Find Your Survey Pins: GPS, Compass, Metal Detector... Which worked for us?!
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- Need to find survey pins? We became mini-DIY experts in trying to find ours through a lot of trial and error, miles, and frustration. I had no idea there were several methods to go about finding property pins,so I give an overview to get you rolling. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
You'll need:
○ Boundary survey
○ tape measure that can span the length of your property lines
○ metal detector
○ compass (check your phone before buying one)
Just a heads up that survey business is legit with licensing and all that. Keep this in mind if you're doing something that could land you in a land dispute with a neighbor (like a fence), . I'm just DIY looking for pins that we had some documentation of from a mere 3 years prior.
⌛⏱️ ⌛⏱️⌛⏱️ ⌛⏱️
0:00 Let the fun begin
0:23 Why I had to discover all that can be used as a DIYer
1:02 Do everything you can up front & at home & THEN start looking
1:30 What you're looking for
2:10 Look at the corners to start
2:24 Break out the survey
2:33 Break out a compass
3:15 Break out GPS coordinates
3:32 Walk through of Texas county appraisal districts to find coordinates
4:49 Break out a metal detector
🏪 Here are items that could help if you're in the market.
** Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The links below are affiliate links that I may earn from qualifying purchases. **
○ Measuring Wheel: amzn.to/2MR7Iz3
○ Closed Reel Measuring Tape: amzn.to/3kQKWnC
○ Compass: amzn.to/3bkvUmX
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Lemme know why you are looking for your survey pins! Would also love any of your crazy stories along the way!
I'm looking to move them and create more land for myself.
We bought land in Washington County earlier this year. We found the survey pins in February right after we bought it. Now that it's August, can't find them with all the grass and the cows knocking over the wood survey stakes! We are going to drive out there from Houston this coming weekend and try this out.
@@georgebarnes9544 Oh, I will keep my fingers crossed for you! We just ran into the same problem with crazy over-grown grass at least. We put 6x6 posts in February thankfully for the corners at least. :)
@@georgebarnes9544 We used metal detectors to find steel pins. We were working on a project where a church was turned in a house. I found a front corner pin buried 14 inches under the lawn.
One of our locals, well known for being less than honest, had an Amish neighbor. Oddly, in this county, if the person selling the property had it surveyed when they purchased it, a new survey was not needed when they sold it.
Well, Amish fella decided to move, and his buyer insisted on a new survey...good thing, too. New survey showed that the less than honest fella had moved pins along that border. Effectively "stole" 5 acres from the Amish fella. When word got out, neighbor on other side got a survey, yep, pins had been moved.
When less than honest fella moved to a lot that was a chunk of the original acreage of the property my brother had purchased, my brother showed the creep( yeah) exactly where the pins were. And to help keep them visible, he installed pvc pipes over them, with 4 feet above ground.
Was Surveying Boundary in Louisiana for a pipeline and it was absolutely horrible. Half of them there was nothing.. no flagging, no stakes, no fence, no remnants of a fence. Out there with our trimble GPS, but they are regularly 60-200' away from where they show they should be at according to the County so we are just trying to cover an entire area trying to find it with our magnetic locator.
Nothing makes you happier than chopping your way through a half mile of dense woodlands full of briar and literally EVERYTHING has thorns on it. The trees have thorns, the vines have thorns, the freaking spiders have thorns. Crossing snake infested creeks in 110 degree weather and 90% humidity only to find 0 evidence that it had ever been surveyed. Then walk back out and go to the next one.
I will have nightmares of Louisiana till the day I die. I've never been more thankful to be back in Texas.
As a young man in the 70's I worked a couple years on 2 different C.L.S crews. The surveyor had me use a magnetometer to locate corner pipes (basically a form of metal detector). I often had to dig to expose the top of the pipe as the Surveyor had to be certain I was holding my plumb bob dead center over the top center of the pipe. A wooded area can accumulate new soil and detritus at an inch a year or more. Therefore, just using your eyes may fail since the pipe is buried. As long as you can roughly eyeball where the pipes ought to be it is usually much quicker to just use a metal detector. But here's a funny story you might like: We did a House Location survey once for a rural home that had been held by the Owner's family for almost 100 years. The formal plat stored in County records was pre-WWI and said the location of one front lot corner was, "the wagon wheel leaning up against the old oak by the road." So, the surveyor had to sink a new pipe at the correct location after doing his trig based on the other 3 corners which had lead pipe markers. There was no wagon wheel and no oak to be seen. Hahaha!
