Need a Survey

[MDNY]

Thanks. I will be calling this week to say, hey I know your busy so who can you refer me to. I just need the property line marked every 100 FT so I can post my own sides and have a degree of security. I paid for my survey and the other guy obviously didn't. Not to mention couldn't stop by to say he was posting and do I know th lines.

 

[MMM]

Might be worth investing in a metal detector. My survey has corners marked with "2 foot iron rod (rebar) driven to within 1/2" of surface". Cost for 30acres-$1,200.

 

[WVBill]

A couple of years ago, for some reason they re-surveyed the border between West Virginia and Virginia along the top of the Blue Ridge. They found a number of homes that had been incorrectly surveyed and for years had been "residents" of the wrong State.

'course the gaining stated wanted the back taxes.. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[JRobyn]

All very interesting.... In my neck of the woods, it seems that the going rate for a survey is $1000-$1200, no matter what the boundary/size. My property boundary originally included about 250 separate "calls" (direction/distance), many of which also included "ending at x" diameter red oak" or similar. The boundary generally follows the creek bottoms and goes through/over some essentially impassable thickets and nearly vertical slopes!

I took this original legal description of the property and entered all of the calls into some inexpensive survey software (Muncy's Plat Pronto, I think). The calls all came back and "closed" on the original start point with a very tiny closure error, which the software automatically adjusted. I then printed out the USGS aerial photos of my property, printed the plat boundary from the software to the same scale on clear copy sheets and overlayed them. Presto - an exact ID of my boundaries. Probably wouldn't hold up in court if there was some dispute, but good enough for most purposes. It was precise enough to satisfy me that the original calls/legal description described the property well enough that a new survery was not required when I bought the place.

We subsequently sold an interior chunk to my in-laws, about 20 acres, also following creek bottoms and trails, etc. It was all very quickly done by a crew with high-tech gadgets. The price? $1200.

 

[EddieWalker]

JRobyn,

I've been wanting somthing to figure acreage and draw up some Plat's, so when you mentioned Muncy's Plat Pronto I did a quick google search and found their webiste.

http://www.bwmuncy.com/

The price for the software is $100.

How hard is it to learn and would you recomend it?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[BRIGUY]

If my crystal ball is correct, as soon as your neighbor (who is posting your land) sees the surveyors flags, will become instantly compliant.
I wouldn't discuss boundrys fences etc with the owners of the lots behind me, until I had the survey completed. Survey is done but I still need to go pick up the map and pay the balance. Ever since, every time my wife or I go out back someone new approaches us, wanting to discuss it. One guy whom I up to this point didn't care to much for has become rather friendly. This week he got a burning barrel (used to just throw his bush on my property) The horrible looking fence he installed last year is a couple feet on my side, and was put up with out a permit. He has offered to let me take it down and to tie my new one into his. What a guy.

I know it's off track but I'll tell you why I don't like the guy too much. I bought the property in jan 2003, after a 4 month unpleasant closing. I work 1/2 days and 1/2 nights. I would come home in the morning after a snow and find foot prints around my house. I talked to my buddy next door because they went through his front yard too. Nope It wasn't his kids getting their dog as I had hoped. We both got concerned and began to watch out. What really got us was the fact that the person stopped in front of my french doors on the back of the house. The room that my wife watches TV in at night. Fast forward to the next spring I'm tearing down the pool and deck built over my septic tank and leechfield (annother story) And the guy in question shows up wanting free wood. I told him to come over and take some off the deck (24'x26') before I finish taking it down. Two weeks later deck is down, all salvagable lumber cleaned of screws and stacked to go up in my loft, and pile of new lumber stacked next to used lumber. My tenant calls me at work and tells me the guy is there helping himself and says I said to take anything he wants (including new stuff). I come home The guy is at work by now, so I go on his land and load up all the wood and take it back, and put in the loft. The guy comes over can't understand why I took the wood back. He proceeds to point out some repairs that I need to make on the house that he noticed while WALKING HIS DOG AROUND MY HOUSE THE NIGHT BEFORE!!!!!!! I told him that wasn't such a good idea due to my temper and jumpy trigger finger. Now He thinks I'm crazy GOOD!!!! and doesn't speak to me untill I got the survey.

A good survey as well as providing peice of mind can also sort things out between you and an annoying neighbor without further confrontation.

 

[SCB]

Boy,
You are a much more patient man than me. If someone was walking around my house or even my property when I wasn't home, spying on my wife, I would be hard pressed to even say a word to him until I had put a knot on his head. I have a dispute on my propety as well. Survey is complete and waiting for it to be filed with the county. Once filed I will be butting heads with a neighbor who had a garage built (without permit) over the edge of the property line. Glad that yours is working out Bryguy.

 

[BRIGUY]

I'm not as patient as you are giving me credit for. In fact my wife says that I must have gone to the Tony Soprano school of property management. I'm only patient when I don't want to get in trouble with my wife. Neighbors, tenants, authorities, etc don't scare me. My wife being P.O. does scare me.

