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AcresiftAcresift

Find buildable acres in a county in 5 minutes

Try it here
Buy-box filtersSample data

Click a parcel

Filters on this page: Acres, Min buildable, Has road frontage, Building, Hide government and utility land.

By the end of this page you will have a short list of parcels in one county that are big enough, mostly buildable, on a road and empty, with one of them saved to a list. You need an Acresift account (the free plan is enough to follow along) and about five minutes.

The demo above works the same way as the app, on 112 real parcels in Lee County, North Carolina. Try the steps there first if you like.

1. Open the map and pick a county

  1. Go to app.acresift.com and sign in.
  2. Click the search box at the top (or press /) and type a county name, for example Lee County, NC.
  3. Choose it from the list. The map moves there and the county’s parcels load.

Screenshot to come src/assets/screens/start-county.pngThe map after choosing Lee County, with the search box openArrows: the search box; the county outline; the parcel count in the left panel

When you zoom in far enough, every parcel is drawn as an outline. The left panel lists the parcels on screen.

2. Set a simple buy box

A buy box is the set of rules a parcel has to meet before you’ll look at it. Open Filters (or press F) and set these four:

  1. Acres: drag the left handle to 5. Leave the right handle at Any.
  2. Min buildable: 3 ac. This leaves out parcels where most of the land is flood zone, wetland or steep.
  3. Has road frontage: on.
  4. Building: None.

Parcels that don’t fit fade out on the map, and the count at the top of the panel tells you how many are left.

Screenshot to come src/assets/screens/start-filters.pngThe Filters panel with the four filters setArrows: the Acres slider; Min buildable; the count of parcels that fit

Some parcels can’t be checked for a filter, for example when a county hasn’t been measured for flood and slope yet. Those are left out by default. The panel shows how many, and Include unknown brings them back.

3. Open the most promising parcel

  1. In the left panel, sort by Largest.
  2. Click the first parcel. Its card opens on the right.
  3. Look at Buildable acres and the bar under it. The bar shows what takes the rest of the land: flood zone, wetland, steep ground or water.
  4. Scroll down to Owner. You’ll see who owns it, where the tax bill goes, the last sale and the tax value.

Screenshot to come src/assets/screens/start-card.pngA parcel card, open on the rightArrows: buildable acres; the buildability bar; the owner and mailing address

4. Decide and save it

  1. At the bottom of the card, click Go if you want to pursue it, Review later if you’re not sure, or No-go to hide it from your next screen.
  2. Click + List at the top of the card and choose New list. Name it, for example Lee County, first pass.

That’s it. The parcel is on your list and your decision is saved. Next time you open Lee County, it shows with a Go mark.

Where to go next

Words used on this page

Buy box
The set of rules a parcel has to meet before you'll look at it: size, price, how much is buildable, frontage, zoning, owner and so on. In Acresift, your filters are your buy box.
Buildable acres
The parcel's mapped acres minus the parts in the FEMA 100-year flood zone or floodway, mapped wetland, open water, and ground steeper than 15%. Each spot is only taken out once, even where two of these overlap.
Road frontage
The length of the parcel's boundary that runs along a public road centerline, in feet. Zero means no mapped road touches the parcel: it may be landlocked or reached by an easement.
Absentee owner
An owner whose tax bill goes to an address other than the parcel itself. Out-of-state and overseas owners are kinds of absentee owner.