Long post warning lol
Few things, best case you find them, worse case you find something else, and it's wrong and you get sued. Now im not here to down anyone who wants to try! By all means go out and try to find them, I own a survey company and people HAVE found them on their own before, but probably 7 or 8 out of 10 have found wrong ones or think they found something that actually isn't a pin. Its one thing to have a good idea, its another to build anything based on your non professional opinion and search. The problem is without precise measurements that we can obtain you can't 100% gaurentee you've got the right things. Like with any professional service we have multiple checks we perform (or at least reputable companys do lol) Not only that, but it will not save you much money if and when the surveyor comes out to get it done for real. We still have to find them all, tie them in and verify them anyways, it might save you a half hour, or hour of labor at best which on a large peice of ground isn't that much in the scheme of things.
Pins vary from rebars quite a bit, though new ones in most states will have a plastic or mental cap, they can be anything from pipes, open and pinched, PK or MAG nails, drill holes in concrete with or without an "X", tractor axels, shot gun barrels, shot gun shells, stones of all types and sizes (here it's popular to use limestone and pink granite) not to mention trees, chared stakes, and I've even heard of beer bottles, bath tubs, and pennies pinched on barb wire fences.
Most surveys will can out what they are, but not all. Here anything older than about 20 years your lucky to get anything other than "pin found" lol.
A GPS from a phone will get you within 5-15' which is fine for say a hunter, but not quite close enough for finding pins accuratly...for instance our equipment gets down within 1/4 to 1/8th of an INCH (or as we say 0.02 feet lol) another thing is on a survey it will be in tenths of a foot (or even chains on older ones!) Something not everyone is a custom to using lol.
Compass bearing and survey line bearings can be figured out how to work together but you need to have a decent understanding of how bearings work lol. Not alot of people know how it works enough to figure it out.
DO NOT USE GIS!! It is SOO inaccurate it's actually insane people use them at all....we only use them to look up the legal description and to find a deed to confirm that legal. I've seen the GIS be off 30' before! Again it's not worth being wrong, it's like the phone, if the GIS is +- 10-20' and your phone is 5-10' your talking a 15-30' area your going to try and look in lol.
Metal detectors are super helpful!! While We use $1k+ detectors in our profession, and while yes some pins are out of the groud, I've also found them 4' deep before lol. Bring a decent shovel! Lol. Basic detectors will find them up to a foot or two pretty easy....as long as there isn't any other metal around.
Pins getting removed happens ALL the time, it's maybe only every 6 surveys we do that ALL of the pins are still in.
Hopefully this adds some much needed context to this video and is helpful to someone!
It's OK to do it yourself, but don't bet on it being correct and get it verified before proceeding with any work based on it!
Thanks 🙏 I appreciate real people who speak regular language and help others out with whatever experience they have. I’m hoping to get out to my property and make use of it but it’s one 2 acres piece of dirt in a big old deserted farm area. I’m in Southern California. So far (been over a year)No surveyors will call us back. You’ve given me hope that I can find a work around ❤
I'd suggest you call a Realtor & tell them you're thinking about selling but you need to know what you even own before you'd even consider it as you'd like to split up the parcel. *Realtor* is *Latin* for Never Fucks Off - So you can let them do all the legwork, Give them a reason to wake up in the morning & save yourself the time. You'll certainly have to pay the Surveyor who you end up hiring (which may be "whoever comes" in your case.)
@@ATCRyderX that might work. So far asking realtors for a referral isn’t working out.
I was fortunate to have a USGS 640 acre corner marker as one of my corner points. That thing is VERY substantial. No corner pin is visible from any other pin, due to the topography. So even with located corner pins, we needed a surveyor to mark the boundary lines so we could fence. Or at least somebody who knew how to operate a transit. Some of their equipment they have now is amazing. They have one hand-held device that lets you set the GPS location for two pins and it will show you the line on the ground as you walk between them.
The map thing WAS AWESOME!!! I'm so glad I watched this!!
It is easiest if you are buying a property to have sellers have pins marked so you can inspect the property lines prior to closing to make sure there are no encroachments by neighbors.
