Cost to Survey 80 Acres

[Furu]

Price does not sound bad as I was quoted nearly 20K (a little under) for a 50+ acre parcel back in 2007. After that anything seems inexpensive to me.

 

[oosik]

Around here survey costs depend upon availability of existing established survey points - full corner, half corner, quarter corner. My property was last surveyed by US Geodetic Survey in 1890 for homestead plots. All corners were marked by either capped marker or blazed tree with inscription. I have a meet/bounds description for my property. Subsequently three of the four corners have been established by capped markers when folks were surveying adjoining properties.

The only reason for a current survey is if the transaction is going thru a financial institution and then they will, most likely, require this. Most all properties in my area are established by the old Geodetic survey because they are still very large(greater than 360 acres).

I would say the price quoted to the OP is quite reasonable. There must be established & marked points close to the property that the surveyor can bear off of.

 

[coralhead]

Laying in the stakes on line through the woods will be the most time consuming. This is the best time of year to do wooded surveys since the leaves are down. I have worked on survey teams/crew and the worst surveys are going through the woods in the middle of the summer (ie ticks, chiggers, ect...). The price seems very reasonable.

 

[EdwardB]

Around here survey costs depend upon availability of existing established survey points - full corner, half corner, quarter corner. My property was last surveyed by US Geodetic Survey in 1890 for homestead plots. All corners were marked by either capped marker or blazed tree with inscription. I have a meet/bounds description for my property. Subsequently three of the four corners have been established by capped markers when folks were surveying adjoining properties.

The only reason for a current survey is if the transaction is going thru a financial institution and then they will, most likely, require this. Most all properties in my area are established by the old Geodetic survey because they are still very large(greater than 360 acres).

I would say the price quoted to the OP is quite reasonable. There must be established & marked points close to the property that the surveyor can bear off of.

I think this part of our County has been re-monumented recently. That is probably part of why the cost is reasonable.

 

[EdwardB]

OP didn't really say why he was shopping for surveys. Chances are the legal description reads something like 'the NE 1/4 and the SE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of section 16 of' Perfectly legit unless the county engineer requires a new survey, which may be the case.

You are correct in your assumption about the legal description; I just want to know where the actual boundaries are.

 

[EdwardB]

Price does not sound bad as I was quoted nearly 20K (a little under) for a 50+ acre parcel back in 2007. After that anything seems inexpensive to me.

The corner stakes must be gold plated...

 

[flusher]

I just want to know where the boundaries are, especially on the west wooded side.

Use your iPhone's GPS app to get you in the ballpark.

 

[JD5210]

Went to a land auction a few months back. The county showed it to be 100 acres the auctioneers advertised it as a 100 acres. Did not look like a 100 acres to me. Because of tree line, creek and road, it was easy to determine the lot lines, using findlotsize.com. It was 84 acres, a local surveyor was there, he said it looked like only 92 acres. He based that on looking at the surveys done on two sides of the property. I asked him how much to do a survey he said $6,000. He justified his cost saying there was turns in the creek that would take time to survey.

 

[FTG-05]

$800 for just under 40 acres here in SC TN in late 2013. I had the same surveyor company who did the property back in 2005 and 2006 (two separate parcels). They did not have to reset and/or place new markers, just paint and add some flagging. I got a map and a detailed property description that was added to the deed or contract at the time of closing.

All of my corner posts are steel T-posts painted orange or red. I would not have them use wood of any type. Rebar is popular in some parts of the country.

Good luck.

 

[mark02tj]

I'm reading this thread with great interest as I'm getting ready to get one of my boundaries surveyed. I think the corner pins are already in place, but the South boundary of our property is full of honeysuckle and brush so I'm wanting to get it done while the leaves are down. I spoke to a local surveying/engineering firm and they figured it would be about $3-400 to do the boundary and $500ish to confirm all the corners. I'm going to have them mark the boundary through the brush every 50 feet or so (maybe even closer) so it will be easy to see.

My concern is that our neighbor seems to be encroaching on to what I think is our property line. Plus, I don't want to encroach on his property as we cut some trails through the woods. I've looked at the aerial photos with the lot lines marked on them on the County's website and the neighbor's driveway by their house seems to be really close to the line. They've since widened the drive at that point. I do understand that the County's site's renderings might not be totally accurate.

My question to y'all is this - what should I use marking the line after the surveyor puts in the wooden stakes? Rebar? (will it last?) Steel rod from the scrap yard? I want something that I can drive into the ground and even put it a few inches below the surface so if the wooden stakes get removed I still have something to find the line.

Sorry - hopefully this isn't too much of a derail of the thread!!