Land Surveyors ... Question ... Price

[fried1765]

I’m a real estate lawyer. I deal with surveyors everyday. If they charge you more than $900 you are taking it right up the old doodaa.

I note that you do not tell us in which area of the country you live.
Fees for surveyors, as well as real estate lawyers, can be quite local.
I would expect that $900 might pay for a "walk thru" survey, and some time at the courthouse for research.

 

[fried1765]

That’s a rather ambiguous statement, considering that the time involved is directly related to the complexity of the job.
$900 is only 4 1/2 hours for a two man crew, and they can’t do a lot in that amount of time. They also have costs including professional liability, travel time, deed research, ...

I'll walk the property, look for existing markers, flag them, stop by the courthouse, and send a bill.
That will be $900 please!

 

[Jstpssng]

I'll walk the property, look for existing markers, flag them, stop by the courthouse, and send a bill.
That will be $900 please!

You can do most of the research from the convenience of your easy chair, one of the nice things about Al Gore's invention. :thumbsup:
I just looked at a 2 acre lot with no corner markers, although I did find two splashes of paint as well as an abutter's pin on the back line. If I could find somebody to survey it for $900 I would seriously question the quality of his work.

 

[BearChamion]

I note that you do not tell us in which area of the country you live.
Fees for surveyors, as well as real estate lawyers, can be quite local.
I would expect that $900 might pay for a "walk thru" survey, and some time at the courthouse for research.

I'm in the poor South. It's not big money country like Maine and Florida.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Some parts of the country you do not need a physical survey done for a simple transaction and it is to be added to an existing adjacent property,especially non residential.. It can be documented from the two existing property records. Both property records have to ten be updated in the official land records. Office time and drafting time is often cheaper than field time. Surveys are definitely valuable if there is a question on where the existing lines really are. Only way to settle disputes. I know of a case where two adjacent land owners had a dispute over boundary lines. Each hired their own surveyor. The two surveys did not agree. It took a judge to decide. The judge brought in the county surveyor who had a different solution. The Judge won the case. There are a lot of land records out there that do not have closing metes and bounds.

Ron

 

[BearChamion]

Some parts of the country you do not need a physical survey done for a simple transaction and it is to be added to an existing adjacent property,especially non residential.. It can be documented from the two existing property records. Both property records have to ten be updated in the official land records. Office time and drafting time is often cheaper than field time. Surveys are definitely valuable if there is a question on where the existing lines really are. Only way to settle disputes. I know of a case where two adjacent land owners had a dispute over boundary lines. Each hired their own surveyor. The two surveys did not agree. I took a judge to decide. The judge brought in the county surveyor who had a different solution. The Judge won the case. There are a lot of land records out there that do not have closing metes and bounds.

Ron

Q: Do you know what they call the guy that graduates law school and is last in his class?

A: Your Honor.

 

[fried1765]

DOCTOR.......for doctor graduating last in class from medical school.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

DOCTOR.......for doctor graduating last in class from medical school.

Land Surveyors that pass the test with bare minimal score; "government surveyor".

Ron

 

[BearChamion]

Land Surveyors that pass the test with bare minimal score; "government surveyor".

Ron

I think I have dealt with every one of those guys.

They should have been architects.

 

[JamesHW]

When we got a quote to survey our 80 acres 5 years ago it was $7,000 from one company in prep for subdividing the property (we never followed through). The frontage on the road is half broken up by 6 irregular lots sold over the years and two overgrown “pipe stems” between them that belong to us. Almost all of the boundary is overgrown with a lot of boundary trees that have gotten very large since we purchased the land 110 years ago. To walk the back SE corner the surveyor would need to traverse a 50 foot deep ravine, cross a 100 ft boggy area with a year round stream (you sink in past your knee if not careful in some areas), up another 50 foot high hill to a relatively flat acre where there is a corner post, then head north back across the wet area and back up the hill. There’s another less difficult ravine and at the northern boundary. We asked for markers every 100 foot on the boundary.

Edited to add: I measured the overall perimeter in Google Earth and it comes to about 1.8 miles.