What Every Real Estate Professional Should Know About Land Surveys

A surveyor friend at Site Surveying & Mapping relayed a story about a last minute dilemma they faced that almost killed a closing for a Realtor on a million dollar deal. How did it happen? How could it have been avoided?

Do you ever wonder what type of survey you might need on your site? What are the differences in an ALTA/ACSM and the standards within WAC 332-130? Can I just use the existing survey provided by the Seller?

Having these questions asked over and over lead to the creation of a booklet which will hopefully serve as a good reference for people in understanding Land Surveys as they pertain to the Real Estate Professional.


Link to the full article:
http://www.slideshare.net/JeffMcCann/cfakepathrealtor-and-the-land-surveyor?from=share_email

http://www.outdoor-perspectives.com/

Rural zoned condominium lot

A family owned some property in the rural area of King County. The property included the main home as well as a secondary home that was built many years ago. They wished to have the ability to sell one of the homes and keep the other.

The normal way would be to subdivide the property via a short plat. Short platting the property probably would have cost them about $110,000 for applications, engineering, site construction, bonding etc. and taken about 3 years to complete. Unfortunately, they didn’t even have enough area (a large enough lot) to subdivide, so that wasn’t an option.

In talking with their engineer, they learned of a creative solution for their problem. Cramer Northwest Inc. advised them to do a Condo Survey. The Condo survey accomplished their objective utilizing a different code. In the end, they got their two lots (just like in a short plat) but at a fraction of the time and expense of one.

Method..............~Cost............Time

Short Plat.................$110,000...........3 years
Condo Survey..........$9,500...............7 months

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Savings................91%..............80%

Disclaimer: The codes in your jurisdiction may not be the same. The key to this example is that the clients had two existing homes on the same lot. Please consult a professional such as Cramer Northwest http://www.cramernw.com/ to discuss your particular case.