To Survey or Not to Survey

To survey or not to survey, that is the question.  If you are purchasing a single-family home, patio home or townhome via fee simple ownership, you should purchase a survey, plain and simple.  The survey provides you with a wealth of knowledge, the most important likely is the actual boundaries of your home.  You don’t have to purchase 100 acres to need to know where the boundary to your property is located.  A survey can point out that your soon to be neighbor’s fence is built onto your property.  A survey can reveal existing utilities, recorded easements, or rights of way on a property.  A survey will also verify the legal description to the real property you are purchasing, particularly if the property is not in a platted subdivision.  A survey will locate improvements that have been made to real property.  Sometimes this aspect of a survey can point out that your seller did not comply with the building code setbacks when they built your home or swimming pool and that a variance from the municipal governing body is required.  These are just a few benefits of purchasing a survey.  With the average cost of a home in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the average cost of a survey being from $500-$800 on residential properties, it’s a good investment.