What is a land survey?   In the simplest terms, it’s a graphic depiction of a property, much like a map, outlining its legal boundaries and other features. While land surveys typically aren’t required during real estate transactions, they’re extremely useful tools that can clear up a whole lot of confusion. Here’s what you need to know about land surveys and how they can come in handy.

 

    How are land surveys made?

Surveyors lay out the exact dimensions of a property by using your home’s deed, which should include a description or map of your property line. Unfortunately, these descriptions can be hazy and might use outdated landmarks such as trees that have long since disappeared. For that reason, a surveyor will physically measure the land as well.

 

    “GPS is one of the possible tools we use when completing a survey,” says Robert Sandlin, a land surveyor in Missouri and Kansas with Shafer, Kline & Warren. But the individual survey will dictate the appropriate tool. An altimeter, for instance, would be used to measure a property’s elevation.

 

    Once the property’s boundaries are determined, each state has a minimum standard for so-called monumentation that a surveyor is required to follow.

 

     “In many situations, the surveyor will set rebar with a plastic identifying cap on it into the ground,” says Sandlin. If property corners are on asphalt or concrete, magnetic nails or marks might be chipped into the pavement.