Buyer beware.

It seems that in the past few months, the price of land has gone up, and the size of block has gone down. And if we truly want to build our dream home, most of what we are looking at - in budget - provides serious challenges that involve steep slopes and difficulty installing onsite sewer systems, while still leaving space for you to build a dwelling.

I can hear what you're saying from here: "There is no flat land in the mountains!"

Well there is... but it's probably out of our price range. And last Saturday's lesson in the importance of Due Diligence, followed by a chat with the onsite toilet system bloke today, has cemented the idea that if we want a true mountain home, we might be constricting ourselves.

A lot.

In fact, if the bog bloke's information is anything to go by, most of what is now in our price bracket is there because the vendors failed to get systems passed by Council before a deadline of June 1st 2014, and the new rules simply prevent them from building on the block at all.

Buyer beware. A Geotech really is essential before you sign. It's now clear that the block we attempted to purchase was one of these blocks. My condition in the contract: "Subject to geotechnical survey" was most likely the cause of the vendor taking their time to get back to us. And thank heavens they did. They're not going to tell you that they can't build on this block. They're just going to hope that you're as silly as they were (c'mon.... They were silly... the neighbour told us they tried to build a straw bale house in the Flame Zone...) , and leave you with an unsellable $85,000 hole in your wallet.

This is not the block you were looking for...