Yes and in some rural areas some property owners will actually move the pins! Then you have to open up a full investigation to get your property back :-) thanks for the info congrats
Had so many jobs where the non client owner would argue that's where their boundry is. Do the job and stake it out, it's off by dozens of feet, in one case, well over two hundred.
Rural folks are kind of known for not liking anything relating to "officialdom" and it isn't unusual for property markers to disappear.
Not sure why I never thought to use a metal detector but it's a great idea. We have 3 out of 11 points we can't find. Two are bordered with a hoarder that, unfortunately seems to have crossed over his property lines with trash/dump site. We will absolutely have to have a surveyor to find those spots and possibly a backhoe and maybe the sheriff. The other pin is in an area with a lot of fallen trees. We have no cell phone service in that area and GPS on the phone bounces all over the place, even while standing still. If there is a metal pin or t-post that has been knocked down, a metal detector will help us find it. Thank you for all your suggestions!
I went looking for a survey datum marker in the bush base off of a topographic map. Using a Garmin GPS II+ and a compass, I actually tripped over it. Now this was in the bush in Northern Ontario so I am kinda proud of myself for that one.
I just found my local assessors site and used your technique to find gps coordinates. They had a conversion tool from their system but I got it figured out. Thanks
Hey, great job and thanks for explaining it like a normal person would. We are checking the corners of our 60 acre property just so we know exactly where they are. It's a little more difficult when you can't walk down the property line in a straight line due to heavy trees and swamp so we a trying to use the gps method to get us within 30 to 60 feet and then we will just have to search. You Did a Good job!
The surveyor who did that three year old survey you had; likely would come out to show you your corners for a small fee. Some might do so for free but normally only during the period when the survey work was being done.
I am a licensed land surveyor and currently work for a larger firm, but when I ran my own company EVERY private client was offered an option for free.
That Option was: Within two months of our final survey we would agree to meet with the client at the job site and “walk the bounds” with them. “Walk the bounds” is an old English phrase that basically means going to every corner and showing the owners (or clients) where the property corners are.
Surprisingly almost all large country tract owners were very happy to take me up on that offer. Very few city lot owners did so. Yet city tracts are far more likely to be involved in boundary dispute cases in courts.
All that aside: I congratulate you and your partner in that you did locate every corner that was still in the ground.
Well done 👍
I have had folks working for me (and with me) who had the know how and much better equipment and tools and still could not find corners very well. Sometimes; if the corners had been snakes, I’m sure they’d get bitten half the time.
Small fee?? NO surveyor in our area will take ANY job for less than $700...
Lol compass's on your Smart phone! Not laughing at you but with you! We have bought and sold many rural properties and have had so many issues and stories similar to yours! Thanks for the information
So helpful -- and I'm a GIS guy!! Thank you!
Retired surveyor. We always put flagging on the pipe/rebar we set, and it was countersunk to minimize people pulling them up just for shyts and giggles. If you own acreage you should have had it surveyed when you bought it and should have a plat showing your boundaries and bearings and distances around the perimeter.
ty for your comment. We have a farm and had it surveyed. The origional deeds and coordinates dated back to the 1800's. The new surveys do not match the old. Especially now that we do not know the location of a pink granite rock and an old blue print drawing that shows a measurement to the outside of a tree and road that has both now changed. I think we need a dispute survey with our new neighbors that has encroached and cut down our oak trees bordering a field. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
p.s. Our new survey took it upon theirselves to go from the center of the road and now 4' diameter ash tree and said it was a drafting error, but in doing so made the other side cut through the end of a building. What a mess. We do not wish to fight with the new neighbors but need to reestablish the origional lines. What a headache.
I was getting estimates for a survey on a few parcels of raw land which were corner & side by side. I finally got asked by a friendly and helpful receptionist what was I planning to do with the property ... sell it, or develop it, finance it, etc.
I said that for now, I just really wanted to clear it and didn't want to "accidently clear my neighbor's favorite & possibly irreplaceable tree".😁
She told me that I only needed the 4 corners surveyed (no other info was needed for clearing). So I only had the 4 corners of the combined parcels done.
The fee went down from a couple thousand to about $650+.
