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Maestro, thanks for the feedback! Luckily we have public sewer in the street to tap into. It's 500 feet away from the house, but you know, that's what trenches are for. At least it's all downhill to the street.
Our situation is actually pretty similar. Our problem was that we were house shopping and not land shopping, when the property popped onto our radar. it was literally a total accident. My wife was surfing Redfin daily for months and one day she accidentally clicked the "land" button in addition to the "House" button and up popped the property. Because of this we, unfortunately, found and fell in love with the property when the only person on our "team" was our real estate agent. For anyone else planning this, I would strongly advise finding your builder first, then go hunt for land. As you eluded to in your post, and I think you are spot on, the builder is your key person in helping you understand what's possible WITHIN YOUR BUDGET. As you said, anyone can draw anything on paper. What it costs to bring that into real life is another matter and one that your architect likely doesnt have a great grasp on.
As far as the architect/builder relationship, it's tricky. There's some conflict of interest there no matter how you slice it. Some builders have in-house architects. Some people pick a builder, then an architect, then mash them together. We took a middle of the road approach and met with the builder first, then had the builder point us to a couple of outside architecture firms that they work with on a regular basis and find success with. Our builder summed it up really well: "Your architect's job is to let you dream a little. My job is to bring you back to the reality of the timeline and the budget. If we do our jobs well you will ultimately end up with a house that is in budget but also contains features or attributes that you never thought you could have had and are in love with." Is there some sort of back-door kickback afforded to the builder by recommending the architect? Maybe. I dont think so, but maybe. But ultimately having the architect and builder, know, respect, and like eachother I think is pretty important.
So at this point we've signed a small fixed bid contract with the architect ($2,250) to have them hold our hand through feasibility. They created the site plan, scheduled the arborist, the structural engineer, are working with the builder on quoting the driveway and retaining wall work, and are working closely with the city on a number of questions that are key to whether we buy the lot. it's been money well spent in my mind to have a team that know what the pitfalls are, where they are, what questions to ask, and how to get the answers.
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