Who approves each step of building on your land in Virginia, the order the approvals come in, and what stays in your hands.

To build on your lot in Virginia, you work through nine steps in a set order: confirm the land is buildable, get a soil evaluation, settle your well and septic or public utilities, choose and price a floor plan, finance the build, plan site prep and access, get your local permits, build the home, and close. Each step has a named decision maker, such as your local health department, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), or your locality's building official. Each step also has a cost you can find out before you commit to the next one.

At Mitchell Homes, we have built custom homes on our customers' land since 1992. We walk Virginia landowners through these same nine steps from our design studios in Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Newport News. Once the footing is dug, our build target is 150 days or less. Owning your land also helps at the financing step: for qualified buyers who hold the deed, the land can serve as the down payment.

1. Confirm Your Land Is Buildable in Virginia

Your land is buildable when zoning allows a single-family home on it, the title is clear in your name, the lot has legal access, and flood, Chesapeake Bay, and HOA rules allow the house you want.

Start with zoning, which your locality's zoning office handles. Depending on where your land sits, that office belongs to your county, an independent city, or a town, because Virginia gives zoning and subdivision authority to local governments under Title 15.2, Chapter 22 of the Code of Virginia. Ask whether a single-family home is allowed by right in your zoning district, which means you can build without a public hearing or a special use permit. Then confirm the minimum lot size, lot width, road frontage, and setbacks, which are the minimum distances between the house and your property lines.

The deed matters because your land can only count toward your financing when it is in your name. Inherited land often isn't in the name of the person who plans to build yet. The heirs usually have to record paperwork with the circuit court clerk showing who inherited the property. When several heirs share it, the others typically sign a deed that puts title in one name. Mitchell Homes has a deed service and can help with anything related to obtaining or transferring a deed, whether the land is a family parcel or a new purchase.

If your family wants to split off a lot for a son or daughter, Virginia requires counties to offer a family subdivision that allows one division for sale or gift to an immediate family member.

Five more checks set the limits on what you can build and where:

• A boundary survey shows your property lines and any recorded easements, so you can see where the house can go.
• Land that doesn't border a public road needs a recorded access easement, which is a legal right to reach your land across someone else's property. For a shared private road, lenders generally also want a recorded maintenance agreement.
• The state's online flood map, the Virginia Flood Risk Information System, shows whether your land is in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. If it is, your locality sets the construction requirements the house has to meet.
• The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act covers 84 Tidewater localities in eastern Virginia. In those localities, land along streams, shorelines, and wetlands falls in a Resource Protection Area, which includes a 100-foot vegetated buffer. New construction inside that buffer is generally not allowed.
• An HOA or a set of recorded covenants can require a minimum square footage, fiber cement siding, brick on the front, or a side-load garage. If your land is in an HOA, its architectural review committee has to approve your plan.

We review your land with you before you sign a contract, including well and septic considerations, perc testing, and what the land allows. When a lot is in an HOA, we work through the architectural review with you and adjust the plan or selections to meet the HOA's requirements. Our post Is Your Land Buildable? has a longer checklist. If you are still shopping for land, write a feasibility period into the land contract so you have time to test the soil and check utilities before the sale is final.

2. Get a Perc Test and Soil Evaluation

In Virginia, what most people call a perc test is a site and soil evaluation by a licensed onsite soil evaluator or professional engineer. The evaluator submits the findings and a system design to your local health department. Across most of the state, the Virginia Department of Health requires septic and well applications to include this work from a private evaluator or engineer. The health department does the evaluation itself only in limited cases, such as for owners who petition for its services and qualify based on income or hardship.

The evaluation measures how well your soil can absorb and treat wastewater. The drainfield is the part of a septic system where wastewater soaks into the ground. The evaluator digs test pits or soil borings where the drainfield would go, and in a backup spot called the reserve area. In each pit or boring, they check the soil's texture, look for color patterns that show how high groundwater rises in wet months, and measure the depth to rock or dense clay.

The soil evaluation decides which type of septic system your lot can have. Deep, well-drained soil usually qualifies for a conventional system, where wastewater flows from the septic tank to a gravel or chamber drainfield. Shallow rock, a high water table, or tight clay calls for an alternative onsite sewage system, such as an aerobic treatment unit, a textile or peat filter, drip dispersal lines, or a sand mound.

The health department approves a site in one of two forms:

• A certification letter confirms your land has an approved area for a septic system of a stated size. It does not expire and stays with the land if you sell. It can be converted to a construction permit when you apply.
• A construction permit approves a specific system design in a specific spot. It is valid for 18 months and does not transfer to a new owner, so apply for one when you are ready to build.