My house is just over two years old, and I'm planning a fence and/or border plants. I have located 2 pins (one a visible marker, one a piece of angle iron in exactly the right spot). There should be three more (it's a 5-sided lot). I have used the plat map, a tape measure, and a compass to estimate where the corners should be, but I have not dug in to see if they are actually there.
Thanks for sharing this info., so many years of not knowing how now I do .😱👌👌😱
Old, fat and slow survey crew chief here, all good advice.
However, there is no substitute for a current survey when making a new purchase, gets you off on the right foot right off the bat.
The biggest thing we see that goes horribly wrong is when someone finds a pipe, or post, or something else they assume is a property marker that isn't. One case involving a fence that was 20' over the property line was because they had built a fence to a 2" steel pipe, sticking 4' out of the ground along a creek bank, with orange flagging tied to it. When they called the previous owner, he said he set that pipe to have something secure to tie up his boat! He also admitted he had no clue where the property line actually was, in spite of living there 30 years. Broke my heart, this was 1200' feet of t-posts and livestock wire through a swampy area that had to be moved.
Another suggestion I'll throw out is set 1/2" or 3/4" pvc pipes next to the survey pins, the longer the better. We use 5' for wooded areas, 2' for urban. Unlike wood, they don't rot, and unlike steel posts are non metallic so don't interfere with finding the actual survey pin. Plus, being white, they are highly visible especially during the fall when leaves are falling. In snow, not so much, but we also tie flagging on them for contrast.
This is wonderful. Thank you!
Found ours with a meta detector. Called the surveyor company that put them there, and with his direction, located them within minutes! Very easy. But I am in a subdivision, and that made it easier.
With my crazy neighbor and the weird history of my property I've TRIED locating the pins but I can't find the back 2.. I am using the markers given by the company that owned and surveyed originally (neighbor destroyed the original lines) and it's impossible to find a surveyor who'll come to rural tn. Anyway I am still searching 😂...THANKS FOR THE INFO and I am happy to follow your site..
Great video! Thanks for sharing!
Sometimes survey equipment stores will have higher quality metal detectors for rent. These are good because they only pick up ferrous metals and have waterproof ends (believe me it's handy). Of course sometimes the monuments are not magnetic and are wood stakes (rare) or stone/concrete with a brass cap or "X" mark. It is important and wise to realize when to throw in the towel and hire a surveyor, but it can be fun to find them yourself. (PS: I'm a registered land surveyor and really enjoyed this video).
what about when it has a brass cap? They do mostly here in Southern California, so does that mean I have to hire a surveyor. This one particular piece of property hasn't been surveyed since it 1st was back in 1954. It's only has 2 owners including myself.
Thank you. Hope this helps me.
Great info. Thank you so much....
great fun video.. im same way i like to go out and learn new stuff vs just couching up big money when a little time and research goes a long way..
It’s not always iron rebar, sometimes it’ll be an iron pipe, sometimes it can be like a piece of concrete with a cross cut in it, sometimes it can be a stone, or an old car axle
I used a metal detector to find my 4 pins (77.9 x 148 feet) they were encased in a Pilar of concrete about the diameter of a large coffee can, 4 to 7 inches underground.
Don’t always set corners. Many surveys are paper only. I found two points on our property but I am guessing the two out front have been destroyed when gravel road was placed. One is iron pipe and the other is rebar with cap. Neighbor had installed a fence about 15 years before we bought but it was done without survey and has a severe angle point which doesn’t match our metes and bounds description. Have fun and happy hunting
😁 Me compré un detector de metales justamente para encontrar mis puntos de referencia.
Thank you so much!
I found my mom and dads pin, well, at least my Big Toe found it!! To the E R we went !
I did some logging and the logger brought in a guy although he was not certified he had taken village corses and had experience and everything needed.for 150 he located the existing markets and reflected them.he mainly used for and a hat with pocket for for unit.best money I spent.this was 200 after he marked or should I say found the markets that were there already.just hidden in grass and weeds/bushes
I worked on a survey crew way back in 1970. A client came to us to find 47 acres that he had inherited but didn't know exactly where it was. After about three weeks of sleuthing, we determined that the neighbors on all sides had encroached, removed property markers and essentially stolen his property. Not all neighbors are honest, or trustworthy. The client was happy to find his land, but he was not happy with the survey bill.
