All Forum Posts by: JH Bridge

@George Kamerzan, @Davido Davido has the best & most thorough post on this.

I would first start with your county's clerk & recorders office.  They will have the subdivided plat that your duplex was built from.  They aren't always free, but it shouldn't be more than a few dollars.  This will give you the bearings & distances of how the original surveyor created your property lines & how they monumented each corner.  Incidentally, it will have the right of way distance of the street in front your house.  As Davido mentioned, the property corners along the street can be a bit tricky. IF they are monumented (by an X in the concrete, or tag drilled into concrete) that does not necessarily mean that is the corner. Sometimes, even often times, there is an offset (along the line) so that the monument will be put in the concrete instead of the street where it can get wiped out or paved over.  Just going out & measuring with your tape measure isn't going to help much if you are seriously considering adverse possession, title insurance payout, etc...You don't have the proper data yet.  You need to have this info before you do anything.  Send me a message if you want a little more help, or if you get your plat & want me to look at it.

@Zach Schwarzmiller,

There should be at least one recorded survey or plat held at your county clerk & recorders office.  It should be pretty easy to look up by address. I'd try to find some easily visible indicators (eg fence corners, fence intersections, fence lines extended to a ROW, etc.). If you can orient yourself on a couple of corners, you'd be able to associate that to your plat. In CO our corners are placed using rebar, so a metal detector is the best way to find them. Don't know if that's the case in WA, but could help you in your endeavor. There are also coordinate converter websites out there if you do happen to have a lat-long or something similar. Just type coordinate converter into search bar.

As far as marking out the line, that will be pretty tough, especially if you don't have a clean line of sight. Maybe just stick to flagging up the corners you find first. Store it on a handheld GPS. Then create a line between them & stake it out from that. Hope that provides a smidgen of assistance. If you need any more help or tips, don't hesitate to shoot me a PM.

@Jeffrey McKee ,

Is this a commercial deal, raw land, a large parcel?  The civil engineering firm route is a good way to go, as they either have surveyors in-house, or subcontract the same one/s for all their jobs.

Most of the deals that are contingent on a survey are larger commercial deals. Please note that there is a difference between a full blown "survey" & an Improvement Location Certificate (ILC). The "survey" includes the surveyor going through title work, easements, encumbrances, boundaries & the like and is a recorded document with the county. But also runs significantly more money, upwards of $1000 or more. And sometimes all you need to satisfy the contract requirement is an ILC. These are mostly done on SFR in established neighborhoods. An ILC will find the property corners and place any structures on a drawing for you with dimension lines & property lines. This helps to see if there is any glaring setback or encroachment issues. That being said, they are not recorded & do not hold in court, but are also reasonably priced, $250-500ish (prices vary from state to state & are very rough ballpark figures).

I like to explain it this way, think of an ILC as a 'land inspection'.  An inspector can look at the house, tell you this & that could be fixed, but holds no liability.  S/he just warns you of any obvious, serious problems. ILC's do that for your land.

Look into what you really need & that will determine your course of action going forward.

Hope that helps some.

Please count me in for 1.  Looking forward to it!!

@Pat L. 

Thanks for the article.  Coincidence that the developer is 420?  All involved might have been working while a little high?  Surprised it's not here in CO. Haha :)

Right, that's always a good approach!?  I'm sure any judge in a court of law will allow you plead ignorance & just "let it go".  If your neighbor built upon your land, you'd just forget about it, right?  Give him or her a few hundred square feet.  Or better yet, build that $7000-10000 shed, have the oil/gas company need to come out for emergency pipeline repair & watch that front end loader make quick work of your sweet shed.  Hopefully the sarcasm came through clear enough.

Maybe you were kidding, but I don't want others, who may not know better, to take advice from someone they didn't know was "only kidding".  Seems obvious, but you don't know who is reading the thread.

To be clear; if there's a question about property lines, easements, encumbrances, etc... get with a surveyor.  At the very least, get their advice.

@Billy Rogers 

@Jon Holdman is right, as is customary.  Unless you are purchasing a "larger" piece of land, you won't need a true survey.  But ILC's (Improvement Location Certificate) are something you should be aware of, if not already.  You won't always need them, especially in a newer subdivision, but it's good knowledge to have.  It may be different city to city, but here in CO they run about $200-300, far less than a full blown survey. You can think of it as a lot inspection. Much like a home inspection, they try to uncover defects (e.g. setbacks, fences, aforementioned well, etc.), minimize potential risk & use the info to inform the buyer.  They are not true surveys because the title work is not gone through.

@Matt Vaughn 

In CO there are "surveys" called ILC's (Improvement Location Certificate). I quote surveys because it is not a signed, recorded document. However, it is performed by a survey company & is exactly what you're looking for. What it is is a crew will come out & locate your property pins, locate improvements on said property, produce a plot, & give it to you. It will answer your fence question, any setback issues, etc... It will NOT be a legal document as title work, easements, encumbrances, and the like have not been gone through by a licensed surveyor. It may be different city to city, but here they run about $200-300, far less than a full blown survey. You can think of it as a lot inspection. Much like a home inspection, they try to uncover defects, minimize potential risk & use the info to inform the buyer. I'm sure VA has them as well. Just look up a local surveying company & they should be able to get you going.

JH Bridge

@Sharad M. see above text about it being similar to an inspection.  Not saying you need one on every property, but if you ever run into something a little fishy, it might be worth the few hundred dollars to avoid boundary disputes down the line.

To clarify, there is no asking of cash straight away, but the offer is to carry some of the finance costs for a return on my money, while also getting experience. I will sit this one out, and hope to build a solid relationship while watching from the sidelines.

@Ned Carey, thank you. I appreciate the words of wisdom.

@Sharad M., we happened to be sitting at the same table at the meeting, so kind of a mutual approach. There is not any monetary transfer for time. Thank you for your post.

@Paul Timmins, I'm not sure I followed your post. It was a bit confusing. Do you mind clarifying for me? I do, however, appreciate you taking the time to post.

@Adrian Tilley, you are correct there isn't much to lose, I don't plan on placing money with people I don't know. Still, I think it's good to get a head start, in case we do partner up someday.

@Kyle Doney, good thought. Thanks.

@Mary B., you have given me much to do and got my wheels turning. Thank you for your input.

Thank you all for your sage advice. It has been helpful. If there are any ideas not yet posted, please keep them coming. I will take all the help you have to offer.

BP nation,

We have all heard that finding a mentor is a very helpful, even crucial, step in RE investing. We also have heard that taking action is also crucial. I may have found an opportunity for both but have one looming question...How does one go about doing due diligence on a particular investor? We had met at a local Denver investor networking group, and seems to be an experienced investor willing to give up time to mentor a newcomer (no deals under my belt, yet). There has been no "gut" feelings, nor any acts that seem out of the ordinary. A simple google search has turned up nothing noteworthy (positive or negative). Still, I would like to do my due diligence and know that this person is truly someone willing to help a newbie along. Do you suggest asking for references? If so, how do you approach that without offending? Any suggestions are welcome, and truly appreciated. Thanks for your advice