A survey is an official document that shows the exact boundaries of a property , also known as the parcel or plot of land.
It is recommended that you should always get a survey, just to make sure you know the exact boundaries of your land. It really depends on what kind of property you are buying and how close the neighbors are to your property. Here are some reasons why you may want to get a survey :
* You want to take down a fence, or, install a new one
* You want to build something and you think it will be close to your property boundary
* You want to split your property up and create more than one parcel or property
* You have a road or driveway that is close to your neighbor’s or your border
* You want to clear away trees or brush.. . so you need to make sure you are not cutting down your neighbor’s forestry
The cost of a survey will depend on how large your property is, and, how easy or hard it is to access the borders (trees and brush make it harder for the surveyor to walk through it )
A surveyor will mark your corners with a metal stake, and usually “cap” it with an orange cap or engraved writing on the top of that stake. They will also often use orange or pink flagging tape to show the approximate border or edge.
Sometimes you can find old survey markers, by going to the corners of your property and raking away leaves and mowing the grass low… the metal stakes are built to last , so if the property was ever surveyed, then it will already have those stakes or markers in the corners.
When ordering a survey, the surveyor will need the legal description of your property, which can be found on the property deed.
Often times a survey is not given to the buyer when the property is located within a neighborhood. These are pretty easy to identify where the property boundaries are.
To get an idea of where your property boundaries are, (without paying for an actual survey), you can visit your county assessor’s website and it will show about where the boundaries are located. ***Important: This is not exact, it is only an idea. For Arkansas, that site is : www.arcountydata.com.
There are also free or cheap mobile apps that show boundaries that you can download on a mobile device. Some common ones are:
LandGlide
onXHunt
(and other apps )
Sometimes they will give you a free trial, so you can sign on just to use it on your property ,and then cancel.
Well, I hope this helps and gives you some information about surveys.
Enjoy your property! Make a garden or play sports, build a campfire, plant some trees and flowers…. just enjoy your property!