Paranoid Dad thoughts for what is important in a lot, once we’ve narrowed it down to Clarkston.

1. Proximity to highways:  Multiple studies show that there’s elevated risk of lung diseases for kids that grow up within 400 feet of a highway.  I chose to stay at least 1 mile away from a highway.  Plus, that really keeps the road  noise down.
2. Power lines:  There’s a major set of power lines that run through Clarkston.  We’ve all seen the TV reports hinting at the risk of cancer if you live close to power lines.  For the health reasons as well as the resale value reasons, we chose to avoid them.
3. Dirt Road/Paved Road:  One big deciding factor for us was that we did not want to live on a dirt road.  I wanted a paved driveway off of a paved road.  That is a really good way to limit your real-estate searches.
4. Lot Size:  should be big enough, but does not have to be huge.   Too large just leads to extra yard work/maintenance/cost.  Our old lot in Waterford was about 1/4 acre, and we wanted a little bigger.  We decided to look at lots  between 1/2 acre and 3 acres.
5. Lot features:  A walk-out basement was a must on our list.  Good drainage also (no wet basements!).  Lakefront or Lake access would be nice, but 1/2 acre on any decent lake was way out of our budget.

We ended up looking at quite a few existing houses and a few new construction possibilities.  We ended up falling in love with one lot/neighborhood.  Here it is:  our gently sloping walk-out lot.  It’s close to 3/4 of an acre, but has 10 acres of shared common space behind it!  This will be the view from the back of our new home.