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Buying · Southwest Virginia

Buying land, homes and farmsEach kind of property starts from a different record.

In buying land, homes and farms in Southwest Virginia, each kind of property starts from a different record: legal access and the soil evaluation for bare ground, the residential property disclosure statement for a house, use-value taxation and the lender's answer for a farm, and the locality's zoning and EPA's All Appropriate Inquiries for commercial ground.

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Four starting points

The record that answers first, by kind of property

Each kind of property has one or two records that settle the first question before price or terms come into it.

Land
Legal access, and the soil evaluation behind any septic permit.
A house
The residential property disclosure statement, with notification due before the contract is ratified.
A farm
Whether the land is taxed on its use value, and which lender will finance it.
Commercial ground
Whether the locality zoned the parcel at all, and the federal environmental inquiry.
Land

Bare ground: access and the soil come before the price

The Supreme Court of Virginia recognizes easements created by express grant or reservation, by implication, by estoppel or by prescription, so the right to reach a tract may not be written in its deed at all.

Which of those reaches a given tract is an attorney's reading of the land records, and the questions are set out under legal access. Where a drive meets a state highway, 24VAC30-73-60 bars building the entrance in the right-of-way until VDOT has approved its location and issued a permit.

The soil is the second record. Under 12VAC5-610-450 a soil evaluation weighs slope, available area and the soil profile, among other things, and a percolation test is one of many criteria; Va. Code 32.1-165 bars a locality from permitting a building designed for human occupancy without prior written authorization from the Commissioner or his agent on sewage treatment.

The tax card is not the record of ownership: Va. Code 58.1-3344 says the owner's name on a tax assessment "shall be for convenience in the collection of the taxes." Access, soil and ownership records come together in the question of a buildable lot, and the calendar of a tract purchase runs on the page for buying land in Southwest Virginia.

A house

A house: the disclosure statement arrives before ratification

Va. Code 55.1-703 has the owner of residential real property furnish the purchaser a residential property disclosure statement, a form the Real Estate Board provides on its website.

Va. Code 55.1-701 confines the Residential Property Disclosure Act to sales, exchanges, installment land sales contracts and leases with option to buy of residential real property of one to four dwelling units, and Va. Code 55.1-709 fixes the timing: the owner's notification comes "prior to the ratification of a real estate purchase contract". Which transfers the Act excludes is answered on the seller disclosure statement page.

What a house sold as is still carries under those rules is taken up in the as-is answer.

A second duty sits outside the Act, in Va. Code 54.1-2131: a licensee engaged by a seller "shall disclose to prospective buyers all material adverse facts pertaining to the physical condition of the property that are actually known by the licensee", and must do it in writing.

A farm

A farm: use value and the loan question

Roll-back taxes are the additional taxes Va. Code 58.1-3237 attaches when land taxed on its use value changes to a nonqualifying use, or, except as a subsection G ordinance provides, when its zoning is changed to a more intensive use "at the request of the owner or his agent".

Under the same section, a change of owner alone does not attach them while the new owner keeps the classified use and does not rezone to a more intensive use, unless a subsection G ordinance provides otherwise. Who is assessed when the use does change is the argument of rollback taxes when land sells; a given parcel's status is the commissioner of the revenue's to confirm.

The loan is the second record. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide section B2-3-01 (09/03/2025) names "agricultural properties, such as farms or ranches" among the property types on which Fannie Mae does not purchase or securitize mortgages. USDA's Farm Service Agency describes its Farm Ownership Loans as support for farmers and ranchers who purchase, develop or expand agricultural operations, with applicant conditions the local FSA office applies.

Whether a regular mortgage can reach a farm has its own answer; any particular loan is the lender's decision.

Commercial ground

Commercial ground, and what a buyer is to a listing agent

Va. Code 15.2-2240 requires every Virginia locality to adopt a subdivision ordinance, but zoning is a choice: Va. Code 15.2-2280 says a locality may classify its territory into districts.

So commercial ground may sit in a zoning district or in none, and what unzoned commercial ground still answers to is laid out separately; the county or town planning office can confirm how a given parcel is classified.

The second record is federal: EPA points All Appropriate Inquiries at commercial and government entities, and individuals buying for non-residential use, who may later seek protection from CERCLA liability. That environmental inquiry is the purchaser's step, worked out with an environmental professional and the lender.

