The home you want, on the lot we'll find together.
Royal Home Team sources the lot. Heritage evaluates whether it builds. Same team across both sides, the eastern Twin Cities.
Not every lot is buildable. Not every buildable lot fits the home you want.
Acreage and orientation
How much land, where the trees sit, where the home would face. The right lot already has a home wanting to be built on it. The wrong lot makes you fight the geometry.
Soil and slope
Soil composition decides foundation work. Slope decides whether you walk out or you don't. We assess both before recommending a lot, not after you've already bought it.
Well and septic feasibility
Most rural lots in the eastern Twin Cities are on private well and septic. Some lots will hold both cleanly. Some won't. The percolation test result and the well-yield estimate happen before the offer when we can.
Setbacks, easements, and the buildable envelope
Survey work reveals what the lot actually allows. Bluff rules in Afton, lot-line setbacks in Stillwater's historic blocks, easement strips that constrain where the foundation can sit. The envelope decides the home as much as the home decides the envelope.
HOA and design review character
Some neighborhoods have substantive review boards. Some have a covenant the closing attorney filed and nobody enforces. We read the difference before the offer.
Views, light, and what the lot wants
The best lots already know what they want to be. We look for the angle the morning light comes from, the view that the house should open toward, and the part of the lot the house should sit on. None of that changes the price; all of it changes the home.
Royal Home Team finds the lot. Heritage evaluates whether it builds.
Lori Howard runs Royal Home Team alongside Heritage. Twenty-eight years selling residential real estate in the eastern Twin Cities. She knows which lots are about to come available, which neighborhoods are quietly shifting, and which builders' projects you'd want to live next to.
Royal Home Team finds the lot. Heritage evaluates whether it builds. Same operating team across both expertises. Most builders pass clients to outside real estate agents and hope the lot they bring back is buildable. We don't.
We walk land together before either side is committed to it. If the lot fits, Heritage takes the build. If it doesn't, Lori finds another. There's no pressure to commit before the right lot shows up.
Four towns in the eastern Twin Cities, four different lot conversations.
Afton
River town, wooded acres, bluffs.
Afton lots tend to be wooded acreage south of the village or bluff parcels above the St. Croix. Bluff and shoreline rules shape the buildable envelope. The market doesn't move fast, which usually means there's room to be patient.
Woodbury
Schools, smaller lots, established neighborhoods.
Woodbury lots are typically infill in established neighborhoods or in the newer subdivisions east of I-494. Most have HOA review. Available land is shrinking, which means the right lot rarely sits long.
Lake Elmo
Larger acreage, well and septic, country quiet.
Lake Elmo runs to bigger lots: two, five, ten acres. Most are on private well and septic, which shapes the build sequence and the budget. Soil and percolation testing happen earlier here than they do in the suburbs.
Stillwater
Historic, river, bluff, brick warmth.
Stillwater lots split between the historic district downtown and the bluff neighborhoods west of Main. Historic lots come with design review. Bluff lots come with views and the rules that protect them.
Lot purchase and construction loan, sequenced together.
When the lot purchase and the build happen together, the financing usually combines them. A lot loan funds the purchase. A construction-to-permanent loan covers the build and converts to a mortgage at handoff. Some lenders roll the lot purchase directly into the construction loan, so there's one closing instead of two.
Paying cash for the lot changes the math. The cash position becomes the down-payment equity on the construction loan, and the build finances cleanly from day one without carrying two loans during construction.
We connect you with lenders who handle the lot-plus-build sequence as a regular line of work, not as an exception. The first call is informational, not a commitment.
The lot we found, the home we're building.
Five wooded acres in Afton. The lot fit the build. The build is shaped to the lot. Both sides handled by the same team.
Foundation walls, cured.
May 7. The walls cured this week. The home is shaped for single-level living, with a safe room built in instead of a basement. Walking the perimeter, the rooms have an outline you can step into. The slab comes next.
Tell us about the home you're picturing.
We'll start by listening. Where you're picturing, what you've already seen, what you haven't been able to find. Or call (651) 383-1710.