VACANT LAND INSPECTIONS

Why vacant land inspections are important:

When people inexperienced with Puna land buy property they are often not aware of how unique our land is from the rest of the United States. The jungle here grows incredibly fast and thick often hiding old debris, past development, water runoff channels, ponding areas, and lava tubes in the interior of the property. You would never know these things existed from the road frontage. There is also invasive species of vegetation that can be very costly to remove or take over an entire property if not maintained.

Many people have bought land here as an investment and have never walked it themselves. They often have no idea these things exist on their property. Below are some items we have found in the past that saved our clients from unpleasant surprises and saved them money. Nobody wants to invest a large amount of money into a property only to find they have issues when they begin development.

While performing inspection we look at : neighborhood and surrounding properties, encroachment issues, topography and lava type, soil depth, hydrology and water flow, slopes, native and invasive vegetations, past development, debris/garbage, dangers and risks, and potential development and building options.

Below are videos of items that we have found on our inspections

Water Ponding Issues

Puna has one of the highest rainfall amount anywhere in the USA. Ponding and natural water runoff channels can occur on properties. It is important to determine if the surrounding properties will feed runoff water onto the property. This video shows a property we inspected that had a very large pond/marsh in the middle of it that was not visible from the road and overgrown.

Property Debris and Invasive Vegetation

While inspection land we have found overgrown buses, vehicles, bulldozers and heavy equipment, dump sites, clothing washers and dryers, bags of trash and much more. Often these items were completely covered in vegetation. Many of the items were hidden from the road view and would not be identified without inspecting the property. The ferns and invasive species will often completely cover them and grow right off of them. This video shows a bus we found on a property that was not drivable and had a forest of invasive trees growing on the top of it.

Water Runoff Issues

Water always runs downhill to the lowest points in heavy rains where collects into runoff channels and flows. We have locates numerous runoff channels on properties that could not be seen from the road. Often this water originates from surrounding properties meaning you cannot fix it. It is important to know where these occur to avoid development in a runoff area. This video shows a runoff ditch running through the rear of the property and would not have been seen from the road.

Lava Tubes

All of Hawaii is reclaimed lava flows. Puna is one of the newest lava flows of our island which increases the chances for large lava tubes and opening. Often they are small but on occasion they have been large enough for a D9 bulldozer to fall into. Large lava tubes can decrease development areas of a property or be very costly to fill in. This video shows a lava tube we found that has on opening almost 5 feet high by 6 feet wide and is almost 20 feet deep.

Hidden Items on a Property

Occasionally we find things that were purposely hidden or could cause a safety risk. In the course of inspecting land we have found everything from booby traps to protect marijuana plants, camouflaged homemade shelters from squatters to covered and hidden lava tubes. This video shows a property were a lava tube was purposely hidden from view. The property had not been developed so it is believed it was hidden to prevent the scaring off of potential buyers.

Price List

Prices shown cover up to 1 acre of land. For properties over 1 acre we add $100 per acre to the cost. Prices do not include tax. For properties outside of the Puna/Hilo/Keaau/Volcano area a travel charge of $50-$100 will be added depending on the distance to the property.

$450

Bronze Package

Full property inspection with a verbal consultation and recorded video of the inspection finding. There is no written reports for this package.

$500

Silver Package

Full property inspection with a written summary overview of inspection finding. A verbal consultation and a recorded video of the inspection findings are included with this package.

$550

Gold Package

Full property inspection with an in-depth written report of the inspection findings that includes a soil survey, area demographics, a map and photos. A verbal consultation and a recorded video of the inspection findings are included with this package

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