As a home owner, knowing the legal property lines that outline your plot of land is important, and you’ll need the proper paperwork to prove where these lines are. This paperwork will also help you avoid stressful disputes and litigation with neighbors later on. And if you’re looking to sell a house fast in Charlotte, NC, this information will be absolutely crucial, as it’ll help you advertise accurately and sell more easily. In the end, knowing where your property begins and ends is a must, as you’ll need this information to determine an appropriate asking price for your home.
Whether you’re curious to know your property’s boundaries or it’s time to sell, you can use any of the following seven methods to determine your property’s boundary lines.
1. Check The Deed
The deed is a legal document that describes your plot of land. Specifically, it describes the plot’s shape and size, and it also includes the lot number. If there are distinct geographical features or landmarks on the plot, these will be documented as well. If the language in the deed is difficult to comprehend, you can reach out to a trusted real estate attorney or cash home buyers in Charlotte, NC to get help with deciphering it.
2. Use A Tape Measure
Using a tape measure is the easiest way to visually confirm your property lines. Use the deed’s description to find the outer boundaries of the property and place a stake somewhere on the boundary line. Next, measure the distance between the stake and each corner of the boundary. Compare your results with what’s in the deed.
3. Get The Property Survey Details From Your Title Company
Most lenders require home owners to complete a property survey. If you’ve purchased your home recently, you should check with your title company to see if they have a copy on file. This survey will include information regarding the property lines.
4. Get Property Survey Details From Your Local Municipality
Your property’s history and legal records are usually maintained at the tax assessor’s office or by the building department. You can even search for these details online if you know what to search for. Alternatively, you can visit a municipal office and get this information for free. Note that some counties require you pay a small fee to access your property records in person.
5. Look For Buried Pins
If you look closely at the corners of your property, you might be able to find steel bars that have been buried there after the completion of a land survey. Sometimes these markers are buried underground, while other times the marked caps are visible. You can use a metal detector to locate these pins if they’re underground.
Note: While you may be able to identify your property’s boundaries using this method, it isn’t legally binding. Also, before you start digging around, make sure you call 811—the national call-before-you-dighotline—to get the location of buried utilities. This way you don’t accidentally damage an underground utility line.
6. Use A Mobile App
Mobile apps like LandGlide use GPS to help home owners pinpoint their property lines. The best part: LandGlide is free to use for seven days, so you can quickly get the data you need without paying a subscription fee.
7. Hire A Professional Surveyor
This is the most expensive of all the options mentioned here,but doing this will give you the most accurate results. Hiring a professional surveyor can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars—the cost largely depends on the property’s size, shape, terrain, and location. Use any of these methods to accurately determine your property’s boundaries before a sale.