(TNS)—The amount of work required after making an offer on a home and actually moving in might be more than you think. For example, some homebuyers may need to get a property survey before they close on a new place.
Property surveys are done to determine or confirm land boundaries, such as the plot of land a home sits on, and identify other types of restrictions and conditions that apply to the legal description of a property.
Whether you’re buying a home or building an addition onto your property, you’re going to need a property survey. Let’s explore in more detail what it is and how to get one.
What Is a Property Survey?
A property survey is all about defining what’s yours and what isn’t. Curtis Sumner, executive director of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), says they’re done for many different reasons.
“Property surveys are performed for a number of reasons,” Sumner says.
He adds that surveys are used to establish boundaries when new parcels of land are being developed, as well as to identify and confirm already established land boundaries. For example, if you’re considering putting up a fence on your property, you’ll need to know where your property line ends—and where your neighbor’s begins. That’s what a property survey helps you determine.
If you’re looking to buy a home, you might be required to get a survey, depending on where you live. Many lenders and title companies require a copy of a survey to close on a home, but they’re not mandatory everywhere.
Where Do I Find My Property’s Survey?
If you’re buying a home, ask the seller to check with their lender and/or title company to see if there’s a property survey on file. The local tax assessor’s office may also have one.
If you’re already a homeowner and a survey was never provided to you, your local property records or engineering department may have one on file, but it’s probably older and could be outdated. While such dated surveys are typically accurate on standard city lots, they can be wrong if you live on a former country parcel that’s been altered for suburban development. You can also check with neighbors to see where they got theirs.
What Are the Different Types of Property Surveys?
Because there are many reasons to have a survey done, there are a few different types of surveys. For example, land surveys are done to show the boundaries of a parcel of land. There are also topographic surveys, which show the plane as well as the elevation of land. If road improvements are requested, for instance, a topographic survey would be needed.
Other types of surveys include:
- Monumentation surveys: These are done if you want to add a fence to your property.
- As-built surveys: Determine property lines but also where improvements can be made, like driveways and sidewalks
- Mortgage surveys: Like as-built surveys, these show property boundaries for an entire property that will be mortgaged.
- Floodplain surveys: Show flood hazard areas
If you’re requesting a property survey, be specific about why you need it. That way when you get an estimate for the work, it’s accurate in relation to what you need done.
Why Are Property Surveys Important?
While property surveys aren’t required everywhere, they are in many jurisdictions across the country. That’s because they detail how your property is defined in an official capacity. Rather than guessing where your property lines are, you have a document that makes it clear.
Emory Wooll, general manager of Title Partners of South Florida, says property surveys are required for lender title insurance policies.
“In order (for a title insurance policy to be issued), we need to know if there are any encroachments on the property prior to closing,” Wooll says. “They’re usually done before a home purchase, or, say, someone is putting a pool in or a fence.”
Wooll says cities or contractors will require a survey before permits can be pulled. So if you’re hoping to build a pool in your backyard, you’ll need a recent survey completed. While there’s a chance you could use an old survey to pull permits, it’s not always guaranteed. In that case, you may want to get a new survey completed.
How Much a Property Survey Costs
The cost of a property survey depends on what type of survey you need and the property’s size, location and history. A simple property boundary survey costs anywhere from $100 to $600, while a mortgage survey costs an average of $500, according to data from HomeAdvisor, which lists average costs for various types of property surveys. The more complex a property’s features and records history, the more you’ll likely pay for a surveyor’s time.
If you’re buying a home and need a survey to establish property lines, determine whether a property is in a floodplain or because your lender requires one, you will pay for the survey.
How Do I Hire a Property Surveyor?
Searching for property surveyors in your area is one of the best ways to find companies to get the job done.
“There is a surveying society in each of the 50 states, all of which are affiliated with NSPS,” Sumner says. “Each of those societies has a website, which will typically include a ‘Find A Surveyor’ section.”
Don’t be afraid to ask your title company or lender for recommendations. This can help you find a trustworthy and reliable surveyor near you.
You should also take the time to question your potential surveyor. Talk about your needs beforehand to make sure they can fulfill the requirements. Check that the surveyor is licensed to practice in the state where the property is located, Sumner advises.
Be mindful of how much time it takes to complete a survey. Wooll says property surveys can usually be completed within a week, but it could take up to three, depending on the company.
Sumner says there’s no way to determine exactly how long it’ll take to complete a survey since there are so many variables to consider, including the quality and availability of property records, such as deeds.
Bottom Line
You might not need a property survey done before buying a home. In some cases, your lender or title company might require one, so make sure you’re prepared for the additional legwork and cost. Whether you’re closing on a home or planning a major addition, knowing your property’s precise boundary lines can help avoid costly headaches and disputes with neighbors later on.
