Surveyor question?

[Fuddy1952]

Curious if others have this experience when buying property. It has to be surveyed, plat drawn, submitted for approval then recorded.
The problem is with the surveyors.
To me common sense would be the buyer and seller meet on site with surveyor who should have a bundle of sticks, plastic posts, etc. Then walk it off with a preliminary marking which could be "tweaked" a few feet if necessary.
I've had to have them out about five times, each time discovering a major goof. You can't fence up and over bolders, etc. Land has to make sense to use it. One spot I discovered dips down one end over an embankment, impossible to fence.
Each time costs $, time, resubmitted. Now they use GPS equipment which is great, but stick markers to me to start would be so simple to at least visualize boundaries, satisfy buyer and seller, then do the accurate plat and set iron marker pins.

 

[bcp]

Is this a division of a larger property, that needs new boundaries, and could be divided more conveniently, or are you marking the pre-existing boundaries of a property?

Thanks for a clarification.

Bruce

 

[denchen]

Its good to see you guys over the pond have the same problems we`ve had for years. A guy selling a field after he has measured it, always has a bigger field than the guy who is buying it after he has measured it.

 

[newbury]

Curious if others have this experience when buying property. It has to be surveyed, plat drawn, submitted for approval then recorded.
The problem is with the surveyors.
To me common sense would be the buyer and seller meet on site with surveyor who should have a bundle of sticks, plastic posts, etc. Then walk it off with a preliminary marking which could be "tweaked" a few feet if necessary.
I've had to have them out about five times, each time discovering a major goof. You can't fence up and over bolders, etc. Land has to make sense to use it. One spot I discovered dips down one end over an embankment, impossible to fence.
Each time costs $, time, resubmitted. Now they use GPS equipment which is great, but stick markers to me to start would be so simple to at least visualize boundaries, satisfy buyer and seller, then do the accurate plat and set iron marker pins.

IF YOU are subdividing land YOU, or the seller and buyer should mark it first BEFORE the surveyors come. "Land" doesn't make sense, it is just there. Divvy the land up as you see fit and the surveyors will mark it but how the heck do you expect them to know YOUR personal preferences?

I prefer nice straight easy to plot boundaries based on lat/long, versus weaving around every "bolder" and embankment. Even watercourses don't make sense because they change.
I met my wife during a litigation on property lines where the Tombigbee had cut off many acres due to oxbow changes.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you are trying to get a parcel marked out from a larger acreage, then if the seller is ok with it, just walk and temp. mark where you would like the boundary then get the surveyor to map it to coordinates and file it.
If you are surveying a boundary line, then the line is what it is. If it goes across a boulder or down a steep grade, you cant do anything about that.
My SW corner property line is in the center of a creek that curves slightly. I couldn't possibly fence to the center of the creek and then run the fence in the creek so I just stay on the creek bank till I get past the curve then 90 degree turn to cross the creek and get back on the property line. I loose a couple hundred square feet of property but the land line is what it is. The brass pin set in concrete in the bottom of the creek bed is still the property line though.
When we had it surveyed, we gained over 100 feet on the SW corner but the line angled back to 0 at the NW corner of a 40 acre tract.

The surveyor said we may have trouble resetting the line if the adjacent property owner objected since the fence line had been set for several decades. However the owner said no problem, put your new fence on the real line. We lucked out on that a bit.

 

[Diggin It]

IF YOU are subdividing land YOU, or the seller and buyer should mark it first BEFORE the surveyors come. "Land" doesn't make sense, it is just there. Divvy the land up as you see fit and the surveyors will mark it but how the heck do you expect them to know YOUR personal preferences?

I prefer nice straight easy to plot boundaries based on lat/long, versus weaving around every "bolder" and embankment. Even watercourses don't make sense because they change.

If you are surveying a boundary line, then the line is what it is. If it goes across a boulder or down a steep grade, you cant do anything about that.
My SW corner property line is in the center of a creek that curves slightly. I couldn't possibly fence to the center of the creek and then run the fence in the creek so I just stay on the creek bank till I get past the curve then 90 degree turn to cross the creek and get back on the property line. I loose a couple hundred square feet of property but the land line is what it is.

OK. I thought it was just me misreading something.

Property lines are just that ... lines drawn on a map. Rocks, sinkholes, trees and so on aren't factors.

 

[aczlan]

Curious if others have this experience when buying property. It has to be surveyed, plat drawn, submitted for approval then recorded.
The problem is with the surveyors.
To me common sense would be the buyer and seller meet on site with surveyor who should have a bundle of sticks, plastic posts, etc. Then walk it off with a preliminary marking which could be "tweaked" a few feet if necessary.
I've had to have them out about five times, each time discovering a major goof. You can't fence up and over bolders, etc. Land has to make sense to use it. One spot I discovered dips down one end over an embankment, impossible to fence.
Each time costs $, time, resubmitted. Now they use GPS equipment which is great, but stick markers to me to start would be so simple to at least visualize boundaries, satisfy buyer and seller, then do the accurate plat and set iron marker pins.

When you have the surveyor come out, ask them to place stakes (or flags) every 50-100' on the line. That will let you see where the line is easily.

Aaron Z

 

[Fuddy1952]

It's land adjacent to what I've had for years.
It seems surveyors deal in two dimensions without consideration for how the new owner/purchaser can use it.
When meeting with surveyor, owner, and me we were in agreement. Then once marked and pins set it's different. Ten feet can make a world of difference especially over a long distance.
It just seems common sense surveyor should temporarily mark property before setting pins...they go about it backwards, at least with my experience.

 

[fried1765]

It's land adjacent to what I've had for years.
It seems surveyors deal in two dimensions without consideration for how the new owner/purchaser can use it.
When meeting with surveyor, owner, and me we were in agreement. Then once marked and pins set it's different. Ten feet can make a world of difference especially over a long distance.
It just seems common sense surveyor should temporarily mark property before setting pins...they go about it backwards, at least with my experience.

Surveyors do not attempt to accommodate either buyers or sellers.
They gather data that is on the ground, compare it with previously recorded data, and make a determination where the property line is/should be.
Then they set permanent markers..... if so requested.
There should be no such thing as "temporary" surveyor markers.
Perhaps you are interpreting surveyor traverse points as "temporary" markers. They are not!

 

[oosik]

Fuddy1952 - seems that there was a mistake in communication. What Fried1765 has said is the way its always been when I dealt with land.