Why Do I Need a Boundary Survey to Sell My Land?

If you are planning to sell your land in the near future, it may be necessary to get a boundary survey done first. While this may seem like an inconvenience and an unnecessary expense, there are a lot of good reasons to have this done before the transaction closes.

Boundary Survey to Sell Land Can Avoid Disputes in the Future

In many cases, the city or town where the house is located will have a survey on file that both the buyer and seller can reference. However, if this survey is old or there is no survey on file, you can’t assume that there aren’t structures located on a neighboring property. There have been cases where entire homes have been built outside of a property line, which means that it had to be moved or torn down. While issues such as that are rare, you may be required to move a fence or a shed if it is even an inch or two off of your property.

A Boundary Survey to Sell Land reduces Liability

In most states, you are liable for disclosing any issue or potential issue about a property to a buyer. You could also be named in a lawsuit if you built a structure on another person’s property and it resulted in an injury or death. For instance, if a child got hurt walking into an open shed, you could be considered just as negligent as the other landowner who didn’t realize that the structure was on his or her property.

Spending the money now on a land boundary survey may help save money in the future because you know that you have disclosed everything to a potential buyer. Therefore, you should consider it just another closing cost and part of doing due diligence to close a legal real estate transaction.