Land Planning, Surveying, and Engineering Professionals

The profession of Surveying is regulated by Missouri State Statute. When conducting a property boundary survey Wilson Surveying Company will: • Obtain deeds for the subject property, surrounding properties and other affected properties to check for conflicts • Obtain documentation of previous surveys that could provide control for the survey • Prepare a field guide for existing survey monument search • Field: search for existing monuments and make measurements to determine their relative locations • Map the results of the field trip • Determine the positions of the corners of the subject property. • Return to the field if necessary to set missing corner monuments • Prepare a record drawing (often called a plat of survey) All tasks listed must be conducted in a manner that meets the requirements of the Missouri Standards For Property Boundary Surveys. Obtaining the deeds of adjoining tracts, and preparing the record survey drawing are required by the standards, as are the details of the information that is included on the Survey Record Drawing. The Survey Record Drawing is a legal document. One must have special training, experience and education to obtain a license to practice surveying.

Not all surveys are the same, so they cannot be priced the same. The price of a survey is connected to the level of effort it will take to complete the survey. The level of effort to do a survey is connected to the “legal" description of the land to be surveyed. If the property is a lot in a subdivision, the level of effort is dependent of the quality and quantity of previous survey work in that subdivision as well as the detail provided on the subdivision plat. Usually more effort is required in older parts of town to complete an accurate modern survey meeting the Missouri Standards for Property Boundary Surveys. For rural lands, the level of effort is often associated with finding existing monumentation at the corners needed to identify the boundaries of the subject land, or re-establishing those corners if they cannot be found. Sometimes it is necessary to locate corners long distances away from the subject tract, when the controlling corners cannot be found. In order to be able to give you an estimate for a survey the following questions need to be answered: Why are you inquiring about a survey? What is the location of the land that you want to have surveyed? What is your name, and if you are not the owner, what is your relationship to the owner? What is your address (for billing purposes)? What is your phone number? What is your email address ? Can you provide an official title commitment for the property; the most recent deed to the property (the current owner being the Grantee), or some other record document from which we can identify the land and ownership? If other parties are involved in your need for the survey (such as boundary dispute or construction contractor or fence builder) what are their names and contact information

We assume that the one line you need is to be a boundary of your property. In the instance that your description is a fraction of a section, it will be necessary to locate that “land line” at the very least. Often locating that land line results in knowing the location of the other boundaries of the property, so there is little difference in surveying that line and surveying the tract. If you have multiple fractions of a section, it may be possible to survey only the affected pieces. If your property is described as something other than a fraction of a section, it is likely that the location of each line is dependent on the others and a survey of the property is required in order to determine the location of the subject line.

An old survey of your land can provide a lot of information. If you can find the corner markers that show on the survey, and they have not been disturbed by utility construction or some other activity they may still mark your corners. IF the survey shows improvements such as buildings that still exist, you may be able to rely on that information. So, you can use an old survey depending on the reasons that you need a survey. Please call us if your need to discuss the validity of your old survey for your current use.

If you are buying land priced by the acre, a survey will define the area / price. If you are getting ready to build something a survey will help you meet the building regulations and zoning setback regulations A survey will help you defend your boundaries against the activities of others (neighbor building a fence; neighbor harvesting some trees, neighbor expanding a building, neighbor putting in a garden or landscaping.