Maine man saws neighbor's garage in half...

[TimberHole]

I wonder if land being sold like 5 acres or more, should first be surveyed to finalize transaction.....

Around here ground being sold is not surveyed most of the time. I originally hesitated buying a 15 acre piece because it layer against a river and assumed it would require some nightmare survey. Attorney said nope, no survey required, we just use the river in the legal description. Apparently very common.

 

[tallyho8]

I bought my present home from a private seller who advertised it as being 5 acres. After I bought it and bought another lot next door and re-subdivided them to make one large lot, I had to get a survey on the first property I bought and it was 8 acres. Had the seller known that I'm sure he would have asked for more.

 

[Oldpath05]

I bought my present home from a private seller who advertised it as being 5 acres. After I bought it and bought another lot next door and re-subdivided them to make one large lot, I had to get a survey on the first property I bought and it was 8 acres. Had the seller known that I'm sure he would have asked for more.

Yup that's better then 3 acres, you was probably brought up on Lucky Charms............ Here only licence surveying will stand up in court.

 

[two_bit_score]

I wonder if land being sold like 5 acres or more, should first be surveyed to finalize transaction.....

I always get a survey on every parcel.

 

[Darryle]

Several years ago I had 10 acres that I purchased in foreclosure. Had it surveyed and put up pipe fences about 6" inside the property lines on the North and South sides, roads on the East and West Sides. Fast forward, the old man that owned the remainder of the farm passes, family sells out to a developer. They built a small addition with homes in the $300k - $500k, new home owners complained about everything, rural county with no formal city jurisdiction. I had to build a wood fence to hide my dumpster and had to keep my vehicles in the shop or hidden from view.

First pay back came about a year later, I came home from work one morning and there was a nice new cedar fence on the North side of the property, butted up to and horizontal tubing welded to my fence. I drove into town to the Ace Hardware and had them mix me up some oil based Mauve paint. I went back home and got out the electric spray gun and went to work. I got about 2/3s painted when I was confronted about painting "their" fence, I told them to pound sand, call the law, it's on my property, it's "my" fence. Sheriff shows up and tells them that based on the survey and tax district records, I was right. I told the sheriff that they had to submit in writing for permission to access my property to retrieve said fence and I finished painting it. They eventually removed the fence and the welded tubing.

Before you think I am an *****, I had to endure them trying to get a zoning change to forbid metal shops on property within the addition, I was surrounded on both sides by the addition, but not actually a part of it. They built up the road, concreted it, had local utility district put in water lines, wanted all power lines buried underground, they were on Oncor/TXU and I was on a co-op and my power came from the rear of my property, tried to force me to put up an ornamental gate versus the cattle guard I had and tried to force me to get rid of my chickens and cows.

Final payback came during the height of the natural gas boon. The oil and gas company that leased the mineral rights from the area beneath mine and their properties, approached me about leasing the surface rights to drill a series of 7 wells from one pad site. I said, I'll make you a better deal if you purchase the property and let me retain the mineral rights. We struck a deal, I sold them the property and bought my Uncle's half of my grandparents farm.

 

[two_bit_score]

^^^^^^Proof that revenge is best eaten cold! Glad it worked out!

 

[Jstpssng]

I wonder if land being sold like 5 acres or more, should first be surveyed to finalize transaction.....

It would make more sense to have smaller tracts surveyed, as they are more apt to have houses, septics,et.al. built too close to the line. There are exceptions but generally the less land somebody has the more possessive they are about it... often thinking they own more than they do. I always wonder when I drive past somebody's trailer lot with junk strewn everywhere, and no trespassing signs tacked onto the power company's pole. They don't see the irony of putting their no trespassing sign on somebody else's property...

I just bought a 21/2 acre house lot because the price was right and I hope to cut some wood off it, clear it, make some improvements and sell it for enough to buy a camp lot on the water. I wouldn't have bought it except that it included a survey, as well as 4 capped iron pins.
Of course the bottom dropped out of the hardwood pulp market before the ink was dry on the deed.

 

[Oldpath05]

It would make more sense to have smaller tracts surveyed, as they are more apt to have houses, septics,et.al. built too close to the line. There are exceptions but generally the less land somebody has the more possessive they are about it... often thinking they own more than they do. I always wonder when I drive past somebody's trailer lot with junk strewn everywhere, and no trespassing signs tacked onto the power company's pole. They don't see the irony of putting their no trespassing sign on somebody else's property...

I just bought a 21/2 acre house lot because the price was right and I hope to cut some wood off it, clear it, make some improvements and sell it for enough to buy a camp lot on the water. I wouldn't have bought it except that it included a survey, as well as 4 capped iron pins.
Of course the bottom dropped out of the hardwood pulp market before the ink was dry on the deed.

Why you using a Swamp Logger NC term, this is ME........... It makes lot more since to me to have more then 5 acres surveyed when sold, the average person with 1-300' tape reel can mark off a 1-5 acre lot and do it fairly accurately. BUT BUT BUT these 10, 20, 40, 100 acre lots are impossible to find boundary lines without a $$$5-10,000.00 surveying job done.

The land next to me was sold 3 times in 20 years and and I'm not exactly sure where the boundary is and the new neighbor is not all that friendly and it looks like this one is here to stay. It should've would've been great if when it was sold three times that the realtor would've had it surveyed, so do I cut where I think line is or pay 10k for a boundary line or buy a heat pump, now pushing 64 my best wood cutting days are behind me so 10k is out of the question.

 

[Jstpssng]

Doing it yourself isn't always a good idea if working close to the property line. I've seen too many times when what people have thought was the line for decades turns out to be wrong. I've been spotting and painting property lines for 40 years and like to think that I know what I'm doing; yet have seen times when the abutter had it surveyed and showed that the line is actually 50 or more feet off... always in their favor. I redid one of our lines which was like that, even with my little Garmin GPS it was obvious that the original line was way off. I redid it on Christmas Eve 2014 and in one place moved the line about 125 feet. I can draw a line corner to corner on a GIS map and see that where I put it was right... assuming that the abutter's original deed called for a straight line corner to corner.
Even though we stopped harvesting on the line which had been blazed and painted several times in the last 60+ years, the 1/2 acre or so that we cut would have been considered a timber trespass.

The worst part is that surveyors never tell us when they are working for an abutter; they just set their pins and disappear.

 

[IXLR8]

When I was shopping for a house, I found one I liked on 2 acres with a swimming pool. Price was a little lower than I expected and that set some red flags in my mind. I did some digging, literally and found the corner markers. Turns out the pool was 2.5ft into the neighbors yard. That was a headache I didn't want and passed on that house.