Feasability study?

Folks,
Unclviny has taken another step in his attempt to be self-unemployed. My offer was accepted on the land (1.44 Acres in Fort Bend County, Texas) so now my buyers Agent tells me to line someone up to do the “Feasability study”, what all is this going to entail and does anyone have any idea of the cost?. Some details:

Raw land.
No city water or sewer system.
Unrestricted land that I plan on using for both Business and residence.
5 miles West of the Brazos river.

A survey was done recently but I have not yet gotten a copy so I don’t know the elevation but I spoke to a guy who lives close and he told me that he has never gotten water in his house.

Unclviny

Feasibility study of doing what?

Cart in front of the horse and all that sort of thing.
Shouldn’t you have researched the questions first?
Now you ask?

I’m unclear about what is going on. I take it you have signed a contract to buy the property. I don’t understand why your sales agent is concerned about the feasibility of what your intentions are once you own the property. It seems to me that once you own the property, the sales agent would not care whether “the plan” works or not.

Can you fease, or not? Is it a matter of fease or be feased?

It will probably cost you a few thousand dollars at least. What you want to do right now is go to the phone book and look up civil engineers (of the consulting type, I think) and call them, describing your project and what it’ll take to get the feasibility study done.

Also, you may want to change the thread title so that any civil engineers, planners (like plnnr, IIRC), &c. know to check out this thread. As it stands, the title is way too uninformative.

It will probably cost you a few thousand dollars at least. What you want to do right now is go to the phone book and look up civil engineers (of the consulting type, I think) and call them, describing your project and what it’ll take to get the feasibility study done.

Also, you may want to change the thread title so that any civil engineers, planners (like plnnr, IIRC), &c. know to check out this thread. As it stands, the title is way too uninformative.

When I worked for a DPW, the term ‘feasibility study’ referred to a look at the land to see if a septic system could be installed there. We did it ourselves, but it was a rich town that had a high tax rate.

If that’s what a feasibilty study is in your case, I would think you could get it done for a couple thousand dollars, maybe less. You might have to have a perk test done to see how quickly water will flow through your soil. Call local residential civil engineers. It’s a minor job that doesn’t require very much specialization.

The contract probably has a contingency on a satisfactory feasibility study–feasibility to build housing there. (When buying a house it is common to add a contingency for a home inspection.)

Note that the OP said “buyer’s agent”, which is to say that the agent has a fiduciary duty to him, and is not a “sales agent”, whose duty is to the seller.

That could be the case but when he said “what all is this going to entail” it would imply he included in the offer a condition he was in the dark about. The condition isn’t odd, but requiring something not knowing what it entailed had me puzzled.

I made some calls today and from what I was able to find out a standard “Feasibility study” is more along the lines of studying potential growth of an area and it seems like something that I don’t need. As far as what I think I need:
The “Perk test”, I was told by a local Septic System guy that I don’t have to Perk the land as soil conditions are already known in this area (it’s “Black Gumbo”).
Elevation will be in the survey.
Pipelines and Easements should come up in the Title search.
I am concerned about possible contamination (this used to be Farmland), I am still looking for someone to do some soil sampling (the possible clean-up costs scare me so I would like to know before I sign on the line).

This is a scary deal, I am trying to take on a Boatload of debt and quit my job at the same time.

Unclviny

Things are quite different in Texas than they are here as far as soil conditions go. It’s pretty unlikely that you could get away without a perk test in New England, as the soils here vary so much. With Texas being non-glacial, you must have a lot more uniformity in the soils. Google says that black gumbo is a clay. That means it will be poorly drained, and septic might be a problem. Make sure your septic contractor is familiar with the soils (it sounds like he is, but assuming you aren’t made of money, it’s best to confirm).

If you are concerned with environmental contamination, you could get done what is called a Phase I Site Assessment. This involves finding historical records and prior environmental reports that were done in the area. It usually includes historical aerial photographs and fire maps. If your area is pretty undeveloped, though, these things might not be available.

Environmental samples can get to be expensive. You should get recommendations before you sign a contract with any environmental firms. The last thing you want is to go with the lowest bidder just to have them tack on extra work. Do you have any friends in state government? If they can contact somebody in the Texas DEM, you might be able to get feedback on which firms in your area are more reliable and honest.

You might have some negotiation room with an engineering firm as far as a feasibility study goes. If you find one that does environmental as well as site development, you could probably get a good deal on the preliminary studies if they are trying to get you as a long-term client.

Good luck!