LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Step 1 in building a home is finding the right property to build it on. I won't give advice on specifics to look for as that is largely a matter of individual taste. It is a good idea to have a general idea for the house plan you want before you look for property, although you will need to be flexible, and often you will have to make adjustments once you have your building site. We wanted a daylight basement, so finding property with a slope was a plus. However, we had to give up our original thought of having the garage in the basement, because on the site we eventually chose, it would have required a ridiculously steep driveway, and so we adjusted the garage to the main level.

My husband grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and so trees or a wooded lot was a must. Have you ever noticed that people like to recreate the landscape they are accustomed to wherever they go? So someone from Arizona might be tempted to cut all the trees on the lot and build a big ranch style adobe brick house. We like the idea of blending in with a modest cabin in the woods. Finding the right real estate in Montana took some searching. We searched MLS listings and drove all over the valley looking at property. There were some pluses to searching for property in the winter. You could see right away if it was out on a long, windy dirt road that would be no fun at all to negotiate all winter long. There were lots of rejections: too flat, too small, too open, too far away, too expensive, too deep for a well, too close to neighbors, too close to power lines, too steep to build on, and so on. But finally we were able to find an acre and a half on a wooded lot, fronting a small lake that was in our price range.

Once we found the property, we worked out the details with the seller's real estate agent, who we found to be extremely fair to both parties. Before purchasing, we had to ensure that we had deeded access across a driveway that crossed another lot, and that a septic system could be approved on the lot. We also looked into average depth of nearby wells and had the neighbor's water tested for quality as required by the county. We were lucky to get the property when we did, as the lot value has easily doubled since then. Seems when buying property, we always wish we could have purchased a decade or two sooner when prices were better, and undoubtedly we would have if we had had the means a couple decades ago. But we didn't—that's why we're in the market now.