Future-Proof Your Home Purchase: How To Uncover Secret Construction Before Buying

A major consideration when buying a home is assessing the area surrounding it. Is the street that the home is on loud or quiet? Is it surrounded by single-family homes or apartment buildings? Are nice restaurants and shops down the block or a drive away? 

Anyone who lives in a major city knows how a neighborhood or even a single block can change over time as developers build new homes or commercial landlords invite new tenants. But can you figure out what changes might come to your prospective street before they happen? 

It's a question worth asking before you sign. A home inspection covers the house, but nobody inspects the lot across the street. That vacant lot can turn into an apartment building, or a quiet corner can get a new bar or a busy storefront, and those changes affect your daily life as much as the home's layout or the kitchen finishes do.

There are some ways to make educated guesses about what’s around the corner for your street and the area at large. Just keep in mind that it’s best to consider your predictions as nice-to-have, rather than integral to your purchase. 

Start with the paper trail

Property records can tell a story before any construction sign goes up, and the first place to look is local government. 

"The city or county is generally the best starting point," says Marshall Saul, a global real estate adviser with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty. Depending on the jurisdiction, buyers may be able to find building permits, zoning applications, rezoning cases, planning documents, and even meeting agendas online.

Most of these listings are tied to a specific property, so they include the address or parcel number, and many portals let you search by address or browse a map. Permits and applications also typically name the owner or applicant, which comes in handy later on.

How much detail you'll find depends on the city: Larger jurisdictions often post plans and project descriptions, while smaller ones may offer much less.

This is not a quick process, and buyers shouldn't expect one search to do it all. 

"I caution buyers against assuming one database tells the whole story," Saul says. Different pieces of information may live with different departments or agencies, so good due diligence often means checking several sources.

Ownership records are the next layer.

Jake Kennedy, a real estate agent with Compass in Nashville, TN, says that's where more clues start to show up, though you may need to piece together the puzzle yourself. 

"If several older commercial properties or vacant lots have been recently purchased by the same LLC, and you can trace that LLC back to a developer who frequently works in the area, that's a pretty good clue that something may be coming," Kennedy says.

Kennedy adds that demolition permits and applications before local planning and zoning boards are worth checking, as are city council and neighborhood association meetings.

Look at the bigger picture

The block you're considering is only part of the larger story of the neighborhood. Vacant lots, older homes, underused commercial properties, and large parcels can all be clues that redevelopment may eventually occur, but that activity often extends beyond a single street.

"In a rapidly changing market like Atlanta, I also recommend looking several blocks beyond the immediate property," Saul says. "Development often occurs in patterns rather than in isolation."

What you find isn't automatically good or bad news. New restaurants, retail shops, parks, trails, infrastructure improvements, and thoughtful residential development can make a neighborhood more desirable, Saul says. They can also bring more density, traffic, construction activity, or a change in the character of an area. There are pros and there are cons, and only you can decide if those apply to you.

"The important question isn't simply whether development is good or bad," Saul says. "It's whether the likely direction of the neighborhood aligns with how the buyer wants to live and how long they expect to own the property."

Lean on your agent and other experts

You don't have to do all of this research alone. Your real estate agent is more than just someone who coordinates showings for you—they can bring knowledge of an area to your conversations around homebuying, and also do some digging for you. 

“A good agent should be able to look at property records and recent sales around the block and start piecing together a story,” Kennedy says. Proposed developments or changes in a neighborhood are commonly shared in an agent’s professional network.

Your agent isn't the only local resource. Saul says neighborhood associations, city or county planning departments, and community development organizations can also help, as can people who are deeply involved in the neighborhood and can provide helpful context.

"Local knowledge doesn't replace official records," Saul says, "but it can point buyers toward projects or issues worth investigating further."

No such thing as a sure thing

A project that's being talked about is not the same as a project that's going to be built. Saul says buyers should look for tangible steps rather than announcements or rumors.

"Property acquisition, formal zoning or rezoning applications, submitted plans, permits, public hearings, and actual site work can all indicate increasing levels of commitment," he says. Even then, projects "can change substantially between proposal and completion."

And keep in mind that financing, market conditions, zoning, community feedback, permitting, construction costs, and changes in ownership or strategy can all derail a plan, especially when the economy is in a volatile state.

"I would be very careful calling anything a sure thing until it actually exists,” Saul says. 

Kennedy says it's not uncommon for announced projects to be delayed, altered, or abandoned altogether, and a developer buying up three properties doesn't mean anything will get built. 

"I would never recommend buying a house based on the assumption that a proposed coffee shop, grocery store, or mixed-use development might be coming," says Kennedy.

All of this research is worth doing. It can show you whether the empty lot next door is likely to become something, and whether the neighborhood is headed in a direction you'd be happy with. But what you learn is information about potential upside, not a reason to buy. Because any of these plans can fall through, your purchase will have to meet your needs regardless of whether they happen. 

In short: If the changes you’re expecting show up, great. If they don’t, you still got the house and the street you wanted.