I'm having a similar problem my neighbor has moved not only the pins on my land and his but also in the street. He was really trying to cover his tracks but he just messed up everything and now it's going to cost me a lot of money to pay for a very extensive survey of the entire Street. Honestly I don't know what's wrong with some people.
@@j.darrel517 you need to have the local government agency (city\county) come out and verify
e-establish the monuments in the street.
Thank You!!
Even if you do find all of the survey pins, hire a surveyor and have them survey the property anyway. The surveyor can then write a report that certifies the location of all of the markers so you can have an current certified survey report in case a dispute occurs later with a neighbor or other interloper. Also, get a T-post and drive it into the ground next to the pins and put surveyor tape on it. That will notify neighbors that the survey has been done, the location of the markers, and make it easier for you to find them later.
I believe it is true everywhere, but it is a crime to remove those iron survey pins from the ground. A felony if I remember correctly. It is also a felony crime to interfere with a surveyor while surveying a property.
Haha, been shot at once or twice on country properties. When we went back after the police fixed it, we found some weed patches. That the owner was upset was understandable.
@@ohasis8331 BTDT.
BTDT= Been there, done that. We have stumbled across multiple plots of questionable agriculture over the years.
a real survey will cost you 6k or more most surveys are only within 10 feet. to get one that is spot on is crazy expensive
@@jjg1501
I bought some lots and had a surveyor come out to mark the corners. He marked the corners exactly where the steel pins were originally placed and did it for under $300 dollars. And this was before GPS were a thing (1977) and he had to start at a property monument a couple of miles away. Today with GPS positioning you can quickly get withing a few inches to a couple feet of the markers.
Gps guidance has improved so much that farmers can put GPS guidance systems on their tractors with a self steering option and set a line they want to travel while plowing or planting or whatever and it will keep the tractor within less than an inch left or right of the line.
You either got taken to the cleaners by a scammer or you are lying.
I have to ask. How does one really know if the pin you found represents the correct point. It's best to hire a professional land surveyor to locate, check and verify each property pin to avoid future problems.
For how much money they charge, I would take my chances and trust the pin location.
I want to start doing this.. I have 5.23 acres with weird shape. Oh and it’s deep woods so it will be a trip to find my stakes. I’m looking forward to do this.
thank you miss
I have found that the google earth measurment function to be surprisingly accurate
Had to relocate the iron pin I had driven over with a bulldozer when clearing my property. I used a metal detector to locate it then pulled the pin up about 1" above the soil level, and poured a 6" collar around the pin to a depth of 4", this made it easy to relocate in the future. Glad I had done that, a few months later the power company needed to add another pole to lift up the existing power lines to a safer height. I saw the power engineers stake and "adjusted" the stake over about 3' so it would be placed right on the boundary line on a 5-acre parcel. Now it is easy to spot the boundary line.
In our state of WV you can not go by the County maps or lines, they just guess on things like that unless you have a survey then they still don't do it right, and sometimes a Surveyor can be wrong
You’ve overlooked one of the BEST tools to help find survey pins - a good compass with a sighting mirror (quadrant compass is ideal or azimuth if you can do the math like Silva Ranger
One of the corner pins was actually visible in Google Street View, so I found it right away (and I have the survey to compare it to, so I know it's in the right place). Two were easy to find just by looking at the survey & pacing off from the first one. The fourth is still kind of missing.
I know within a couple of feet where it's supposed to be. Previous owner used that area for dumping & burning garbage, so I need to rake the area to clear the debris so I can find the pin.
If I have to, I'll take a tape and measure from the other two corners and find the exact location and if it's missing I'll get a surveyor to replace it. I expect it's there, just buried.
Ours says starts at a rock on the hillside running in a North Easterly direction to a persimmon tree (that was there 120yrs ago but not now ) then in a southerly direction to a rock in the middle of the creek (witch is full of rocks). Then in a westerly direction to a fence post (where their is no fence now just woods) then back to the original rock on the hillside containing 64 and 1/2 acres more or less. That is the way all of the deeds in the surrounding area reads all of which are from a hundred or more years ago.
