# Document your build criteria before any land conversation

A land conversation goes better when the builder has already written down what it builds, which site conditions it can work with and how it reviews a parcel. Publish those criteria on your own site. When a parcel is listed or the owner is represented, work through the listing agent. Keep purchase discussions with your broker or attorney.

## What does a builder document before a land conversation?

Three things: the build type, the site criteria and the review process. The build type says what you deliver: custom on owned land, infill and teardown, small subdivision lots, acreage with well and septic. The site criteria say which conditions your plans and crews handle: frontage, grade, access, utilities, recorded restrictions. The review process says who looks at what, in which order, and how long each step takes.

Write these in your own words and publish them. A page that states "we build on sloped wooded lots inside the Beltline and east of [Zebulon](/triangle/zebulon/)" tells an owner, an agent or an architect whether a parcel belongs in your conversation. A page that says "we are always looking for land" tells them nothing. Public records can identify a parcel. They say nothing about ownership intent, access rights or future plans, so the criteria stay about the site, never about the owner.

This article sits in the [land and lots library](/articles/land-and-lots/), where the site criteria connect to due diligence, lot visibility and later project communication.

### Which published details carry the conversation?

| Element | Useful approach | Avoid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Build type | The project types and scopes you deliver | Claiming any parcel can become a project |
| Site criteria | Frontage, grade, access, utility and restriction conditions you work with | Describing the owner, the household or the reason a parcel might sell |
| Review process | Who reviews records, site and plan fit, and in what order | Presenting a published checklist as a site conclusion |
| Representation | Listed parcels go through the listing agent; purchase terms go through your broker or attorney | Contacting a represented owner around the listing agent |
| Privacy | How an owner's reply is handled and stored | Turning a reply into public content |
| Decline path | A plain way to end the conversation | Continuing after a clear refusal |

## How does a listed parcel enter the conversation?

Through the listing agent. When a parcel is on the market, the listing agent holds the owner's instructions, the disclosure package and the showing path. Send your published build criteria and your review process to the listing agent, ask which records are available and let the agent set the terms of any site visit. The listing agent is the licensed lead on the sale. Your job is to show that the parcel fits a documented build type and that your review will not waste the owner's time.

When your own broker represents you on the purchase, the two agents handle offer, contingency and timing questions. Your project team answers construction questions only. Keep the two conversations in separate records so a site-review note never reads as a purchase term.

### What goes in the pre-conversation checklist?

1. **Resolve the parcel identity.** Match your internal record to the public parcel reference and the map.

2. **Check representation.** Confirm whether the parcel is listed and who the listing agent is. Route the inquiry through that agent.

3. **Scan prior contact history.** No duplicate inquiries from two people on the same team.

4. **State the build type and site criteria.** Location, lot pattern and project scope. No feasibility claim.

5. **Assign the reply owner.** Who answers questions about the builder's process, and which broker or attorney handles purchase terms.

6. **Approve the message.** Accuracy, privacy and the decline path, checked before it goes out.

If the owner or the listing agent replies, the [lot due diligence article](/articles/land-and-lots/lot-due-diligence-content/) helps the team explain the review categories without presenting a public checklist as a site conclusion.

## How does the conversation stay respectful?

Each message adds something the other side can use: who will take the call, which records help, what the first conversation covers. "Checking in" adds nothing. Decide in advance what counts as a refusal, an uncertain response, a request for later contact and an unreachable record. Record those states in a builder-owned system.

Before any direct contact with an owner who is not represented, check consent, contact and suppression requirements for that channel with your attorney, and check the current policy of your phone, email or messaging provider. A public contact detail does not by itself authorize contact. Do not imply the owner has to sell, that the parcel is underused or that development is certain.

### How are replies routed?

A reply from a listing agent goes to the person authorized to discuss your build process, with purchase questions passed to your broker or attorney. A technical question goes to someone who can explain that it needs review. A request to stop goes straight to suppression, never back into a sales queue. An uncertain owner gets accurate information and room, not a rendering built to create urgency.

The [Lead attribution stage](/process/lead-attribution/) preserves the source, parcel, message version and response path in systems you own. That is [lead attribution](/glossary/lead-attribution/) applied to land: the record shows how each parcel entered the pipeline without private conversations turning into marketing proof.

## When can a land conversation become marketing?

Not at first contact. A reply from an owner or a listing agent is private transaction information. It becomes public material only after the builder holds control, permission and verified project facts. Even then, the former owner's identity and reasons for selling are not part of the story.

Once a project reaches an approved public state, marketing can explain the site context, the review path and the builder's approach. A teardown needs particular restraint, because the existing house may still be occupied. The [teardown marketing article](/articles/land-and-lots/teardown-marketing/) covers status language, imagery and respect for the existing property.

Store transaction records apart from public project assets. That boundary keeps private emails, parcel notes and owner documents from landing in a website draft because someone saw them in the same folder.

## What do you review after each land cycle?

The quality of the process before the count of parcels. Were parcel identities accurate? Did every listed parcel go through its listing agent? Did the published criteria describe the sites you can build on? Did replies reach the right person? Were declines honored? Which questions did owners and agents ask before terms came up?

Use those findings to improve the criteria page, the internal [handoff](/process/handoff/) and the website an owner or agent reads before replying. Give them a way to inspect your build process and completed work without exposing private notes. The [custom builder website pages guide](/guides/custom-builder-website-pages/) shows which owned pages establish that context.

### Where do AI agents support the record?

We keep the builder's project records and published site criteria accurate. Our Claude and Codex agents organize parcel research against public records, draft criteria pages from approved facts and flag duplicate records. A person reviews every output. Land acquisition, owner contact and purchase discussions stay with the builder and its licensed broker or attorney. Agents never infer an owner's motivation and never send a message.

If the parcel later enters the active opportunity list, [lot pipeline visibility](/articles/land-and-lots/lot-pipeline-visibility/) supplies the public status framework. The internal record shows exactly when private transaction information became approved marketing information.

## What else should you settle before a land conversation?

### Should the first message include a project concept?

Only when it is accurate, authorized and labeled exploratory. State the build type and site criteria without presenting an untested design as a planned development.

### Can we use information found in public records?

Use public records to check parcel identity and listing status. Before any direct contact with an unrepresented owner, check the contact method with your attorney and your provider. Keep owner context out of the message.

### What if the parcel is listed?

Work through the listing agent. Send your published build criteria, ask which records are available and let the agent set the site-visit terms. Purchase questions go to your broker or attorney.

### When should a land conversation stop?

Set the stop rule before you start. Stop after a clear refusal or no-contact request and confirm suppression across every system. Check channel requirements with your attorney and your provider.