Why There's No Free Version of This
Start with what a survey legally is, because that's where the cost lives. Somebody has to locate the improvements, easements, and encroachments on your lot. Somebody has to draft the survey plat or map and put a seal on it — the licensed professional surveyor of record, by name. Where the state requires it, the record of survey gets filed with the county. Then the sealed drawing gets delivered to you.
Every one of those steps carries a license and a liability behind it. That's the product. A guy with a metal detector and a shovel isn't selling it, and a free online parcel viewer isn't either — it shows you a rectangle drawn from tax data, not where your fence actually sits.
So when a search result promises a free property line survey, read the fine print. It's usually a lead form, or a records pull you could have done yourself in twenty minutes.
What You Can Actually Get for Free
Plenty, and it's worth doing before you call anybody. The county keeps the recorded subdivision plat and the record of survey on file, and the assessor's map is public too. Pull those first and you'll walk into the conversation already knowing your dimensions.
Here's the limit on all of it: a recorded plat shows the lot as it was drawn and filed. It doesn't show where the fence actually went, whether a drive crosses the line, or what a previous owner poured in the ground years ago. It's the starting document, not the answer. For rough questions — how wide is my lot, what does the tract look like — that free pile is enough, and you've spent nothing.
For anything that has to hold up — a fence you're building, a title question, an addition, a neighbor who's stopped being friendly — you need the sealed drawing, and that's the part nobody gives away. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
On a Platted Lot, the Plat Is the Head Start
On a platted lot, a big piece of the research is already done, because the subdivision plat is recorded. That's the difference between our residential boundary range of $500 to $1,200 and the kind of number that makes people hang up. We're confirming and marking, not rebuilding the tract from scratch.
The soil here is Cropley, a well-drained clay loam. When we go digging for an existing monument, well-drained ground usually gives it up without a fight, and it holds a set corner better than wet, shifting stuff does. With low storm exposure in this area, we're rarely out re-setting corners that flooding knocked loose.
What usually turns up isn't a missing corner. It's an encroachment — a fence running a few inches past the line, a drive clipping the easement, a shed or patio poured close enough to the line that nobody worried about it at the time. We locate all of it, because that's the part you actually care about the day the neighbor starts building.
How to Tell a Good One From a Cheap One
Ask three things before you hire anybody: which licensed surveyor of record is sealing the map, and will their name and license number appear on it; how they handle a corner that's missing or disturbed — do they set a new iron rod and cap, or just leave you guessing; and what they do when two records disagree, because on an older platted lot, they eventually will. Those answers separate a real survey from a guy setting stakes and leaving.
Local knowledge is the other half. A crew that works this tract knows where the original monuments were set and what decades in this soil do to a buried corner. That's not something you get from the cheapest bid on the list.
Lowest price isn't the metric. The metric is whether the drawing holds up when somebody challenges it — and with a median home value of $1,047,300 in this area, a foot of error is real money.
The Day Itself, and What Comes After
Mornings, usually. A crew walks the lot, works from the recorded plat, and hunts for the original monuments. Where a corner is missing, we set one — an iron rod with an aluminum cap, or a PK nail, stamped with the surveyor's license number. That stamp is your proof it's real, not guessed at.
The field work is the fast part, a few hours. The paperwork is what takes days — getting the plat drafted, sealed, and into the county's hands. Plan your fence line or your project timeline around the sealed drawing showing up, not around the day the crew was on site.
If you also need your building's elevation on paper — a lender or insurance question — mention it up front. That's a separate document, but one visit can usually cover both instead of scheduling twice.
Every lot's different, and the only number worth trusting is one attached to your address. Send us your parcel and we'll quote it free.
How It Works
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Tell Us What You Need
Tell us what you need done and when — you'll get a straight answer, not a sales pitch.
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Free On-Site Quote
We come out, look at the space, and confirm exactly what the job involves.
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Written Quote
You get the scope and the price in writing before any work starts. No surprises.
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We Do the Work
Our crew does the work, checks it, and leaves the site clean. You see everything we did.
In practice, on a job like this:
- Setting and stamping new corner markers where originals are missing, then flagging them so they're visible
- Locating improvements, easements, and encroachments — fences, drives, and structures near the lines
What to Expect to Pay
Typical ranges, not a fixed price - the exact number is confirmed in writing before work starts.
$1200–$4000
Good to Know Before You Call
A survey establishes where the line legally sits based on the deeds and the monuments of record, and the sealed plat is the professional opinion a court relies on. It won't force your neighbor to agree, but it replaces guesswork with a defensible, licensed determination — which is usually what resolves the dispute or supports it if it goes further.
It's a form a licensed surveyor completes documenting your building's elevation relative to the base flood elevation. You'll need one to buy or reduce flood insurance in a mapped flood zone, or to support a Letter of Map Amendment if you believe your structure was mapped into a floodplain by mistake.
Yes. Where corners are missing we set stamped iron rods or caps carrying the surveyor's license number, and we flag them so you can find them. The markers are part of the record — moving or destroying them is both a practical problem and, in most states, against the law.
No. A phone's GPS is accurate to several feet at best and isn't tied to your deed or the corner monuments, so the lines those apps draw are approximate and carry no legal weight. Survey-grade GNSS fixes a point to the centimeter against a reference network — a different instrument for a different job.
The property address and, if you have them, a copy of your deed, any prior survey, and your title commitment. Access to walk the property helps, and if there's a specific reason for the survey — a fence, a sale, a building permit — telling us up front lets us scope it right the first time.
Price tracks the work, not the lot size alone. A clean platted lot with good corners is quick; a parcel with missing monuments, conflicting deeds, heavy tree cover, or a metes-and-bounds description takes far more research and field time. We quote after we see the deed and the record, so the number is real.
Usually yes, and often the permit requires it. Building to an assumed line is how encroachment problems start — a fence a foot over the line can cloud a future sale. A current boundary survey shows exactly where you can build and keeps the improvement on your own ground.
A Few More Questions
It's marking the site so the contractor builds in the right place — offset stakes for the foundation, grade stakes for elevations, and layout for utilities, all set from the engineered plans. It's done in stages as the job progresses, which is why it's usually quoted per visit rather than as one flat fee.
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- The price you're told is the price
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Updated September 2026