If the first spot doesn't pass, the evaluator can test other areas of the lot or design an alternative system for soil that won't accept a conventional one. In some soils, the seasonal water table is hard to read during a dry summer, so the evaluation may have to wait for wetter months. Start the soil evaluation early so a seasonal delay doesn't hold up the rest of your build.

Perc testing is part of the land review we do with you before you go to contract, so you know what kind of septic system your lot supports before you choose a floor plan.

3. Plan Your Well and Septic, or Your Public Water and Sewer Connection

If your land has no public water or sewer, your local health department issues the construction permits for your private well and septic system. It also checks that the well and septic system sit far enough apart. Under Virginia's private well regulations, the main separation distances are:

• 50 to 100 feet between a drinking water well and a drainfield, depending on how deep the well is cased and grouted
• 50 feet between a well and a septic tank
• 5 feet between a well and your property line, or 50 feet when the neighboring property is a farm of three acres or more

The septic system is sized to the number of bedrooms in the house, and the health department's approval states that capacity. Your septic approval and your floor plan have to match, so a four-bedroom plan needs a system approved for four bedrooms. Know your approved bedroom count before you choose a floor plan.

An alternative septic system comes with ongoing duties. As the owner, you hire a licensed operator and make sure the system is inspected at least once a year, and the operator files each yearly inspection report with the health department, asLoudoun County explains.

An existing well or septic system has to be certified before you reuse it. Your building permit waits until that certification comes through. The review is called a safe, adequate, and proper evaluation. According to an application checklist from the Piedmont Health District, part of the Virginia Department of Health, you need proof that the septic tank was pumped within the last five years, and the review checks whether the existing system can serve the number of bedrooms you plan to build.

If public water and sewer are available to your land, ask your locality whether you have to connect before you plan a well or septic system. Virginia law lets some localities require a connection when public lines can serve a property. If you connect, you pay tap and connection fees to the utility, and the amounts vary by locality. Some fees cover the physical tap into the main line, and some only pay for the right to use the system, so ask what your locality's fee includes. Chesterfield County, for example, publishes its utility rates and fees online.

Wells, septic systems, and utility connections are outside the Mitchell Homes base price, which includes water and sewer lines run to connection points at the house. You pay for the well, the septic system, and any connections. We can contract that work for you and add it to your agreement by addendum. Well and septic costs vary with well depth, soil conditions, and the system design your lot needs, so we price them for your specific site. CEO Scott Sleeme and Executive Vice President Deven Sellers walk through what drives those costs in the Well and Septic episode of Behind the Build. Our FAQs explain who pays for each connection.

4. Choose a Floor Plan and See the Base Price for Your County

Choose your floor plan once you know what your land supports, and check the plan's base price for your county before you decide. Our floor plan collection has 40+ customizable plans, from 1,022 to 3,908 square feet with 2 to 6 bedrooms. Each plan page shows the base price for the Classic elevation, which is the standard exterior style, once you select your county. On the Behind the Build FAQ episode, Scott put our average sales price at about $442,000, with homes ranging from roughly $220,000 to $850,000 depending on size, roof complexity, options, and location.

The base price covers the house from the footing up. That includes a standard foundation of four courses (rows) of block, about 32 inches tall, plus the foundation drain, the building permit, our included features, and power, water, and sewer or septic lines run to connection points at the house. It does not cover work that depends on your lot, such as the well or septic system, public utility tap fees, gas service, clearing, grading, the driveway, seed and straw, or an engineered drainage plan if your locality requires one.

You can also bring your own architectural plans, and we will build from them. A fully custom design costs more and takes longer. It typically needs three to four months of design work before pricing starts.

At the plans and selections meeting, you finalize your floor plan and finishes. The plans and selections meeting is the last point where you can make changes at no charge, because your plans go out for permitting, engineered trusses, and floor systems right after it. Your complete numbers then arrive at the pre-construction meeting, on a Cost Breakdown Worksheet that lists every item in the build.

5. How to Finance the Build and Use Your Land as the Down Payment

You can finance a build with a construction loan and a permanent mortgage, or through a builder-funded program like SimplyMitchell. In either case, land you already own can count toward the down payment. A construction loan pays the builder in installments, called draws, as work is completed. While the house goes up, you make interest payments on the money drawn so far.

With a two-closing loan, the construction loan and the permanent mortgage are separate transactions, so you go through loan approval and pay closing costs twice. A single-closing construction-to-permanent loan combines both into one closing and converts to the permanent mortgage when construction ends. Fannie Mae's rules cap the construction period on these loans at 12 months at a time and 18 months in total.