If you have 2 pins and open lines to where a hard to find pin should be, you can also triangulate with long piece of small parachord like parachord 350. A thousand feet of it will cost you less than $40. Compute the distances from the known pins to the target pin and put pieces of tape on the parachord at those distances. Run the chord from your first pin and mark an arc where the tape is on the chord. Do the same from the other pin and where the arcs intersect should be very close to where your pin should be... just don't stretch the line too much as it will throw your measurements off.
only going to work on relatively flat terrain with no vegetation, otherwise the cord can get caught on items in the way
@@eriklehman3175 I kind of said that in the first sentence I thought..
Note that in states that have stone walls like NH and VT surveyors will drill 1/2" holes to mark the property line. Where two walls meet they will find the center of each wall and drill a hole where those two lines meet. If a wall ends or takes a corner they will do the same thing--find the center of the wall and drill a hole. They use this method because it is impossible to drive a pin. Yes sometimes they are hard to find, but if you understand how they were set it makes it easier. No matter where you are remember that that a compass points to magnetic north not true north. Surveyors will use true north because it doesn't change. GPS doesn't care about magnetic north and you can compare the two methods.
The best survey point is a hole drilled into bedrock. They cannot move or be moved. They can be marked by leaving a metal pin in the hole.
@@francoistombe True, but around here bed rock might on the surface or 20 plus feet down. A big problem is they use to use trees as markers. "Go 30 rods west to a red oak tree then... Well the oak tree died 100 years ago and the wood went through the wood stove.
@@Canopus68 Yep, this happened a lot in Maine when I lived there. Sometimes the neighbours would just agree on points and lines and then mutually quitclaim everything on the other side (of the line created) to each other. This legally created a new properly line.
@@francoistombe I worked for a surveyor for a while. We had a case where the woman was told her lot line was a stone wall. When the owner next door died the family sold the house and several hundred acres of wood lot. the new owner had a survey done and they surveyor discovered the lot line ran within 18 inches of the corner of her house. She spent years and all her 401K money trying to claim the land under adverse possession. We went in to verify what the first surveyor found. He was right. The really sad thing was because the court rejected the adverse claim, it threw into question all future claims. She had been in the house for over 10 years, way longer then what was needed for the claim. Everyone should ask for a plot plan (map) of their property. If the lot hasn't been surveyed they should ask for that to be done before they sign the paper work. In most states a plot plan must be registered at the district or county probate court.
It is awesome when you can find your own pins but if you are doing any kind of building or grading on the property best go hire a professional to insure that you don't have a court date from a neighbor in your future..
Yep. Finding pins is one thing, but you have to be able to check the bearings and distances.
That's a fancy county map. Our looks like it was draw with crayon by a 1st grader 60 years ago.
My neighbor illegally graded across my property and removed two of my pins. Now that I want to put up a fence to keep him out, I have to have surveyors re-pin those two corners, agggh. But if just knowing some of my coordinates can work I may give that a try, thanks. P.S. yes, there's a compass on your smart phone.
The annual change in variation especially recently and using a cheap compass like that found on a cell phone can create a very inaccurate compass heading.
Mine are called 'property stakes'. I accidentally found one when the neighbor had a small sinkhole. It was a large iron spike..LOL. My house is over 120 yrs old, so it won't have a flag on it.
My city’s gis map was not accurate-I had to get a boundary survey anyway and they confirmed the actual line like you did.
In my county those lines in the interactive map are not survey grade and weren’t drawn by a survey and are for tax purposes. I work for the survey dept in my county and I have seen those line over 400’ out of position.
There was never a survey done on my 10 acres. I have a neighbor running an ATV up and down, up and down, up and down, right on top of my property line and she is driving me nuts. I'm fairly sure that when she takes the ATV into the woods, she IS ON my property line. I don't know what to do.
My advice would be leave it to the professional surveyor.
Are metal pins also used in suburban and urban areas?
Just to add a bit more information. The lines that make up the boundary in a tax parcel map such as the online ones you found are not always correct. They are usually close, but I've seen them move up to 30 feet (that was an extreme) from year to year. As you mention, if you really NEED to know where it is and you are not just satisfying curiosity, hire a Licensed Surveyor, then it is their problem.
Wow! 30 feet is more than I would have guessed, but thank you for sharing the advice! This stuff is tricky!
Prices for surveyor services are nuts. I was quoted $1700 to get my .034 acre lot surveyed. To add to insult, you’re lucky if you find one and they decide to call you back.
