Surveying Costs

[vpracer]

I'm about to buy 150 acres in central Texas and was quoted $4,500 to do a survey. I have no real experience with rural surveys so I was wondering if that price is reasonable. There has been no survey and the field notes available are from 1940 and are basically useless. Also, there is some pretty thick brush around the current fence line so I imagine this is pretty tough duty to crawl thru it all.
Thanks for any insight.

 

[dmccarty]

Getting close to a decade ago I paid about $900 for two lines to be remarked. The lines are about 1800 feet long but they had to do more than that to get to corners as well as some complicated zigs and zags. The place is heavy woods and they had four men working. I think two of them were just clearing brush from the line and they used brush axes. Nothing motorized.

Later,
Dan

 

[dodge man]

Prices can vary so much, its hard to say. I've done surveys for less than $100 and I've done surveys that cost over $100,000. I'd just say from you brief description, the price doesn't sound out of line.

 

[Stick895]

I just had one done in Chesterfield, south of Richmond VA. It was 4 parcels, all contiguous, totalling 89 acres, forested, with quite a few trees down in places and it cost $4,900.

 

[hosspuller]

17 years ago, 30 acres in nc ..$3,500

 

[vpracer]

Thanks guys. Sounds like I'm not that far off the mark then.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

The price can vary widely. If they have to re-establish lost corners and construe conflicting metes and bounds descriptions, it can take a long time. And that's in Oklahoma where we have Governmental Sections of 640 acres, more or less, as opposed to Texas which has all metes and bounds descriptions to start with.

 

[kootch88]

I had my primary property lines marked a month ago here in Maine. 11 acres, heavily wooded. We had the two pins on the street located but could not find the back pins in the woods. The property juts out in straight lines like a fan. $150 bucks, four hours and one pin found, the other is missing. I was impressed with how quickly they were able to pull this off. This was not a survey, but just marking our lines and locating the boundary.

 

[Bob Ha]

I had 170 acres spilt into three (80,80 and 10 acre) parcels. The land had never been surveyed and the surveyor had to gain access to the ranches adjacent to us. Another words, it was a difficult survey according to the surveyor. It cost $4,000 and was money well spent. We gained 34' along a 1/4 section and 17' on another 1/4 section. Now the fences are off and most of the adjacent land is owned by the state. Most people including me would think I have a problem but the state said they intend on leasing the land and the fence replacement will be included in the lease. No cost to me. YEA! $4,500 is not outrageously high.

 

[dave1949]

In 2003 my half of the cost of surveying our 140 acres was ~$2500. That included setting pins and blazing the line. There can be a lot of research time at the courthouse if a survey hasn't been done in along time, it isn't just field work. In one area, the old rock wall wanders a bit, so the survey description notes a mutually agreed boundary in that area being established that follows the wall. So, there can be things to do other than what you may expect.

 

[cartod]

I just had 3 parcels put together in WV with a total of 5 acres. $900.

 

[mvwicker]

46 acres of hilly woods in rural MO, surveyed sometime before 2005 for $3000. The plot has 3 straight boundaries that cross deep gullies, and the 4th boundary follows an S-curve of road. The previous owner had it done and asked that two extra pins be placed, one at the road and another at the back line, connected by a surveyed internal line, so that the halves had equal road frontage and equal area, 23 acres, though the subdivisions were never recorded and the county plat shows just one 46 acre property. These complications may have raised the price of my survey, but still I think your current $4500 for 150 acres is in line.

 

[tractchores]

I just got a quote for 1800 for a 5 acre lot. I suspect its higher because its an area that has seen a lot of change in lots through subdivision and recombining lots.

 

[Rock knocker]

2010, one SFR parcel in Seattle with square footage of the lot (very very important in this case). $1100

 

[tkappeler]

I just spent $1400 to survey 3.5 acres, an additional $425 to do the topographical for septic purposes, $400 to stake out and the box and set the elevations and have another $175 to do soon for them to place the actual foundation walls compared to the planned placement.

 

[tallyho8]

8 acres in 2006, $12,000. This was a lot I bought next to mine and it was originally divided into French arpents and measured 72' X 4888'. This cost was only to set 4 pins in the corners.

And you thought your survey was high?

 

[Furu]

I see all these prices and wish I was so lucky. I was given two quotes back in 2007 for a survey of 50 acres. One was for $18,700 and the other was for $20,100. The third guy just gave me an hourly quote and would not bid the survey job with a fixed price.