Can I sell the farm and keep the house?
Yes, if the house lot you keep becomes its own lawful parcel before the farm conveys. Where the split is a subdivision, the plat creating that lot is approved and recorded before the farm is sold, though the statute does not prevent recording the deed or passing title between the parties. In Carroll County any division counts, and the kept lot has to meet the county's lot minimums.
A pencil line around the house, the well and the drainfield
It usually starts at the kitchen table with an aerial printout and a pencil. Draw the line you would keep: around the house, the yard, the well, the septic tank and the drainfield, and wide enough to reach a road.
Then hold that sketch against the county's rule, because in Carroll County it is going to be a subdivision whatever its size. The county treats any division of a lot or parcel as a subdivision, and every subdivision needs a plat approved by the Subdivision Agent or the Planning Commission before recording. The same ordinance sets the lot the sketch has to hold, and its figures are in the table below.
One more Carroll rule shapes the pencil line: the drainfield's reserve area, on which no structure may be built, is ground the sketch has to include. The septic reserve area is defined in the glossary.
The county's lot rules, before anyone sets a stake
Outside Carroll the numbers change, and one of them speaks directly to a lot that already holds a house.
| County | What the kept lot has to meet |
|---|---|
| Carroll | 0.75 acre and 100 feet of average width at the setback line, or larger if the Administrator requires it on the health officer's recommendations |
| Pulaski (Residential district) | 0.75 acre with private well and septic |
| Pulaski (Agricultural district) | 1-acre minimum lot |
| Floyd, Standard Division | 2 acres, 100 feet of road frontage, 175 feet of width at the building setback and 175 feet of depth |
| Floyd, Large Lot Division | Lots of 25 acres, except one Limited Access Lot per plat, which may be 1 acre if it includes an existing dwelling, well and septic system shown on the plat (otherwise 2 acres); lots without public road frontage need a right-of-way at least 50 feet wide to a public road |
Floyd's Limited Access Lot is the one that fits a kept homeplace most closely, with conditions: one is permitted per plat, it may be 1 acre only if it includes an existing dwelling, well and septic system whose locations are shown on the plat, and otherwise it is 2 acres. Whether a particular sketch meets any of these rules is the county subdivision agent's answer, not the seller's reading of the table.
Proving the kept lot still holds its own sewage site and water source
An existing house already has a septic system and a well. The question at this step is whether both sit on the lot that keeps the house, and whether that lot still works as a lot once the farm is gone.
Every residence has to be served by an approved sewerage system. When a local ordinance calls for health department review of subdivision plats, 12VAC5-610-360 keeps the department's approval for onsite sewage off the plat until the sewage disposal site for each lot, and any reserve area required, has been identified, approved or disapproved and recorded.
A drainfield that runs downhill past the line you drew, or a well that turns out to be on the far side of a fence row, is better found at this step than after the farm is under contract. The health department and a licensed onsite soil evaluator are the ones who find it.
Survey, approval and recording, all before the farm's deed
Once the lot works on paper, it has to exist on the record. Va. Code 15.2-2254 sets three conditions wherever a subdivision ordinance applies: the division needs a plat that is made and recorded, the designated agent has to approve that plat before it can be recorded, and land of the subdivision cannot be sold or transferred until its plat is both approved and recorded, unless the subdivision was lawfully created before an applicable ordinance.
The same statute does not prevent recording the deed or passing title between the parties to it, and that is not a reason to close first. What the rule does and does not stop is set out in selling just part of your land, and the full plat sequence and its review clocks are in how to subdivide land in Virginia.
The survey
Carroll requires the final plat to be prepared by a land surveyor licensed by the Commonwealth.
The approval
The county's subdivision agent approves the plat before it can be recorded; which review path a Carroll plat takes is part of the plat sequence linked above.
The recording
The approved plat is recorded in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office before the farm's deed is delivered.
The deed
An attorney writes the deed for the farm around the recorded lot, including any reservation language the seller wants.
What the farm's buyer gets once the homeplace is carved out
The farm that goes on the market is the remainder: the fields, the barns and the woods, less the house lot. Its acreage and its access are now whatever the recorded plat says.
One tax point follows the split. Whether carving the house lot out of enrolled land use taxation brings rollback taxes is argued in what triggers rollback taxes, and the sale of the enrolled farm itself in selling a farm in the land use program. The commissioner of the revenue answers both for a given parcel.
Whether the farm brings more with the house or without it, and whether it sells as one tract or divided, is a separate decision taken up on selling your farm. Keeping the house lot is one way to split a farm; it is not automatically the one that serves the seller best.
Planning to keep the house lot when the farm sells?
Tell us which road the farm fronts and where the house, well and septic sit, and Lowell will walk the ground around the homeplace. The lot lines themselves are a surveyor's work and the county's decision. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Can the house lot I keep be smaller than an acre?
In some counties, yes. Carroll County's posted ordinance sets 0.75 acre and 100 feet of average width for a lot with neither public water nor public sewer, and the Administrator may require more on the health officer's recommendations. Pulaski's Residential district also uses 0.75 acre with private well and septic, though its Agricultural district sets a 1-acre minimum lot. Floyd's Standard Division needs 2 acres, though one Limited Access Lot in a Large Lot Division may be 1 acre if it holds the existing dwelling, well and septic system.
Who writes the deed that keeps the house out of the farm sale?
An attorney. The lot lines come from a land surveyor, whose plat the county approves before it is recorded, and the deed conveying the farm describes what is being sold around that recorded lot. Any reservation language, and how the deed refers to the plat, is the attorney's work. A listing agent can tell a buyer what the plat shows but does not draft either document.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 15.2-2254, plat approval and recording required before sale Virginia General Assembly
- 12VAC5-610-360, review of subdivision plats for individual sewage disposal systems Virginia Administrative Code
- 12VAC5-610-80, approved sewerage system required Virginia Administrative Code
- Va. Code 58.1-3233, minimum acreage for use value assessment Virginia General Assembly
- Subdivision Ordinance (posted text amended through April 14, 2014) Carroll County, Virginia
- Land Use and Planning Carroll County, Virginia
- Commissioner of the Revenue: Special Assessment Land Program Carroll County, Virginia
- Unified Development Ordinance (amended July 27, 2025) Pulaski County, Virginia
- Land Division Ordinance (effective January 1, 2026) Floyd County, Virginia