Using the City Limits Filter to Narrow Your Land Search
The City Limits filter helps you quickly separate parcels inside municipal boundaries from those outside, which matters a lot in land investing.
Properties inside city limits often come with different access to utilities, zoning expectations, development potential, and buyer demand than rural parcels just a few minutes away.
With this filter, you can tighten your search to match your strategy (infill lots, near-town recreational land, or more remote acreage) and then visually confirm the boundaries on the map before you move forward.
Below is a step-by-step walkthrough to apply the City Limits filter and verify the results on Land Portal.
Step-by-step: How to use the City Limits filter
1. Log in to Land Portal
Start by logging into your Land Portal account so you can access Map Search and apply filters.
2. Open Map Search
From the left-side menu, select Map Search to open the Filtered Search panel.
3. Set your primary search area
Use the location filters to choose where you want to search, such as:
- State
- County
- City/ZIP (optional, if applicable)
4. Add your deal filters (example setup)
Choose the criteria that match what you’re looking for. For this example, you might set:
- Acreage range (your preferred lot size)
- Property type: Vacant Land
- Any other filters you want (price range, status, land use, etc.)
5. Scroll down to the City Limits filter
In the filters panel, scroll until you see City Limits.
6. Choose your City Limits option
Click the dropdown and select one of the following:
- N/A — No City Limits filter is applied
- Inside — Shows only properties that match your criteria and fall inside city limits
- Outside — Shows only properties that match your criteria and fall outside city limits
7. Apply your filters
Click Apply to run the search with your selected City Limits setting.
8. Verify results using the City Limits map overlay
To visually confirm the data is being pulled correctly:
- After applying Inside or Outside, open Map Filters & View (bottom-right corner of the map)
- In the Mapping Filters & Basemaps panel, toggle City Limits ON
Once enabled, you’ll see blue boundary outlines around city areas:
- If you selected Inside, the parcels should appear within the blue boundary lines
- If you selected Outside, the parcels should appear outside the blue boundary lines
9. Understand what the boundary lines represent
City boundary lines are drawn using latitude/longitude, and the underlying city limit information originates from local municipalities.
Because city boundaries can vary by jurisdiction, using the map overlay is the best way to quickly sanity-check that your filtered results align with the boundary outlines you’re expecting.
Conclusion
The City Limits filter is a fast, reliable way to align your search with the realities of zoning, utility access, development potential, and buyer preferences, without manually checking parcels one by one.
Now that you know how to filter Inside or Outside city limits and verify the boundaries directly on the map, you can narrow your deal flow to the areas that best match your investing strategy.
>> Log in to Land Portal now and start using the City Limits filter to find better-fitting properties faster.