A site visit is not a viewing. You are not there to be impressed; you are there to establish facts that are difficult to establish anywhere else. Go with the survey plan, go in daylight, and if you can, go once with the seller and once without.
Find the beacons. The survey plan gives beacon numbers and coordinates. Locate them on the ground and confirm the plot you are standing on is the plot in the document. If the beacons cannot be found, or the seller is reluctant to walk the boundary, stop there. Take a surveyor if you are not confident; a few hours of their time is trivial against the cost of the wrong plot.
Check the access. Can a vehicle reach the plot today, in the rain? An access road on a layout drawing is a plan, not a road. Establish whether the route crosses land belonging to someone else, and whether that has been formally dealt with. Landlocked plots are common and are very hard to resell.
Look at the levels. Stand on the plot and work out where water goes. Land at the bottom of a slope collects everything that falls above it. Ask what the plot looks like in September, at the height of the rains, and be sceptical of an answer given in January. Filling and reinforcing a low plot can cost more than the plot did.
Look for signs of occupation or use. Crops, footpaths, structures, graves, dumped material. Each represents somebody with an interest or a habit, and each is a conversation you would rather have now.
Read the neighbours. What is being built around the plot, and to what standard? Is anyone actually building, or has nothing moved in two years? Are there completed houses with people living in them? An estate where people have moved in is an estate that delivered. Ask a resident how their allocation went and how long their documents took.
Look for the marks of a dispute. Painted warnings on walls, notices of ownership, court references, competing signboards. These are worth taking seriously even when the seller has an explanation.
Check what the estate promised against what exists. Perimeter fencing, gatehouse, drainage, graded roads, electricity. Note what is built, what is started and what is only drawn. Ask for dates on the rest, in writing.
Establish distances yourself. Drive from the plot to the nearest main road, market, hospital and school, and time it. Marketing distances are measured optimistically and often in a straight line.
Ask about the neighbours' documents. What title did people who bought here receive, and how long did it take? Has anyone completed the process? This is the most useful question on the list and almost nobody asks it.
Photograph everything. The beacons, the boundaries, the access, the surrounding plots, the signage. Date-stamped photographs settle arguments later and cost nothing now.
Finally, notice how you are being handled. A seller who walks the boundary with you, points out the low corner, and tells you which documents are outstanding is a seller with less to hide than one who keeps you in the car and talks about appreciation. We give our own buyers this list, and we would rather you use it on us than not use it at all.
Still deciding what to buy?
Tell us the size, the area and the budget. We will tell you what fits and what the documentation position is on each one.