Locating Survey Markers?

[CanadaBoy]

Rodm1, not all lawyer's will recommend a survey when purchasing (a good one will, yes). The reason is the title insurance is $170 and survey is $700 here. But what they do not tell you is your policy is basically everything that is NOT covered by title insurance and the biggest is fenceline disputes between neighbours.

Gypsy, will certainly back off another foot in case to 5 feet. One problem we have is our house resides on the original track of land (28 acres) surveyed in 1885 and is the original homestead footprint below our house. The land is now subdivided into 50X127 plots. However, the original property marker for the original 28 acre property is about 5 feet from the recently done survey (1989). I went out today to measure approximately where I looked before and I was literally off by 3 feet where I believe it will be.

 

[ez-duzit]

You don't need to guess at this.

And before spending $700 for a surveyor, it is worth at least giving a scientific approach a chance. A handheld GPS should get you very close, so you're looking in the right spot. Or a rented transit. If you can locate a couple monuments, you can triangulate the rest.

 

[justin1795]

at my old house one of the stakes was removed when a electric pole was replaced. also when they repaved the alley the people didn't bother to put stakes back in. I just paid 775.00 to have my 1,3 acre lot surveyed. I was able to do it at my old house myself but not this one.

 

[mikegt4]

Many years ago I had a home with an extra wide yard space between my house and the neighbor's house. They were built in the early 1950's at a time when people independently bought a plot and contracted a builder. The neighbor had a doghouse about 30' from our bedroom window and of course the dog barked constantly. The house had a lot of water drainage issues so I wanted to re-contoured the entire back yard to redirect the runoff to an existing storm water channel at the rear of the property. I had to do a plot map before starting and researching with the city's building department I found that the two houses were built on separate lots with a vacant lot between. The vacant lot was purchased and divided in half with each original homeowner taking one half and it was legally recorded on the deeds. I found the markers by measuring from known markers a few houses down the street. My neighbor had taken all of the open space as his and claimed that the person that he bought his house from told him so. The trip to the building dept. resulted in him losing about 40' of side yard width. He was not happy and his dog got a new home behind their house.
BTW the re-contouring corrected the runoff issues but I did find a natural spring in the crawlspace under the house, it ran about like a garden hose. I guess that is why the city was called Springdale, the water table was very high.

 

[b974k]

I believe power companies always put poles or lines on one property That way they don't have to get two easements

 

[Ross/Kzoo]

I believe power companies always put poles or lines on one property That way they don't have to get two easements

Yes, generally speaking.

 

[Cannonball]

If your in a subdivision you might look into getting a copy of your neighbours plot plans.
They will show you how far the foundations are located from the property lines and you can use these measurements to get a close idea of pin locations.
Like others have said don't count on pins being there. When we moved in one pin in the front corner was missing, most likely from when utilities went in. One back pin was dug up later when the house behind us was built.
Used the plot plan measurements when locating my shop pad. Added an extra 6" from the property line just in case the measurements were slightly off.
Hell, the builder managed to screw up the house location, resulting in the eaves being over the right away. That was his legal issue and costs before we took possession.