There are many things to consider when purchasing a property for building your home. Most of these will depend on your personal preference and the location you are building your home.
For a property with a view you are limited to the location you are in, pretty hard to find an ocean view property in Colorado or Saskatchewan.
One of the prime consideration for people is the cost of the property and secondly its location in relation to schools, shopping, and where you work.
If you have a certain house plan in mind, that can further limit the selection available to you. Much easier to find the right property location to build your home and then design the home to fit the lot and your needs.
One more thing to look out for if you are planning to build your own home, some subdivisions have designated builders and you are not allowed to construct your own home. Further, there could be restrictions on the type of home you may build and certain exterior finishing materials you will be required to use and those may not be to your liking. Find out before you buy.
As a mortgage helper, if you are planning a legal suite in your home, this will have to be allowed for your building lot and it will depend on the zoning of the lot. Not all land zoning types allow for legal suites.
A good priced lot , a cheap lot for the area you are looking at, may not turn out all that great. Before you end up buying talk to the people living in this area and find out as much as possible about the lot. As a rule each sub division comes with one who knows it all. Ending up with a lot that is on solid rock with a shallow layer of topsoil, even though you got it $10,000 cheaper than the ones available across the road, could end up costing you way more money than that just on the excavating costs. And never mind trying to get the irrigation lines and fence post into the ground afterwards.
Yes, yes been there and done it!! Do as I say, not do as I do.
And of course there are many more issues involved when purchasing a lot, but hey! a house isn't built in one day.