:36Look for logging operations that may turn your peaceful piece of woods into the edge of a clear cut next
14:42year.
14:42Look for landfills, train tracks, busy roads, wind towers, and big solar farms going in.
14:50None of these are necessarily ruinous, but each is a thing you should know about before you pay for the
14:56place, not after.
14:57And look for the good things, too.
14:59A church, a small farm, well-kept neighbors, a fishing pond.
15:05Sometimes the satellite picture tells you the place is even better than you thought.
15:09Six checks, access, soil, slope, water, the road view, the wider view.
15:17That is the whole list.
15:19Walk through them in that order, and you will catch the things that ruin land before they ruin you.
15:25Now you may say,
15:2660 seconds.
15:28Elias, that is not enough time to do all that.
15:31And here is the truth.
15:32The first walkthrough is 60 seconds.
15:35Once you know how to do this, you can sit at the kitchen table with the maps and pictures up
15:40on a screen
15:41and run through all six checks on a piece of land in about a minute, just to decide whether it
15:46is worth a serious look.
15:48Many pieces will fail on the first check, and you can stop right there.
15:52The ones that pass all six on the first quick look, those are the ones you go visit in person.
15:58Those are the ones you pay a soil scientist to test.
16:02Those are the ones you might actually buy.
16:0560 seconds is just the first screen.
16:07After that, you do the careful work, the perk test, the title search, the title insurance, the proper survey, the
16:15walking of the boundaries with the seller.
16:17Never skip those.
16:19Now I want to take a moment because this is the part that matters.
16:22The reason most folks lose money on bad land is not that the bad land is hidden.
16:27It is that nobody ever taught them to look.
16:30The seller will show you the prettiest hour on the prettiest day.
16:33The listing photographs are taken from the one corner where the trees frame the view.
16:38Nobody puts a sign at the edge of the field saying,
16:41This soil will not drain.
16:43This corner floods.
16:45There is no legal way to cross my neighbor's woods.
16:48Those things you have to find out for yourself by knowing what to ask.
16:52This is old knowledge.
16:54My grandfather knew it.
16:56His grandfather knew it.
16:57People who bought farmland a hundred and two hundred years ago knew to walk the place after a heavy rain.
17:04To dig a hole and watch the water.
17:06To ask the old man down the road what the place was like in winter.
17:10Modern people have lost this.
17:12Most folks today have only ever bought a house in a neighborhood where everything was already worked out.
17:18The streets and the water and the sewer all running to the door.
17:23So when they look at a piece of country land for the first time they look at it the way
17:27they would look at a house.
17:29They look at the view and the price.
17:31They do not look at the ground.
17:34But the ground is the thing.
17:37The view will fade and the price will fade from memory.
17:41But the ground will either let you live the life you came for or it will refuse.
17:46And nobody profits by teaching you to be careful.
17:51The seller profits when you do not ask.
17:54The agent's commission grows when the deal closes.
17:58The lender wants to lend.
18:01Nobody at that table is paid to slow you down.
18:05Only you.
18:07So you have to be the one who slows down.
18:10Who walks the ground.
18:12Who checks the six things.
18:14If you do, country land is one of the great blessings of this life.
18:20A few acres of your own ground paid for, free and clear, with good soil and clean water and a
18:28road to it and decent neighbors.
18:30That is a foundation a family can build a whole life on.
18:37My people have built our lives on that foundation for nearly 200 years on this same county.
18:45It is worth taking the time to choose the right piece.
18:50So here is what I want you to do.
18:52Before you so much as look at a for sale sign with serious interest, walk through the six in your
19:00mind.
19:00Access.
19:02Soil.
19:03Slope.
19:04Water.
19:05Road view.
19:07Wider view.
19:08Write them down on a card and keep that card in your pocket when you go look.
19:14And when you find a piece that interests you, do not let anyone rush you.
19:20The seller will say there are other offers.
19:23Sometimes there are.
19:24Sometimes there are not.
19:26The agent will say the property is moving fast.
19:30But the land has been sitting there for 10,000 years and it can sit a little longer while you
19:37do your homework.
19:38Get the perk test.
19:40Get the title insurance.
19:42Get the survey.
19:44Walk it after a hard rain.
19:47Pull up the maps and look at the wider view.
19:50Talk to the neighbors if you can.
19:53The good land will still be there when you have done your checking.
19:57And the bad land you walked away from will be there too, waiting for somebody who did not check.
20:05And you will not be the one who paid for it.
20:09Tell me in the comments below, have you ever bought land or are you looking now?
20:15And if you have ever been burned by a piece of bad land, tell us all what got you so
20:21the next person reading can be on the watch for it.
20:24The stories you all share teach the new folks more than I ever could.
20:29Next time, since you now know how to spot bad land, I am going to show you how to figure
20:35out what good land is actually worth, so you do not overpay for a fine piece either.
20:42Knowing how to spot good ground is one half of the work.
20:46Knowing what to pay for it is the other.
20:49Subscribe so you do not miss it.
20:52Until then, walk the ground, check the six, never sign in a hurry, and remember, the people who built this
21:01country with their hands knew things we are only just starting to remember.