Land and building plots in the Mountain West
Buy the ground with the answers already in hand
Stackly walks every parcel before it goes on this page. We check the road, the water, the septic answer and the building rules, so you can compare land the way a builder would and skip the lots that only look good in photos.
Walked this week
Tumalo Juniper Lot, near Bend, Oregon
Road
Paved
Power
At lot line
Water
Well + 1.5 ac
Zoning
RR-10
Why land needs a different kind of agent
A view is easy to sell. A buildable lot takes homework.
Most land listings show a sunset and an acreage number. The things that decide your budget sit in county files, old well logs and the shape of the road in March. We go and find them, and we put them in front of you before you drive out.
Our agents work four markets: Missoula and Bozeman in Montana, Bend in Oregon and Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. Every parcel we list has been walked by one of us, and every one comes with a written note on access, water, septic and zoning.
Parcels walked this season
Three lots worth a drive this month.
High desert
Tumalo Juniper Lot
Tumalo, near Bend, Oregon
$395,000
Old junipers on the north edge, a flat pad in the middle and a clear line to Broken Top from where a kitchen would sit. The septic site evaluation came back approved last spring, and the irrigation share has been used every season.
3 acres
412 ft frontage
Paved county road
Power at lot line
Valley bench
Rattlesnake Bench Parcel
Rattlesnake Valley, Missoula, Montana
$289,000
A sunny bench above the creek bottom, ten minutes from downtown Missoula. Gentle slope to the south, a gravel county road with winter plowing, and two neighbouring wells that came in at about 180 feet.
2.4 acres
310 ft frontage
Gravel county road
Power at road
Foothills
Bridger Foothills Tract
Bridger Canyon, Bozeman, Montana
$465,000
Five acres of grass and scattered aspen with the Bridgers right behind. Fiber internet is already at the road, which is rare out here, and the shared well agreement is recorded and in good standing.
5.1 acres
520 ft frontage
Paved state route
Power and fiber at lot line
The Stackly land walk
Four stages before you make an offer.
The same routine on every parcel, whether it is one acre in the trees or twenty in pasture.
Stage 1
Read the paper first
Before anyone drives out, we pull the plat, the deed, recorded easements, well logs for the section, flood maps and the county zoning. Half the problems.
Stage 2
Walk the ground
We walk every boundary we can reach, find the pins, look at drainage after rain, test the road and stand on the likely building spot at the time of day you would be home.
Stage 3
Answer the three big questions
Access, water and septic decide whether land is a home site or a very expensive view. We confirm each one with the county, the utility .
Stage 4
Close with the costs in front of you
Before you sign, you see a list of what it will take to get from bare ground to a building permit: well, septic, power extension, driveway, survey.
Where we walk land
Four towns, four very different kinds of ground
Missoula, Montana
Valley benches and creek bottoms within twenty minutes of town. Rattlesnake, Grant Creek, Lolo and the Bitterroot side roads are where most of our Missoula land sits. Wells tend to be reasonable, and the county is clear about septic rules.
Bozeman, Montana
Foothill tracts in Bridger Canyon and pasture toward Gallatin Gateway and Belgrade. Land here moves fast and prices reflect it, so we spend extra time on covenants, water rights and the true cost of bringing power in.
Bend, Oregon and Yiog
Juniper and ponderosa lots around Tumalo, Alfalfa and the west side. Irrigation shares, septic evaluations and wildfire defensible space matter more here than almost anywhere, and we check all three before you visit.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Forest lots near Fernan, Hayden and the Wolf Lodge area. Many have community water at the road. Slope is the big question in north Idaho, and we walk it with a builder before we call a lot easy.
Meet the people who walk the land
Ten minutes with Marisa Tolland
Land specialist, Missoula
What do you look at first when you walk a parcel?
The way in. If the road is steep, washes out or needs an easement nobody recorded, everything else waits. After that I stand where the house would go and look at the sun, the wind and the neighbours.
What do buyers usually forget to ask?
Water. People fall for the view and assume a well will be easy. I pull the well logs for the section before we go, so we already know how deep the neighbours had to drill and what it cost them.
What does a good land purchase feel like?
Boring, in the best way. You know the access, the water, the septic answer and the building rules before you sign. The exciting part comes later, when you start drawing the house.
Grant Halvorsen
Rural property agent, Bozeman
Renee Castellanos
Buyer agent, Bend
Owen Pratt
Listing agent, Coeur d’Alene
In their own words
Three buyers, three very different parcels.
We had looked at land online for two years and never once knew what we were really looking at. Renee walked four parcels with us in one Saturday, pulled the septic paperwork on the spot and talked us out of the one with the prettiest view because the road had no recorded easement. We closed on the lot next to it in May and broke ground in September.
The Haddads, Tumalo
I am a single buyer and I was nervous about being talked over. Marisa answered every question in writing, including the ones I was embarrassed to ask, and she sent me the well logs before I even asked about water. When the survey showed the fence was eleven feet off, she had the price adjusted within a week.
Corinne B., Missoula
We sold our place in Billings to be closer to our grandkids and wanted room for a shop and a few horses. Grant knew which pastures had real water rights and which only looked green. He found us twenty acres that had never been listed online, and he stayed on the phone with our builder until the driveway permit was done.
Ray and Dolores Vigil, Gallatin Gateway
Land questions we hear every week
Before you buy a parcel.
How do I know if a parcel can actually be built on?
We confirm four things before we call a lot buildable: legal access, a water source, an approved or likely septic answer and zoning that allows a home. You get those answers in writing with the source for each one.
What does a well usually cost here?
Most wells we see run between $25,000 and $45,000 drilled, cased and pumped, depending on depth. We pull the well logs for nearby properties so you can see real depths before you make an offer.
Do I need a survey if the parcel already has corner pins?
Usually, yes. Pins move, fences wander and old descriptions can be vague. A boundary survey costs far less than a dispute with a neighbour, and most lenders ask for one.
Can I finance a land purchase?
Yes, but land loans work differently from home loans. Expect a larger down payment, often 20 to 35 percent, and a shorter term. We can introduce you to two local lenders who do land every week.
What is a perc test or septic site evaluation?
It is a soil test that shows whether the ground can handle a septic system and what kind. A passed evaluation is one of the most valuable papers a rural parcel can have.
How long does it take to close on land?
A cash purchase with clean title can close in three to four weeks. With financing, a survey and a septic evaluation, plan on six to ten weeks.
Are there covenants or HOA rules on these parcels?
Some have them and some do not. We send you the recorded covenants on the first day, and we flag anything that limits outbuildings, animals, fencing or short-term rentals.
Can you help me sell land I already own?
Yes. We walk it, gather the access, water and septic records buyers will ask for, and price it from recent land sales rather than nearby home prices.
Still unsure about a particular lot? Send us the listing link or the parcel number and we will tell you what we would check first.