Need to get a record of survey at county assessor. This is going to be much more accurate. Look for evidence of recent survey in your area. Lath and flagging of different colors are usually a tip off. If you can find any property corners near you that are fresh and have a cap it will have the LS number on it and look them up maybe they will sell you a copy of the record do survey and lead you in the right direction.
@@ceaseuno1 That's not an unreasonable price and the size is not going to make much of a difference.
@@ceaseuno1 It may seem like a lot but most people don't understand how much goes into a properly done survey. A licensed surveyor puts his professional license on the line any time they perform work like this. A property deed must be researched and calculated then evidence must be found and located in the field and compared to any previous survey and adjoining properties. Whatever this surveyor states on a map, in a survey or sets in the ground must withstand legal scrutiny from now and in the future and they must be willing to stand under oath in a court of law that their work was properly performed.
If you have survey pins. Where I'm at they didn't pin the property but used angle iron so any Joe blow can pull your corner post out like I had done in 2020. The angle iron was in the way of the guy that does my neighbors hay so he pulled it out. Fortunately the corner was easy to find between two other marked corners less 35' 6". I put in an 8' post driven in 2'. The average duck won't be able to pull it out but the farmers tractor will have no problem pulling it up again. HE BETTER NOT! It's not his property to be doing that.
lol my property hasnt been surveyed in 250 years. when an entire lot was given out to a settler. since been divided who knows how many times. some of my lines have been surveyed by neighbors and the two surveys on one line dont even meet. the county assesment office mapmaker tells me none of the county is correct. some places there are strips no one owns and others surveys overlap.
One have to be careful with a compass about magnetic variation. So you might have true degree or degree adjusted for your magnetic variation, and magnetic variation are moving over time.
The pins will have to be verified by s surveyor. Working as a surveyor I'found multiple pins.
FYI the marker on a curb are concrete nails or screws.
Late, but map north and magnetic north are a few degrees different depending on what part of the planet you’re on.
Suggestion:
Now that you have found your stakes (📌 pins), get a good sledgehammer and for each spot drive a 5 ft or longer solid metal rod into the ground.
Less likely they will be removed in the future.
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Just because you find a pin in the ground does not necessarily mean it's your property corner.
Average cost for surveyor? My yard is square 10K square feet and a rectangular shaped yard.
surveyor don't even want to do on my property survey because they can't any information on Hudspeth county texas
The reason the compass was not accurate over long distances is because of something called magnetic variation. Every good compass will let you set the variation for where you are to compensate. That little measuring device is useless over terrain... you would need one with at least a 2 diameter wheel but that is still not the right way to measure as it will always measure short for where you want to be at. (It measures slopes where survey lines do not meaning if you want to go 400 feet it will say you have gone 400 feet but in reality you have not. The only instance the wheel will be correct is if the ground is perfectly level.) Cell fone accuracy in GPS is still not great... the best right now was Samsung Galaxy at about 3 meters with the Iphone from 5-8 meters. That's an accuracy of 10 - 25 feet. Not good enuff for surveying.
❤
Umm...I didn't even know this was a thing. Should I have known this and do all homes have these?
Almost all property should, but you don’t NEED to know unless you NEED to know. As I understand it super rural properties that haven’t changed hands in many, many decades may not. Regardless, your survey has the markers marked for you, so they are findable if it comes down to it.
We’re adding a fence where the property lines aren’t obvious or else we wouldn’t have cared. Our suburban property ones we experimented with finding are all below the grass line completely.
Does she ever mention that all measurements are on the level. Hills, slopes, gullies, add to the lengths when your looking for points.
what did it cost to call a surveyor? I've got about 10 acres and I don't know where to start looking for the metal stakes. I've got a metal detector and a 'first' survey when the property was acquired. But looking at the map doesn't give me a starting point because I have no idea where to begin or where to start stepping off the distance. The first drawing is about 48 years old. About two years ago I contacted a surveyor outfit and $3,800 was the lowest they would quote, even though I had the first drawing. That, to me, is exorbitant and so I am still without the knowledge to find the property stakes.
Are you going to be building on it? How much will the improvements cost? You're going to maybe put up a $350K house and are balking at a $3800 dollar insurance plan (survey) that it is in the right place? 1% of the value of the house??