 

[MDNY]

I hear you on that, mix in the red headed temper of my wife and no thanks its just not worth getting her mad. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[MDNY]

I guess the only thing I have going for me is I bought before they did and my survey was done, signed and set. Their land was as best as I can tell never surveyed. The Real Estate Agent for the land we both own uses the sams surveyor. I opted to pay for the survey work myselft to insure I got what I wanted done. I have a feeling they just took my corners and figured well here's a tree I will put my sign here. I want to know the 100' marks from the 500' back to the 1600' and I will supply the stakes and even help if they want. I just want my signs in. I plan to put seel posts in the ground next to the posted signs but a little to the left or right. This way if they go missing I can find them with a metal detector.

 

[Junkman]

dig a hole and have the surveyor put the pipes inside of the hole. The pour in a bag of cement or concrete and some water. That will make your markers difficult to remove without a lot of work. Set them even with the surface of the ground so no one walks into them and gets hurt. Pipes can be moved, but if they are set in concrete, it makes it a lot more difficult. At the half way mark, have them set a 30" marker post. More expensive in the beginning, but less expensive to have to do it twice. Today, I looked for the markers on my land, and all but 2 were "pulled" My map shows about 25 of them. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[JRobyn]

Hi Eddie,

There were a few things in "PlatPronto" that required a bit of experimentation to figure out, but other than that, it was cake! I probably wouldn't have needed to experiment if I read the on-line help, which seems very good. It's seems to be a fairly small family-type software business. Very responsive and helpful folks if you need to call them about anything. Highly recommended!

 

[snowman]

I had my property...about 7 acres...surveyed and staked three years ago after we moved in, as the acreage in the back was being mowed by someone and I wanted to post it. Cost was about $650.

Another reason that I had it done is because the buy I bought the property from had shown me where the lot ended in the back. Looking at the measurements on the surveys provided at closing, the lot line that he thought existed did not make sense; it seemed to me to be much further back. It ended up that I was right...gained about another 1.5 acres over what the seller thought he had.

 

[dmccarty]

Junkman is right on about the concrete. I wish I had thought of this a few years ago. A house was being built on a lot next to our land and the husband pulled down all of the survey flagging. As a result the house sits about a 30 degree angle on the lot. He said a few things that really indicated he did not know where the lot line was located. Since their septic systems ran right on the lot line and he had pulled down the septic engineers flagging as well I thought it might be best to get the line surveyed. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I happened to run across the bill this weekend. I had the line in question as well as another one surveyed about 1600 feet of work that cost a little under $1,000. It took them eight hours for a four man crew. I had them put in a pin half way down the line as well.

Some of the best dollars I ever spent since I know that septic system would have gone on my land.....

Move forward in time and lots of other issues and the house is sold before it is finished. The new ownser walked the line and found the pin. Thought it was a mistake and pulled it out. There also was a new survey for the lot in question and I know the surveyor had trouble setting the pin in the ground. He was the low bidder on the survey. The pin has to be off by a couple of feet since you could see where he would try to set the pin, hit a rock, move to a new spot, repeat..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Next time this common line is survey. Concrete is going in the ground in a couple of places......

Later,
Dan

 

[Junkman]

If you can get the original surveyor to come back and reset the pins, it won't cost as much the second time, because all the research work is done. It is best to have it done now, because later on once a new neighbor becomes "fixed" in his mindset as to where the boundaries are, it is difficult for them to accept the "new" correct boundaries. One thing that I have learned is that if the survey is filed in the same office as the deed, the abutters have a fixed time to "object" before the filed survey plan becomes "set in stone". When I walked my boundary lines this past weekend, I found one marker pipe that was set 15 years ago in the center of the road and now it is on the edge of the road. Seems that the dirt bikes have changed the traveled portion by the way the riders point the wheels. Since my deed refers to the "center of the road as traveled", this could effect me if I hadn't filed the plan....

 

[dmccarty]

Junkman,

As soon as the new owners moved into the house, I introduced myself, started talking, and we walked the common line. That is when I found out the middle pin was missing and he admitted pulling it. He was clueless what the pin meant.

I'm slowing clearing a path around the perimeter of the property so I can easily post it, control the borders and use the land. Not in a big hurry until we live out there because this path will make it easier for tresspassers as well so I want to be out there to catch them. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm hoping the surverors will be cheaper but the big labor was in clearing out the the line. The area is heavily wooded and THICK. I cleared out 600 feet of property line last week and it took two hours with the brush cutter. I KNOW where the pins are and the stuff is/was so thick that I had to get withing 5 feet of the pin/posts to see the markers. THICK. Its not this thick on the common line but they will have to clear the boundry. There old cost was about $100 a hour or $25/man.

When I was reading Deeds in the Deeds Office I saw lots of property descriptions with the big rock next to the road or the big elm tree next to the creek. Scary stuff. Especially when the road no longer exists! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[MDNY]

Thanks all. I have to call the other surveyor a good friend reffered me to. He does survey work for the Real Estate company she works for. Maybe he can get in and get it done for me. MY original surveyor obviously has no interest and no respect since he didn't call me back. I was also thinking about calling the real estate agent who did the sales for the property and get another name too and inquire about the larger parcel and if a survey was done. I will also get to the back property this weekend too.

 

[BRIGUY]

Here is a new twist. My survey was completed over two months ago, but I haven't received the bill. So I called. I guess his office is backlogged with drafting work right now. The survey company refuses to bill me until all the map work is complete and I approve it. I really only needed the corners staked to continue work (and I have). just goes to show that even when some people are overwhelmed with work they still are able to make customers happy.