Va. Code 54.1-2130 sets the default for a buyer who has signed with no one: unless a licensee enters a brokerage relationship with a person, "it shall be presumed that such person is a customer of the licensee rather than a client", someone for whom the licensee performs routine ministerial acts involving no discretion or judgment. A seller's licensee may show that buyer property under the seller's agreement alone (Va. Code 54.1-2131), and 18VAC135-20-335 reserves showing property to licensees.

Whether to have a buyer's agent at all is the buyer's choice, and the duties a buyer's own licensee takes on are defined under buyer agency.

On the book

Current listings, and a route for an owner who also sells

Lowell Bowman is the listing agent on the current listings below, and showings of them are arranged with him.

Access, utilities, topography, soil and zoning are the five factors Bowman Real Estate works through on a parcel, set out one at a time under how we read land.

One route here runs the other way. A buyer who also owns ground to sell can ask for a free valuation of the land being sold: an opinion of value, never an appraisal.

The land purchase

One tract, from the first walk to the <em>recorded deed</em>

Buying land in Southwest Virginia Three moments the law fixes put every check in order.Buying land in Southwest Virginia as one calendar: what belongs before the offer, what ratification starts, and what happens before the deed records.
Listed by Bowman

Every current listing

Status and price come from the SW VA Association of REALTORS MLS record at every build; a listing that leaves the market leaves this page the same day.

Active

9 acres at I-77, Exit 19

Exit 19 · Carroll County
$1,595,000

Unzoned commercial ground about 800 feet from the Exit 19 northbound ramp; the listing's own traffic figure is 44,000 vehicles a day. Public water, sewer, and natural gas available, next to Wildwood Commerce Park.

Road frontage
Ask Lowell
Topography
Elevated above the roadway
Utilities
Public water, sewer and natural gas available
Acreage
9 acres
Access
Coulson Church Road, about 800 ft from the I-77 Exit 19 northbound ramp (listing figure)
Restrictions
No zoning
See the listing page →
Active

The Inn & Cabins at Volunteer Gap

Hillsville · Carroll County
$1,150,000

An operating eight-room inn plus five private cabins and an event barn near the Blue Ridge Parkway, on 6.6 acres with two ponds.

Road frontage
Ask Lowell
Topography
Ask Lowell
Utilities
Ask Lowell
Acreage
6.6 acres
Access
Volunteer Road, Fancy Gap area
Restrictions
Ask Lowell
See the listing page →
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Questions

Good questions, straight answers.

Do roll-back taxes come due just because a farm in land use changed hands?

No. Va. Code 58.1-3237 says liability to roll-back taxes "shall not attach when a change in ownership of the title takes place" if the new owner does not rezone the real estate to a more intensive use, unless a subsection G ordinance provides otherwise, and "continues the real estate in the use for which it is classified" under the article and the ordinance.

Does a house buyer receive notice of the disclosure statement before the contract is ratified?

Yes, on a transfer the Residential Property Disclosure Act covers, residential property of one to four dwelling units, unless it is a transfer the Act excludes. Va. Code 55.1-709 has the owner notify the purchaser of the required disclosures before the purchase contract is ratified, or otherwise be subject to subsection B of that section.

What may a seller's listing agent do for a buyer who has no agreement with any licensee?

Show the property and perform ministerial acts. Va. Code 54.1-2131 lets a seller's licensee show property to a prospective buyer under the seller's brokerage agreement, and says ministerial acts do not form a brokerage relationship with that buyer, whom Va. Code 54.1-2130 presumes a customer, not a client.

Sources

Where this page's facts come from

Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.

Keep reading

Also on this site

Buying land in Southwest Virginia Three moments the law fixes put every check in order.Buying land in Southwest Virginia as one calendar: what belongs before the offer, what ratification starts, and what happens before the deed records.Our current listings, and how to read one.Current listings from Bowman Real Estate in Southwest Virginia: six land facts on every card, status and price from the MLS record, and a page for each property.Who represents me if I buy land without a buyer's agent?No one represents a buyer with no brokerage relationship. Virginia presumes that buyer a customer; the seller's licensee still owes honesty and some written disclosure.How we read landThe five-factor method, factor by factor, with the Virginia rule and the office behind each one.