Do You Need a Survey?

One of the questions buyers frequently ask before closing is, “Do I really need a survey?”

In North Carolina, a new survey is not required for every real estate purchase. But that does not necessarily mean you should skip one.

A title search and a survey answer different questions. A title search examines the public records affecting the property. It can identify things such as deeds, recorded easements, restrictions, liens, and other recorded matters. What it generally cannot tell you is exactly where everything is physically located on the ground.

That is where a survey comes in.

A survey can show the property boundaries and the location of the home, driveway, fences, outbuildings, easements, rights-of-way, and other improvements in relation to those boundaries.

For example, the fence that appears to separate your yard from your neighbor’s yard may not actually be on the property line. A detached garage may extend across a boundary. A driveway may cross someone else’s property without a clearly documented access right. A neighbor’s building or fence may encroach onto the property you are buying.

These are issues that may not be apparent from simply walking around the property, and they may not be revealed by a title search.

Surveys can be particularly valuable when buying property with significant acreage, older homes, properties with fences or multiple outbuildings, properties served by private roads or shared driveways, or property where the boundaries are not obvious.

Buyers sometimes decide against a survey because the seller already has an old survey. An existing survey can certainly be helpful, but it is important to consider how old it is and whether anything has changed since it was prepared. New fences, buildings, driveways, subdivisions, easements, or neighboring improvements can change the picture.

There is also an important practical consideration: once you close, a boundary or encroachment problem becomes your problem to deal with. Discovering an issue before closing gives you an opportunity to investigate it and determine what, if anything, needs to be done before you purchase the property.

Does every buyer need a new survey? Not necessarily. The decision depends on the property, the buyer’s comfort level, the existence and age of any prior survey, and the particular circumstances of the transaction.

But buyers should understand what they are giving up when they choose not to obtain one. A title search can tell you a great deal about the legal record of a property. A survey can tell you something different: whether what you think you are buying matches what is actually on the ground.

When in doubt, talk with your closing attorney about whether a survey makes sense for your particular transaction.