If you’re looking at home lots in Henrico this fall, you’ve picked a good time to do it. The tree canopy that makes Henrico so appealing in June also hides most of what you need to know about a piece of land. In November, you can stand at the road and see the whole lot: how it falls toward the back, where water collects after a rain, how close the neighbors really are, and what you’ll see from the kitchen window in January. 

This guide covers what we look for when clients ask us to walk a lot with them, and why each item matters before you sign a contract.

Why Fall?

Most people shop for land in spring and summer, when everything looks green and lush. That’s also when a lot is least likely to tell you the whole truth. Full foliage hides grade changes. It makes a thin tree line look like a permanent buffer, and it softens the view of the office park or four-lane road a few hundred feet away.

Fall and Winter strips that all away. Once the leaves drop, the lot you see is the lot you’ll live with for about 5 months of every year. You can read the lot’s topography with your own eyes, instead of a contour map. You can tell whether a “wooded” buffer is 20 feet of mature hardwoods or a single row of saplings. You can also hear road noise that summer leaves muffle, which matters on lots near Broad Street, I-64, or I-295. That’s why Fall is the best time to compare home lots in Henrico side by side.

Autumn rain helps too. We recommend walking a lot a day or two after a steady rain and you’ll learn more about drainage than any listing will tell you. Standing water, soggy low spots, fresh erosion channels, and a neighbor’s downspout aimed at your future backyard all show up clearly when the ground is wet and the brush is thin.

The timing works in your favor as well. If you buy land this fall, design can run through winter, which lines up with the spring construction start we describe in our fall-contract homebuilding timeline. 

Zoning

Every lot in Henrico sits in a zoning district. The district decides how big the lot has to be, how wide it has to be at the street, and how far the house has to sit from each property line. Henrico publishes a summary of its zoning districts, and it’s worth reading before you fall for a parcel.

A few examples show how much those rules shape what you can build. The R-0 district requires a 1-acre lot, 200 ft of width, 50-foot front and rear setbacks, and 20-foot side setbacks. R-1 drops to 25,000 sq.ft. and 150 ft of width with the same setbacks. R-2 requires 18,000 sq.ft. and 100 ft of width, and R-3 requires 11,000 sq.ft. The A-1 agricultural district allows a single-family home on a 1-acre lot.

The setbacks matter as much as the acreage. Picture a rectangular R-1 lot that’s 150 ft wide and about 167 ft deep. Take out 50 ft in front, 50 in back, and 20 on each side, and your buildable envelope is roughly 110 ft wide x 67 ft deep. That’s plenty for most homes, but a sprawling single-story plan with a side-load three-car garage and a screened porch can run into it quickly. Corner lots, pie-shaped lots, and irregular parcels shrink the envelope further.

Zoning is only the first layer. Many Henrico subdivisions carry proffered conditions from the original rezoning, recorded covenants, and an architectural review committee with its own rules on minimum square footage, exterior materials, or garage orientation. 

Ask for all of it in writing before your due diligence period ends.

Utilities

Most of western Henrico, including Short Pump, Twin Hickory, and Wyndham, is served by county water and sewer. Some of the more rural parts of the county, particularly in Varina, still rely on private wells and septic systems. Neither is a problem on its own, but they lead to very different homework.

If the lot has public utilities, confirm that service actually reaches the property line and find out what connection fees apply. A house set far back from the road can mean a long, expensive trench.

If the lot needs a septic system, the soil has to support one, and you can’t see that from the surface. In Virginia, a licensed onsite soil evaluator (or a professional engineer working with one) evaluates the site and designs the system, and the Virginia Department of Health has to issue a permit before the county will issue a building permit. The soil evaluation also decides where the drainfield goes, which decides where the house can’t go. Make your purchase contingent on an approved soil evaluation. Buying a rural lot without one is the most expensive land mistake we see.

Ground Conditions

Henrico participates in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area program, and that matters on any lot near a stream, pond, or wetland. The county requires a vegetated Resource Protection Area buffer at least 100 ft wide along protected waters. Building inside that buffer requires an exception, and the county expects any encroachment to be the minimum necessary. 

A lot that backs up to a creek or lake can look generous on paper and lose a large share of its usable backyard to the buffer. The county’s planning commission regularly hears exception requests from owners who want to add a deck or patio inside one, which tells you how often this catches people after they’ve bought.

Floodplain is the second question. Henrico has both FEMA and county-designated special flood hazard areas, and the county’s building design criteria page points you to its flood zone map. The same page flags shrink-swell soils based on local GIS mapping. Clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry is common around Richmond, and it affects foundation design and drainage. It’s manageable, but your builder and engineer need to know about it early.

When you walk the lot, look for:

• Where water stands a day or two after rain, and where it leaves the property
• Erosion channels, exposed roots, or bare soil on slopes
• Grade change across the likely footprint (a walkout basement needs slope, a slab-on-grade ranch doesn’t want much)
• Culverts, ditches, and drainage easements shown on the survey
• The condition of large trees near where the house would sit

Home Orientation

A lot should fit the way you want to live. If you want a first-floor primary suite and single-level living, you need a wider, flatter footprint than a two-story plan does. If you want a walkout lower level, you need a slope falling in the right direction. If you love morning light in the kitchen, you want the back of the house facing east or south.

Fall makes orientation easier to judge because the sun sits lower in the sky. The light you see across the lot in November is close to the light you’ll get all winter. Notice where shadows fall at midday and which part of the lot stays bright.

Trees deserve a careful look. Mature oaks and poplars are a big part of why people want to build in Henrico, but excavation, grading, and heavy equipment can damage roots well beyond the trunk. A large tree 15 ft from your foundation may not survive construction, and a declining tree over a new roof is a liability. Bare branches make dead limbs and lean much easier to spot. 

If the trees are a big reason you love the lot, have an arborist look before you buy and plan tree protection into the site work.

Before You Sign

The purchase price is only part of what a lot costs. Clearing, grading, retaining walls, rock, utility runs, driveway length, and stormwater requirements add up quickly, and a lot that’s cheaper to buy can easily cost more to build on. 

A builder who walks the land with you can give you a realistic picture of site costs before you’re committed.

Use your due diligence period well. A boundary survey, a soil evaluation if septic is involved, zoning verification, title review, and a site-cost conversation with your builder are all reasonable asks, and sellers of good lots expect them.

If you already own land or have a parcel in mind, our lot building page explains how we approach building on a client’s property. If you’d rather start where much of this homework is already done, look through our highlighted communities. Our post on the custom home pre-construction process covers what happens once the land is settled. 

If you’ve found home lots in Henrico or Central Virginia you’re serious about, reach out to our team at Perkinson Homes, and we’ll walk them with you while the leaves are still down.