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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.

Scott Critzer

Scott Critzer began working in the construction and real estate business more than 30 years ago, after graduating from Virginia Tech’s top ranked Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He worked first as an engineer for a commercial developer and later as a development project manager. Continuing his education, Scott graduated from Georgia State University College of Law in 1993 and opened his law practice in Atlanta where he worked litigating real estate cases and performed real estate closings. He has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1995 and moved permanently to the Emerald Coast to become Corporate Counsel, and later General Counsel of a title insurance agency in Destin. In 2008, Scott Critzer renewed his private practice concentrating in the areas of real estate and banking law. Since then Scott has provided legal advice to a wide range of corporate and individual clients throughout the Southeastern U.S. in real estate law (including closings), banking law, creditor’s rights, business law, probate-trust law and other civil matters. Scott provides a personal approach to the practice of law, taking time to get to know his clients. He takes pride in being able to explain difficult concepts in easy-to-understand terms in order to empower a client to be fully included in the legal process.

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