How much does a survey cost?

I get asked this question more times than “Why do Surveyors never Agree?” I won’t spend a huge amount of time on the issue but I will try to explain why there is no answer to this question, at least not initially. By comparison, this question is about the same as asking “how much does a house cost?”

First and foremost Land can be described in many ways. Section/Township/Range, Metes and Bounds or Lot and Block or any combination of the three.

Land descriptions that are referenced to Section/Township/Range in the Public Land System can be more expensive to survey because the underlying portion of the section must also be surveyed thus increasing the cost. If the description is an aliquot (proportional) part such as the SW/4 or the N/2, it can be even more expensive because the entire underlying Section must be surveyed.

Land described by metes and bounds can be less expensive to survey because only the portion of the parent parcel that is referenced needs to be surveyed. Depending on how the land is described, a surveyor might only have to locate two reference points to locate his/her starting point. With that being said, metes and bounds descriptions can be also quite elaborate and can also be very expensive to survey as well.

Land described by Lot / Block are typically residential or commercial tracts that have been previously subdivided into smaller parcels. The description of a lot in town might read “Lot 1 Block 2 Raymond Addition to the Town of Somewhere”. This means at some time in the past it was probably surveyed. Now that might have been 50 years ago but sometimes it was done more recently and the prior survey work MIGHT help keep the costs down. As with the other types of descriptions mentioned above, this doesn't always mean the Lot/Block survey will be cheaper. There can be many extenuating circumstances.

There is another type of Survey that is not actually a survey and costs much less, and for a reason. Be careful what you ask your surveyor for and what you are provided.

So, as you can see, the answer to “How much does a survey cost?” is IT DEPENDS. But these are some general guidelines to remember.

The main thing to remember when asking a Licensed Surveyor to prepare an estimate of cost is the more information you can give him about your property, the better equipped they will be to give you an accurate estimate. Some things that will help the surveyor prepare an estimate are:

·        Your existing deed

·        Prior survey (if any)

·        Parent tract description (if metes and bounds)

·        Adjacent deeds

My next blog will be “How much Does a House Cost?”  (not really)