Anyone built their own house? Tips on finding a plot

[notasausage]

We're relocating to Scotland next year and currently looking for a rural house plot with grazing land. Anyone have inventive tips for identifying potential plots not currently advertised. Anyone work in planning?

Any other suggestions on what to look for or to avoid in a house plot also helpful.

Thanks

The trick is to settle on a reasonably tight area and just speak to everyone you meet about it in the hope that someone knows someone. As incomers, it will be harder but rural locations often have more opportunities than cities (where developers have grabbed every last handkerchief of land). Study the local planning policy to gauge how sympathetic the local authority is to, say, the replacement of conversion of agricultural buildings and see if they will be more lenient if you can produce a carbon-neutral or energy-positive building.

I haven't built before at all but I do meet lots of people who have - it does seem to be patience and persistence. Once you have identified your area (say three villages), you could always write to Homebuilding & Renovating magazine to see if you can take part in their plotfinder challenge (they also have a plotfinder service which includes private plots for sale). I have to say that most people I meet now are demolishing to build which makes it vastly more expensive, quite out of my league.

Planning applications in Scotland are available on line so you can find any planning applications granted also look on S1homes there are 344 plots on here at the moment.

Hadn't tried S1 homes and it did come up with some sites I hadn't seen - thanks.