I have just over 10 acres on six lots.
Some have iron pins. Some have concrete monuments.
To survey all six lots is $4350. Only four of them are the same size.
the distance is measured in level length does not measure with sloping of hills.
Unfortunately phone GPS are too broad; you need a “hikers GPS” to get precise measurements for long and lat
Even those are not good enough to do surveying.
As a licensed surveyor it amazes me how folks will fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new home and not really care about spending $500 to a $1000(under 2 acre) on a legitimate updated survey of their new property, then calling and freaking out because they want to put a fence up and cant find their property corners.
@Theresa Sterkel WOW, you might need to shop around...im usually around $500 for less than an acre..
Haha that’s my county 😆.
Get a copy of your survey find out where your starting point is and let the hunt begin.
Yep!! Removing a Survey pin is illegal.
True, it's even in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 19:14-21 KJV
Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
And if you find several pins in an area of about 5 feet,
Lazy surveyors
Surveyors want response in bell county tx
🎉help
Please be aware that the GIS information on these maps is often incorrect. All corners dont always have pins set. Pins you find may or may not be the correct corners. The only way to know for sure is to have an actual survey done.. Land surveyor for the last 20 years.....
My neighbour has moved the pin. Now I have to get a surveyor and take him to court to get his fence moved off of my property
No pins, no GPS coords (property last surveyed late 1950's, don't have $3k to have it re-surveyed. Suggestions?
How do you know there are no pins? What does the deed indicate the corners were found/set as? As a surveyor I've found corner pins from surveys much older than that. There are spatial coordinates on your property - perhaps the county has a GIS map to consult?
I have found hidden pins for people with my metal detector.
Make shur tape measure is made of steel. Any tapes made of non metal are not accurate. They expand in sun an cold
I found mine with the lawn mower ☹
What if the last survey was 100 years ago?
A 3 year old survey you should had been able to find them all. Especially having a good survey.
She stated the one they couldn't find was removed and that was validated by the surveyor they hired. Duh. Listen.
Crazy Story. Over 150" we found the two markers easily. Had survey company come out to make sure these were the correct markers.(Sometimes they are moved or are fake markers) They were correct. The crazy neighbor didn't believe it. She had TWO additional markers installed. (now every 50') I hung plumb bobs above the original 2 markers ran string between the 2 and then hung plumb bobs over the 2 new markers. (to double check the survey) She still didn't believe it. She still thinks some kind of conspiracy is going on. Mind you she got the property from her dad and she has lived in the house for at least 30 years so whatever the markers where when her dad bought the place they are in the same place...With her two new ones...It was for a fence dispute for a fence she chopped down after my brother died. The fence was well withing the markers and my brother had it built and surveyed by professionals 15 years. She then built a crappy spite fence half on the wrong side of the lines. The reason...she didn't want her "mirror clearance" to be made smaller. The funny thing is the half that was on her side...Made the clearance even smaller. So built my fence in the same place it originally was and her crappy fence makes it that much harder to get into her own driveway. The reason for the dispute. My brother was a nice guy. So where here drive way was he ran it about 12" inside the line. At a point past her house but before her garage he brought the fence about 4" from the line. In her mind she could not comprehend why the fence was "bowed" toward her property and how it could do so and still be not on her property. She doesn't get the old lady pass because her handy man is about my age and he was 100% on her side even though he was there for two surveys and was next to her while the survey boss showed her and him the old and her new markers.
Not me
This is a hard no for me. I have my original plat from when we built in 2003. I have hired a surveyor. This is the only legal way that will stand up in court. If that is ever necessary.
Walker counties maps aren't very accurate..
You guys might dig , Randall Carlson . He describes how to use a compass .
The “metal pins” are often wooden stakes. Those stakes are often pulled and disposed of. Sometimes, a pin or stake will be moved by an adjoining land owner or tenant. You may well,end up getting a new, stake survey - which frankly is where you should have started.
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
You will find that "little roller thing" to be about as useful as teets on a boar hog
Unless you're into boar hogs
I'm stupid because i still don't understand
how far off were you when you found your pins based on coordinates from phone? your lat\long from GIS mapping software is not accurate and then plug inaccurate coordinates into your phone is not very accurate. these coordinates will only put you in the ballpark. you should have used a professionally licensed surveyor.