©2019 Bankrate.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
I am a Virginia Land Surveyor and I would like to thank you Curtis for this information. This was well written and very informative.
“A simple property boundary survey costs anywhere from $100 to $600, while a mortgage survey costs an average of $500,”. You should not be quoting costs. In New Jersey you could double those costs or higher. I have been in business fro 40 years the last time I charged $100 was 40 years ago.
I can’t imagine any survey being done in 2019 for $100 to $600.
600 dollar boundary surveys don’t exist in my area of practice. Even in my trips to nairobi and bahamas a boundary survey is 4 to 12 times that. Curt you shouldn’t quote prices from those sources.
READERS BEWARE: it is no surprise a reference is not provided for the ridiculous $100 – $600 quote.
Costs of surveys should NOT be generally quoted, as every survey is unique to needs and should be estimated accordingly, to be fair to both the surveyor and potential client. I wonder where ‘HomeAdvisor’ is getting there cost information from, certainly not surveyors!
The author of this article, Dori Zinn, makes reference to price estimates. HomeAdvisor is not a good source of information on this subject, and price ranges from 1970 should be omitted from current conversations. The author would be better advised to state that fees for surveys are dependent upon multiple factors such as complexity, time to complete, overhead, liability, type & class of the survey required, to name a few. I don’t know of a company anywhere that can research a property, complete the requisite field investigation and data collection, process the field data, and provide a Plat of Survey that complies to the Minimum Standards of Practice for the fees mentioned above, even for small lots, without taking a loss.
As others have said, the prices quoted in this article are completely inaccurate. The only thing I can think is that the data being presented is not for an actual Survey, but for some other service that corrupts their numbers. Or they wish this was the cost. In WA/OR/CA (where I am familiar), an actual Survey (requiring monuments to be set) by a licensed individual will run many times that.
Just the legal/deed/survey research alone (which is required before ANY field work can be started) will take anywhere from a couple hours to a day (this is for simple residential lots). Complex properties can take much longer than that. I’ve spent literally weeks digging through property deeds, field notes, and surveys to get a complete records picture of a commercial or pre-subdivided property, before ever starting the field work portion of a survey, so a few hours for a single residential lot is pretty good. If you are in a brand-new subdivision, it should be pretty fast, if you are in an old, poorly constructed subdivision, or outside in deeded property, it could take much longer.
Then the initial field work could take a couple of hours to several days, depending on how the property is described and by what monuments it is referenced. If in a subdivision, it might be easy to find the adjoining corners that control your property (assuming that any have survived the fence, driveway, and other building activities that people do along their boundaries that destroy tens of thousands of monuments each year). Otherwise, the surveyor may have to survey several miles to get the information they need for your one small lot.
Then, the PLS reduces the data (usually in his office in CAD or other software). He then runs his adjustments to verify the accuracy of the field data, then begins the process of determining the boundary, based on your and the neighbors’ deeds, previous surveys by other surveyors, monuments found in the initial field work, and lines of possession (fences, walls, mow lines, etc.).
Once that is complete, then the PLS typically sends his survey crew back out to the site to actually set the monuments on your property. This assumes of course that your property isn’t like one of the many that has some sort of “line of possession” issue, where a fence or a some other improvement doesn’t match the deeded boundaries. It also assumes that it isn’t like one of the many that has a deed discrepancy with the surrounding properties (sometimes they overlap or have gaps in between the deeds). This all requires time to figure out and to negotiate with the parties.
In WA/OR/CA (mandatory survey filing states), the citizens have decided that it is important to protect the Surveyor’s determination of a property boundary for public use, such that they have laws in place that require the surveyor to draw up a survey (with very specific requirements shown thereon) and to file that survey with the local authority for such things. This helps everyone when they want a survey done. It also can require several hours of the surveyor’s time to prepare (depending on complexity of the property history, and how long of a story there is to tell).
The main problem I see with these supposed “Average Prices for Surveys” that one sees all over the internet (like HomeAdvisor) is that none of them seem to have input from actual surveyors, who understand that a survey is a service, not a commodity, and that obtaining a surveyor’s opinion of where your unique property boundaries are is not something that can be priced without much research and deliberation. Meaning that all prices depend on your unique property, so there is no average that can be calculated for costing figures. It could be $2,000 or it could be $10,000 or more, and anywhere in between. It’s important to get quotes from licensed surveyors prior to making budgeting decisions for such things. Don’t rely on the internet.
I hope this helps someone not get sticker shock when they actually go to get a survey done and it is many times what this article says. It does no one (especially potential home buyers) any good to keep having these misconceptions in price quoted.
Need my yard survey having problems with neighbor
Thank you for explaining how to hire a property surveyor. I’ve been wondering how to hire someone to help with some land I purchased. I’ll have to keep this in mind while I do that.