How to Find Residential Property Surveyors?
Word of mouth has been a leading method for finding anything or anybody through the centuries. Friends, family, co-workers, and others from the community may have good input. However, in the case of surveying, your neighbors are probably among your best resources. Experience in the immediate vicinity make the neighbor's surveyor a strong recommendation. More than his plumber, insurance agent, or attorney, a neighbor’s surveyor knows some of the research and field evidence relevant to your site. Of course, if you're disputing property lines with a certain neighbor, consulting his surveyor may be helpful – but you may want a second opinion.
The phone book has been rendered obsolete by the Internet. The old alphabetical list had a leveling effect on the playing field. Many online directories aren’t serving the best interests of either the consumer or the professional, however; Internet searches default to the highest pay-per-click, or to vendors who can afford to stay ahead of web search algorithms and marketing trends. Smaller firms with less overhead are frequently lost in the shuffle.
Searching by county or business address is useful for finding many products and services. Fuel cost and time are reduced by staying close to home. Although there are other considerations, travel expense (yours or theirs) is part of the bill for everything from the house painter to the doctor. Choosing a surveyor with a local office is a good idea.
An even better choice is a surveyor who has already worked on your block. Everyone has seen those tripod guys on the street corners time after time. You’ve stepped over the randomly placed survey nails, chiseling, and drill holes (often with obnoxiously bright paint). Why do they have to keep measuring the same thing over and over? Chances are it’s a different professional surveyor duplicating the effort. SurveySearch.net is unique. Only SurveySearch.net indexes the properties the subscribing licensed surveyors have on file. It’s a concept developed by surveyors for surveyors and for the mutual benefit of professionals land surveying consumers everywhere. Each time land surveying data can be re-deployed there is local knowledge that can be expanded and cost savings that can be achieved. SurveySearch.net can help you know whose nails you’re stepping over (the local professional who has already solved your neighborhood specifically). Visit www.SurveySearch.net and key in the address to discover which licensed professionals have worked nearby. A Google Map will be revealed that shows the target site, the properties in the database, and the contact data for the subscribing surveyor who has the information.
Public records are an excellent resource to find a local real estate surveyor. Although 80% of survey data may be the exclusive property of 35,000 private registered land surveyors nationwide, perhaps 20% of the work is readily available and well indexed at the state, county, and local level. In some cases, traveling to the appropriate government office will be required. Bring your digital camera to photograph the documents. In many cases, however, the information is available from a few easy stops on the Internet. Try starting with the property tax assessor’s website. There is a database of properties organized by name, by address and by tax map ID number. Sometimes the assessor's database will be linked to a state or local GIS. Locating your property on the tax map will help you find the information for the adjoining properties. Frequently, the property tax assessor’s database has a deed reference for each of the properties. Look up the deeds by book and page on the county or local registry of deeds website.
Capturing a data sheet from the assessor's records and a copy of the subject and adjacent deeds will be a helpful start for you and for licensed surveyors from whom you may be seeking a quote. A reading of the deeds will generally reveal some plan references. The title block on the referenced survey plans will show the contact information of the registered land surveyor who performed the work. The surveyor who completed the record survey is certainly one of the professionals you should speak to for a quote for the new work. Sometimes, the company has been sold, merged or the sole proprietor has passed away. Don’t give up! Ask around to discover which practicing licensed land surveyor may have acquired the old records. Some state societies have an index showing where the records from inactive professionals are currently on file. Lastly, the local planning board, building official or zoning office may have some information on file. Beyond boundary, information about sewer connections may be at city engineering, while septic designs and wetlands delineations are frequently kept on file at the state environmental protection or management office.
In recent years, some nationwide internet brokerage sites have emerged. These sites set up an online auction among local vendors. They offer competitive bids for everything from carpentry, excavation, and electrical to painting, landscaping, and plumbing. They don't have actual skills or experience with any of these. They demand a sales commission from the little guys and simultaneously leverage the prices down with no accountability for the result. Furthermore, they bring an enormous advertising budget to bear upon the marketplace for dozens of trades and professions. These brokerage websites are siphoning dollars away from your local economy and are negatively impacting the quality and professionalism of services across the board.
