My mom is buying a smaller home. She’s relocating and moving a hundred miles to be near family that can help her. A reality of aging when everybody moves away from their hometown.
We were shocked when the Realtor seemed surprised that we wanted a survey. Of course we want a survey! Hell yeah! The survey was done yesterday. The house was built in 2013.
Isn’t a survey a standard requirement everywhere? It costs under $500.
They check for boundary conflicts. Mark fence lines. Measure any buildings or out buildings and place them on the map. My survey even showed a concrete slab someone had poured for a dog run.
Not sure if it’s required everywhere. But I believe what you are talking about is an ‘Improvement Location Certificate’ (ILC). It’s not a true survey, as transits and such are not generally used.
This is just to make sure anything on your property is not encroaching on another property. And visa/versa.
In my neighborhood, the surveyor locates the permanent markers in the ground. It’s common to see the grass disturbed where they uncovered the metal pins. They’ll put in some temporary plastic stakes. The new homeowner will eventually remove them.
Then they can determine if the fence is in the correct location.
I’d never build close to my property line without getting a survey first.
It’s going to vary by state, but it’s not required in CA. If you have any known nonconforming aspects of your property, you would be required to disclose them prior to the sale. For example, some folks who live near me own a home where the detached garage was built partially on the neighbor’s property. It’s grandfathered in, but if they decide to rebuild it, they would have to make it conform to the setbacks in existence now.
Indiana agent - no survey required here. Not by the title company, lenders or state law.
I sometimes advise my clients to get one, if there are boundary questions or involving a big parcel of property. But generally, no survey is requested.
A “boundary location survey” around here is about $400.00.
No survey requirement here in RI. If there’s a recent existing survey it will probably do if required. If the survey is older, if the markers are no longer visible, it’s a good idea to get one done. It’s possible the title insurer will require one also if the boundaries are in question.
It may be different in NJ, but what you get from the tax assessor’s office in CA is an assessor’s map, which is not a survey. It’s generally pretty good at demarcating the property lines, but it is absolutely no good at locating the house (or other buildings) on the property. For that, you need to call in a surveyor, which generally happens if you are adding on to your house and you need to show on the plans that you are conforming to the setbacks and other municipal codes related to zoning.
Here in North Olmsted, Ohio it has apparently been dropped. When I bought my house in 1984 the survey was included. It showed my gravel driveway was partially on the adjacent lot, as well as part of an old shed. This was brought to my attention at the closing, no warning at all. I just had to sign a document stating I was aware of the encroachments.
It had gone unnoticed for some time, as the entire cleared area of the yard was done incorrectly. Everyone up to that point thought the boundary was 10 feet over.
When I moved in the adjacent lots were just woods. When one lot sold a few years later and a house was built, that owner was made aware of the encroachment, as was the next owner several years later. I eventually tore down the shed.
But when a good friend bought her house in the same city in 2012, she received no survey. Since she wanted a fence around the entire back yard she ordered one from a local surveyor. Cost was about what you expect, $400 or so. The company stated it largely depended on what points they had already marked in that area. The further they had to survey from a known monument, the higher the cost. They did a great job and staked out the entire lot, which had no direct line of sight due to trees and shrubs.
By receiving an exception to the title insurance policy for defects that would have been disclosed by a survey. So, yeah, a survey is a really good idea.
[For those not following along…when you purchase a property, you have the option of buying title insurance - which your lender will require, if you obtain a mortgage - which ensures that you are obtaining the property free and clear of any liens or other defects in ownership. If somebody later tried to assert some right to the property, the insurance would protect you from their claim.
But, if you get the insurance without also buying a survey, the insurance won’t cover things that would have been seen on the survey which might impact your ownership of the property - such as a neighbor’s fence which actually encroaches on your property line.
This is why a lender will require the survey, and why it’s a good idea to always get. It’s better to know before your purchase that you have an issue with your property, such as the fact that your driveway is actually on your neighbor’s land. This might be a point of negotiation, or it might kill the deal. Ultimately, you don’t want any ‘surprises’ later on down the line, when the former owner of the home is long gone and you are left dealing with unexpected expenses or lawsuits].
I think you’ll want a recent survey anyway if there are easements. I don’t know about your neck of the woods but around here surveys weren’t very good just 30 years ago. My property was divided in the 80s and the resulting survey turned out to be off when I purchased it in 97. My neighbor paid for the survey himself since he was already suspicious, turned out I got a bigger chunk of land as a result.
Realtor[sup]TM[/sup] here. It’s not required in my state. However, if the property is rural, most agents highly recommend it, and I can show you a dozen properties I have sold that had boundary problems uncovered by a survey.
In the city areas, not so much. Houses are closer together, and if there was a boundary problem, it probably would have surfaced in a adjacent property by now. If the title company will insure the lot, most buyers want to save the $500. In rural areas, title companies won’t insure it without one, so a survey is a must.
