A clean offer wins, and you can make an offer almost perfectly clean while still keeping the only two protections that stand between you and an unbuildable parcel.
In a competitive situation the advice you will hear is to strip contingencies, and it is broadly right: every condition is a reason the seller might not get to the end. But there are two conditions that are not negotiable for raw land, and a buyer who waives them is not being bold, they are gambling the whole purchase price on a coin they have not looked at.
The first is a passing soil evaluation for a septic system, at the spot you intend to build. The second is clear title with legally recorded access. Without the first you may own land you cannot put a dwelling on. Without the second you may own land you are not entitled to drive to.
Everything else -- the survey date, the inspection of the outbuildings, the fence line, the rubbish in the barn -- can be dropped, and dropping it loudly makes the two you kept look reasonable rather than fussy.
What to actually do
- Write the two contingencies narrowly and with a short fuse: fourteen or twenty-one days, a specific test, a specific standard. A tight contingency reads as commitment; an open one reads as an escape hatch.
- Book the perc test before the offer is even accepted, so the clock is never the reason you fail it.
- Pay for title insurance, and get the attorney's written opinion on access specifically. Asking "is there legal access" and getting it in writing is the cheapest insurance in the transaction.
- Put real earnest money down and say in the cover note that you have. It is the clearest available signal that you intend to close, and it is worth more than a few thousand on the price.