Owning the lot lowers the cash you need. If the land is in your name before the first construction draw, Fannie Mae treats the loan as a limited cash-out refinance and measures it against the appraised value of the land and the finished home together. The price you originally paid for the lot does not enter that calculation, so your equity in the land counts toward the down payment.

Our SimplyMitchell program works differently: Zero down. Zero closing costs. No construction loans. We pay for construction with our own cash, so you carry no construction loan interest while your home is built. Your pricing is also protected for 150 days. When the home is complete, you close on a permanent mortgage. For qualified buyers who hold the deed, land equity can take the place of a cash down payment.

Say your land is worth $100,000 and your new home, site work included, is priced at $400,000. These are round numbers for illustration, not a quote. When the house is finished, the appraiser values the land and home together. Suppose the appraisal comes in at $500,000. A $400,000 mortgage is 80% of $500,000, so your land covers the 20% that a cash down payment would otherwise cover. Your land equity does not lower the price of the home, and you still borrow the full $400,000.

Your real numbers depend on the appraisal, your credit, and the loan program, and qualification is required. If the appraisal comes back lower than expected, you can cover the gap with a down payment. You can also remove selections that don't affect appraised value, such as flooring upgrades, and keep the square footage and bathroom count that appraisers measure.

Pre-approval runs through CrossCountry Mortgage, our exclusive lending partner, and you work with a dedicated mortgage consultant there. Mitchell Homes is a builder, not a lender. Full SimplyMitchell benefits apply to homes priced up to about $850,000. Use our savings calculator to estimate what skipping construction loan interest and closing costs could mean for your build. The Financial Advantages page explains how our no construction loan financing works.

6. Plan Site Prep, Grading, and Driveway Access

Site prep covers clearing, grading, the driveway, and a construction entrance. Before that work starts, you may need two approvals: a driveway entrance permit and land disturbance approval. A new driveway onto a state-maintained road needs a VDOT land use permit for a private entrance. VDOT checks the sight distance at the entrance, which is how far a driver pulling out can see along the road. VDOT also sets the size of any culvert pipe under the driveway. Under VDOT private entrance rules, the owner may have to grade slopes, clear brush, or remove trees so drivers can see the road safely.

VDOT maintains the local roads, called secondary roads, in every Virginia county except Henrico and Arlington, which maintain their own. In Henrico and Arlington, an entrance onto a county road goes through the county. Cities and towns that maintain their own streets issue their own entrance permits.

Clearing and grading count as land disturbance under the Virginia Erosion and Stormwater Management Act, which combined the state's erosion control and stormwater programs on July 1, 2024. Disturbing 10,000 square feet or more, about a quarter acre, triggers erosion and sediment control requirements. The threshold drops to 2,500 square feet in Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas, and localities can set lower thresholds of their own.

For a single-family home, your locality can accept an agreement in lieu of a plan instead of a full engineered plan. The agreement is a signed commitment to standard controls, such as silt fence and a stone construction entrance. A single-family home that disturbs less than an acre and isn't part of a larger subdivision plan also doesn't need state construction stormwater permit coverage. Clearing and grading start once the entrance permit and land disturbance approval are issued.

A sloped lot can need a taller foundation, and a taller foundation costs more. Our standard foundation is four courses of block, about 32 inches, and every course beyond that adds cost. About three feet of drop across the footprint of the house is enough to require extra courses. Even a lot that looks flat can need an extra course so water drains away from the home. Walk the lot with your New Home Consultant and check any survey for elevation changes before you go to contract.

Electric service is the one application you have to make yourself. Your power company, which may be Dominion Energy or a local electric cooperative, requires the property owner to open the account and get the job number, even when we pull every other permit for you.

Clearing, grading, the driveway, and seed and straw are site costs outside the base price. We can handle any of them by addendum. If you build the construction entrance or driveway yourself, build it to our specification, because an entrance that gives way under a concrete truck has to be repaired at added cost. Our post on customer responsibilities covers what stays with you in more detail.

7. Get Your Permits from Your County, City, or Town

Your building permit comes from your locality's building department. Every building department in Virginia enforces the same code, the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, which the state Board of Housing and Community Development adopts. The technical rules are the same in every locality, but the order of approvals and the paperwork each office wants vary from place to place. The usual order runs like this:

1. Zoning sign-off that the house meets use and setback rules
2. Health department permits for the well and septic system, or confirmation of public water and sewer service
3. Chesapeake Bay review, in Tidewater localities where the lot falls in a preservation area
4. Erosion and sediment control approval, or an agreement in lieu of a plan
5. The building permit, along with trade permits for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work

Localities handle the approval order differently. In Henrico County, the building department denies building permit applications that arrive before the onsite sewage permit is issued, so the health department approval has to come first. Stafford County and York County are both Tidewater localities covered by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. For land in a preservation area, the Act calls for a plan of development review before a building permit is issued. Confirm the order with your own county, city, or town before you apply.

