Before You List: Why a Good Survey Can Be Worth Its Weight in Gold

When preparing land for sale, owners naturally focus on price, timing, timber, improvements, and marketing. One important item is often overlooked until a buyer is already under contract: the survey.

For landowners, a good survey can be much more than a map showing property lines. It can help identify potential problems before the property is exposed to the market, giving the owner and their land broker an opportunity to address those issues rather than discovering them in the middle of a transaction.

Know What You're Selling Before You List It

Deeds, tax maps, GIS acreage, old plats, and what has historically been considered the property boundary do not always tell the same story.

A current survey can help establish the property's boundaries and acreage while identifying features that could affect its use or marketability. Depending on the scope of the survey, this may include:

• Acreage discrepancies between deeds, tax records, and actual surveyed acreage
• Boundary line conflicts or uncertainties
• Recorded or apparent easements and rights-of-way
• Encroachments such as fences, buildings, driveways, roads, or other improvements
• Access issues, including whether existing access actually lies within the property or a valid easement
• Gaps, overlaps, or inconsistencies involving adjoining deeds or older surveys
• Existing monuments, corners, and other boundary evidence
• Utility corridors and other features affecting the property
• Potential subdivision considerations when a seller intends to divide a larger tract

Discovering one of these issues does not necessarily mean a property cannot be sold. Discovering it early gives the seller time to understand it and determine whether it needs to be addressed.

Acreage Matters

Acreage discrepancies are particularly important with land transactions.

A property may have been described as 100 acres for decades while a modern survey determines that it contains 94 acres, or 106 acres. When land is being marketed and valued on a per-acre basis, that difference can materially affect the transaction.

Resolving the acreage before establishing a final marketing strategy can help the seller and broker price and represent the property more accurately.

Access Can Be More Complicated Than It Appears

One of the most important issues a survey can help clarify is access.

A road may have been used for generations, but that does not automatically answer every question about the legal rights associated with that access. Likewise, an easement shown in an old deed may not be located where the road is actually being used today.

For rural land, timberland, farms, and recreational properties, access can have a significant effect on usability and value. Identifying potential access concerns before marketing allows time for the appropriate surveyor, attorney, or other professional to evaluate them.

A Survey Can Help Keep Due Diligence Moving

Surveys can also affect the timeline of a transaction.

Once a property is under contract, the buyer may be working through inspections, financing, soil evaluations, environmental reviews, title work, subdivision feasibility, and other due-diligence items. Waiting until then to order a survey can introduce another variable into an already busy timeline.

Surveyors, particularly those experienced with large rural tracts, may have substantial lead times.

Having a recent, appropriate survey available before listing can provide buyers, attorneys, lenders, appraisers, and other professionals with useful information earlier in the process. Depending on the transaction, a buyer or lender may still require additional survey work or an updated survey, but starting with good information can help reduce unnecessary delays.

Good Information Creates Better Transactions

There is another benefit that is harder to quantify: confidence.

A property marketed with well-documented acreage, clearly understood boundaries, known access, and a quality survey gives everyone involved better information from the beginning.

It can also help the listing broker accurately prepare maps, evaluate subdivision opportunities, describe road frontage, understand adjoining ownership, identify timber boundaries, and develop an appropriate marketing strategy.

For timberland owners, clearly established boundaries can provide benefits well beyond a real estate transaction. Knowing where property lines are located is important when planning timber harvests, site preparation, prescribed management activities, road construction, and other forestry operations.

Not Every Property Needs a New Survey

A new survey is not automatically necessary for every land sale.

A relatively recent recorded survey may provide adequate information, depending on the property and circumstances. Before spending the money, landowners should discuss the existing deed, plats, surveys, title information, and intended sale with their land broker, surveyor, and closing attorney as appropriate.

But when boundaries, acreage, access, easements, or a proposed division of the property are uncertain, the cost of obtaining a quality survey before marketing may be small compared with the cost of discovering a problem after a buyer is under contract.

The Bottom Line

In land transactions, surprises are rarely helpful.

A good survey can identify potential issues while there is still time to address them, provide more accurate information for pricing and marketing, give prospective buyers greater confidence, and help keep the transaction moving once a contract is signed.

At AFM Real Estate, our land-focused approach goes beyond simply placing a property on the market. With the resources of American Forest Management, our team understands how boundaries, access, timber, acreage, easements, and land management considerations can affect both the value and marketability of rural property.

Preparing a property properly before it reaches the market can make a significant difference in what happens after the first buyer arrives.

Sometimes one of the best investments a landowner can make before selling is simply knowing exactly what they own.

This article is intended for general informational purposes and is not legal or surveying advice. Property owners should consult a North Carolina-licensed professional land surveyor, attorney, tax professional, or other qualified professional regarding their specific property and circumstances.