I own a surveying company so have been involved in RE for many years just not as an investor unfortunately.

Site study, review of zoning, survey, can be anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. 

They may also have a plat map or survey for the property. 

@Nick West, I've just about completed a survey of the 100+ sites, and have all the sponsor fees/costs for the top 20.

Either way, the only way to be sure if the fix was done correctly would be to obtain the geological survey that was used by the structural engineer to design the repair.

The reason is if something is found down the road after owning the property you can point to an "innocence clause" and a chain of command that you did your part and had a phase one completed prior to purchasing.Also if the state sometimes has an abatement award or the fed government for clean up you will not usually be eligible if you do not have certain inspections completed prior to purchasing.Same thing for a survey to be safe have it completed prior to closing.

I just checked all my properties against the latest FEMA flood maps here:https://msc.fema.gov/portalNow sometimes your county may also have a layer of this in their GIS system.In any case I noticed three of my properties seem to lay inside ZONE X (which is lower risk) then previously ZONED AE.Down here insurance is expensive, we got liability, windstorm and flood and just flood on one subject property is $1500-$2500.I am guessing I can't just call up my insurance agent and say check out this web site...so I need to obtain an updated elevation certificate just from the map being rezoned by FEMA.For ZONE X I actually am not required to carry Flood but I guess I still will just for the peace of mind especially if the new rate is lowered.Anyone else been through this, would appreciate if you know of a way to get a formal rezone for a specific address that you can use for insurance instead of another elevation certificate which requires a new survey I believe.

Wow, as investors in this town with population 28,000, this shocked me. The people we have filing though to look at our properties are always commenting on how clean, etc. We own 9 properties and they have all been co...

In Edina, where I'm building, it takes 1.5 weeks.We got the house under contract 2.5 weeks ago and got a survey done last week, only after we knew what was the exact lot size we could start designing the house.See, it was published that the lot was 50' wide and if it's 50' wide or wider, the total sides setback is 12' and I could build 38' wide house.If the lot was 49'11'', the total sides setback is only 10' and I could build a house 40' wide.That's why I was not sure on elevations and the plan, because didn't know what size of the house I could build. 

The geometra will survey the physical boundaries of the property to ensure that it accords with what is listed on the legal description subject to a contract for sale.