After the permit is issued, the building department inspects the work at set points. Those inspections typically cover:

• The footing, before concrete is poured
• The foundation
• The framing, plus the rough-in plumbing, electrical, and mechanical work (the pipes, wiring, and ductwork inside the walls), before the walls are closed
• The insulation
• A final inspection of the finished home

Permitting is included when you build with Mitchell Homes. We pull your permits under a limited power of attorney you sign, which lets us apply on your behalf. We build under our Virginia Board for Contractors license, number 2705019197, and you can look up our license or any contractor's through Virginia's Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. Our Where We Build page shows the Virginia counties, cities, and towns we serve.

8. What Happens After the Footing Is Dug

Once the footing is dug, our target is to finish your home in 150 days or less. The build moves from the footing and foundation to framing and the roof, then the plumbing, electrical, and heating and cooling systems, insulation, drywall, and finishes. Your local building inspector checks the work at each required point. We also add third-party inspections on every home, along with builders' risk insurance, which covers the house while it is being built.

Some site conditions can't be seen until digging starts. The common ones are rock, buried stumps, or old concrete at the footings. A well can also need to go deeper than estimated, such as 400 feet instead of 300. When an unexpected site condition comes up, we issue a change order that spells out the item and the updated price before the work proceeds. Your total only changes when you sign for the change.

You can follow your build from your phone in the Mitchell Homes App. Our Construction Conversations videos walk through each phase on real job sites in Virginia and North Carolina. The Homebuyer Roadmap to Success episode of Behind the Build lists every step of the process and every task that is yours, including financing steps and selection deadlines.

9. Final Inspection, Closing, and Move-In

Closing happens after your locality's building official issues the certificate of occupancy. The certificate of occupancy confirms the finished home meets the building code, and your lender needs it to fund the permanent mortgage. On a lot with a septic system, the health department inspects the installed system first and issues an operation permit. The building official needs the operation permit before issuing the certificate of occupancy.

Before closing, also called settlement, the home gets a pre-closing cleaning, and we hold a pre-settlement orientation with you.

Your lender's final figures arrive in a form called the Closing Disclosure, and federal rules require you to receive it at least three business days before closing. Those figures include your prepaids, which are the property taxes and homeowner's insurance you pay in advance at closing. Prepaids stay with you even when SimplyMitchell covers your closing costs, because Mitchell Homes is not allowed to pay them on your behalf.

In Virginia, a settlement agent runs the closing, usually a real estate attorney or a title company. The settlement agent records the deed of trust, the document that secures your mortgage, with the circuit court clerk. You get your keys once settlement is complete.

Your home is covered by our 10-year Quality Builders Warranty backed by Liberty Mutual, with 1-year workmanship, 2-year systems, and 10-year structural coverage for homes closed after May 1, 2024.

10. Frequently Asked Questions About Building on Your Lot in Virginia

Do you need a perc test to build a house in Virginia?

You need a perc test in Virginia if your house will use a septic system. The health department won't issue a septic permit without a site and soil evaluation, which is usually done by a licensed onsite soil evaluator or professional engineer. If your land is served by public sewer, you skip the soil evaluation and pay the utility's connection fees instead.

Who issues building permits in Virginia?

Your county or independent city issues building permits through its building department, and some towns run their own building departments too. Every locality enforces the same Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, but the approvals required before the permit, and their order, differ from place to place.

Can you use land as a down payment to build a house in Virginia?

Yes, land you already own can count toward your down payment in many cases. When the lot is in your name before construction financing begins, lenders measure the loan against the value of the land and the finished home together. With SimplyMitchell, qualified buyers who hold the deed can use their land equity as the down payment.

Do you need a VDOT permit for a driveway?

A driveway that connects to a state-maintained road needs a VDOT land use permit for a private entrance. In Henrico and Arlington counties, and in cities and towns that maintain their own streets, the local government issues the entrance permit instead.

How long does it take to build on your own land in Virginia?

Mitchell Homes targets 150 days or less for construction once the footing is dug. The steps before construction add time that depends on your land and your locality, including the soil evaluation, health department approval, plan selections, financing, and permits.

Can you build on inherited family land in Virginia?

Yes. Inherited land is ready to build on once the title is recorded in the name of the person who plans to build. Heirs usually record paperwork with the circuit court clerk showing who inherited the land, and when several heirs share it, the others sign a deed transferring their shares. Mitchell Homes has a deed service that helps with obtaining or transferring a deed. Virginia's family subdivision rules for counties also let a family split off one lot for an immediate family member.