I figured the rent comps at ~$1,050, the appraiser’s rent survey as part of the refinance figured it at ~$1,100 so this confirmed I was in the right ball park.

It is just the seller trying to get you to pay for it so they don't have to, much like you negotiate about who pays for the survey, title policy, etc. 

Mortgage Bankers Association performed a survey in March of 2017.

Here was my thought process - get a survey, draw some extra lines on the plot plan, submit to the county and pay their fees to review and record = $3,000 tops. 

It may as simple as getting a survey for the correct legal discription and then applying to the property assessor and tax collecter for a parcel id number.

A website that i visited called "exacta" wants to do a boundary survey and charge me $900.

I just looked on Craigslist as a start of my rent survey.

-I've been using rentometer.com for a back-of-the-napkin rental survey to see the variety of rental rates for an area.

(You could be locked out......timing is very important).Some of the items in the file folder include;A skinny contract of sale...... this is a one page written in easy to understand language with only one out clause.A Hybrid contract of sale... a way to close more transactions by joint ventureA commercial contract of sale, 3 pages with special buyer requirements related to environmental conditions, existing suppliers, surveys, buried oil tanks and other conditions that must be known to make a profitable and safe transactionAn option agreementAn informational pocket pack with 52 options to financing and control a building without conventional financingBlank checks, pens, carbon paper, A list of referencesDisclosures for lead paint and other state or federal requirementsCell phone with camera to take pictures of the nice things and negative aspects of the property and to take a picture of the contract to email confirmation to seller and to your title company or lenderA gift, something for the seller to remember you by, I give Indian Head Nickels away, pens, note pads.Blank addendum forms  - these are used to attach to your purchase agreements (you don't want a lot of chicken scratching on your contracts; use them to write some of the following;1.

our state is a little different, too, and the local assessor is actually not privy to sales data, non disclosure state, and for some reason has no access to multiple listing, so they rely on surveys and some programs, so they tend to be under the market a bit...they also work off a January date,,so they don't reflect changes in the year like an appraisal, which may be part of the gap...and some areas may just not have many sales, be it commercial, raw land in an area, etc...