All About Land Surveys!

The general purpose of a land survey is so that both the property owner and the public know where property boundaries are. They are marked on the ground. It sounds pretty simple, but very quickly gets complicated.

Imagine a survey on a typical subdivision lot. Maybe it is 100 feet wide and 120 feet deep. Put in 4 corner markers and you have the corners clearly marked. (We call them pins and they are actually steel rods 1/2 inch in diameter. In older surveys, it might be a pile of rocks, a fencepost, a flat rock with an "X" on it, or some other marker.)

Now imagine 5 acres. 5 acres is approximately 330 feet by 660 feet. (Just round numbers, as shapes may vary.) Pop in 4 pins and you have a legal survey. But wait a minute. There is no way you can see 660 feet through heavy woods and up and down hills from one corner to the next. One type of survey just puts in the 4 corners, and that is perfectly legal as it can be recreated by the next surveyor. We, in our business, put in intermediate points on a straight line and chop through the brush so that the owner can actually see where the line is. It costs us more, but it lets our customer know where his property lines are.

Sometimes improvements to the property such as utilities or buildings may need to be located. I recently sold a lot of about 13 acres that had a pipe line going through it. Now 13 acres is a lot of land, and a pipeline is pretty small unless it is in the wrong place. My customer wanted a large garage way back from his house, yet accessible. The pipeline was an issue. Because it was clearly marked on the survey, it raised questions from our customer on whether or not the land would work for him. Because it was clearly marked, our customer looked on the ground and said it was not an issue; and he bought the land. This kind of detail will take the surveyor more time and a fee will be charged to do this, but it could be beneficial to the land owner.

Surveys are very important, but you must always ask yourself what information you personally need from the survey. An existing survey does not mean you have the information you need.

In our business we pride ourselves in making the survey useful and meaningful to the customer; versus saying "Surveyed."

I do know that it is very beneficial to a land owner to have the lines marked, versus just having points on all the corners.

Surveying technology has dramatically changed over the last few years. They used to use a transit (An expensive and very accurate compass.) and a tape. (Literally a long tape measure.) There was a great deal of skill involved in measuring as surveys measure horizontal distances versus slopes up and down a hill. Imagine holding a 100 foot tape level while you are standing halfway up a hill and the other guy is 5 feet below you. It was a real skill and is rapidly becoming a lost art.

Now imagine a 20 year old survey done with the tools described above. The north line of the 5 acres might be labeled 330.5 feet. A pin is set at each end of the measurement. Now imagine a new survey with GPS and laser measuring devices. That new measurement between pins might be 330.1 feet. It is only a few inches different and a tribute to the skill of the old surveyors. The new survey changes the measurement but not the pin location. You DO NOT move the pin. The corner is where the monument was placed 20 years ago.

I have bought land without a survey, but I have done it with great care. Aerial photos, fences, roads, and other land marks generally define a large piece of property, but not always. And I have been burned. Once a road moved and I had to buy a 10 feet wide strip at great cost to have legal road access. A survey would have been cheaper. (Roads move all the time over time. Especially the old gravel roads. The grader operator moved it a little every time he graded the road.)

If you are buying a platted lot in a newer subdivision, you have a survey. If it is still well marked, you are probably fine. But what if the neighbor's 10 year old fence cuts across the land you are buying and puts that important spring on the wrong side of the fence?

My advice is that you may not need a new survey every time. My advice is to ask a registered land surveyor and get good advice for the current set of facts. And use some common sense. Just remember it is an important issue.

Robert Frost in his classic poem "Mending Wall" wrote "Good fences make good neighbors." He could just as well have said "Good surveys make good neighbors."