Peacemakers!

Surveyors Take on role as Peacemakers

Under Thin Ice -

Cool article from Professional Surveyor Magazine.

Good News for the Housing Market

Do I need an ILC or a Pin Survey?

Many times, the issue of a survey arises in the midst of a contract for purchase of real estate.  Knowing the details of the types of surveys available can take the confusion out of the equation.  

What is an ILC used for?  An ILC or Improvement Location Certificate is usually requested by a Title Insurance Company to remove exceptions from the title policy.  An ILC only guarantees that the major improvements (house and garage) do not encroach upon the property of another.  The ILC is based on my knowledge, as a surveyor, of monuments (property corners) in the area but does not give you any more information.  The ILC doesn't tell you if the neighbor's fence is 8 feet onto your property or if his dog kennel was built over the line.  The ILC doesn't tell your where your property corners are and is the least informative type of survey.  Many surveyors simply don't do ILC's because they lack any real value to the homeowner.  Don't just assume that fences are right and the neighbors just know where the property line is.

What is a Pin Survey?  A Pin Survey is a layman's term for a Land Survey Plat and implies that survey pins, or property corners, will be verified or set.  While a Pin Survey is generally understood as a type of survey that a homeowner needs, the term is vague and never mentioned in Colorado's state statutes.  Use the term Land Survey Plat instead.  

What is included in a Land Survey Plat?  A Land Survey Plat includes field work at the property which results in a drawing.  The field work includes the location of all of the property corners as well as ties to the nearest section corner or other well-established boundary corner.  Generally, it shows the location of all the adjacent properties, identifying the recorded dimensions compared to measurements of recovered field boundary evidence.  Many times, slight differences exist between a recorded plat distance and the actual measured distance between property corners.  This is one of the main responsibilities of the surveyor.  Surveyors are a valuable resource to compare a deed which calls for five acres, and a property with irregular shape.  Does the recorded deed match the field evidence?  Are there any encroachments?  How far does my property extend?

These are important questions a surveyor can answer for you.  While a Land Survey Plat can be an unexpected up-front cost, it gives you the answers to these questions and the confidence and protection to make one of life's biggest purchases.

Floodplain Maps Change?

Yes, FEMA's floodplain maps can and do change: regularly.  Recently, in Boulder County, FEMA updated the set of maps to include some additional areas of flooding concern.  FEMA also removed some areas from the flood-prone areas all together.

Check out the story here:
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_20188387

If you are unsure of the location of your property in relation to the new flood zones, you can search online at:  https://msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FemaWelcomeView?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1

An Elevation Certificate (not an elevation determination) can exclude the need for flood insurance.  At a minimum, an Elevation Certificate is used to determine the flood insurance rate by comparing elevations of the home, garage, basement and adjacent grades to the published Base Flood Elevation.  More information can be found at: http://www.huffmansurveying.com/uploads/2/8/4/1/2841473/elevationcertificate.pdf

Still have questions?  Know someone that needs help navigating the process?  Huffman Surveying can help.  Call 303-421-5263

A Typical Day in February

7 straight months

Thank you for helping to make www.huffmansurveying.com so successful.  Increased traffic to my website for 7 straight months is not an easy task. Quality content and refreshing insight is hard to create after so many years in the surveying business.  And a special thank you to those of you who have left reviews.  Letting others know about your experiences is invaluable.  And don't forget to check out the video page.  Thanks again and lets keep it going in March.

Matt

Another Surveying Review

Matt did a great job creating an Improvement Location Certificate on a small acreage property for one of my clients. His work product was accurate and timely. My client was delighted with his work and it helped them build their fence without encroaching on a neighbor’s property or city easements. I would have no problem referring Matt to any of my clients.

Wendy Atkinson, CRS, GRI, SFR

Prudential Real Estate of the Rockies

Rock Solid Realtors ®- Rock Solid Results

303-465-4798

watkinson42@comcast.net

Thanks Wendy!

A Recent Review

A Recent review from a satisfied customer:

“Matt is an exceptional Surveyor and would be an excellent choice for anyone in the Denver area looking for his service. He has solid experience and training, his manner is warm and friendly, he interacts with his clients as a consultant, and is genuinely concerned about helping his clients accomplish their goals".

This is my recommendation and best wishes for your business.

Thanks

John

John Waters | Realtor®

Your Castle Real Estate

Cell | 303.570.6019

YourHomeMatters

Bids and Contracts

Must have bid a half dozen larger projects this year.  Seems like each project is ideal but I suppose you can't survey everything... Bidding these projects is not an exact science anyway.  Every project hangs in the balance of  finding relevant control and established boundary corners.  It's hard to estimate that balance.  But each bid has been accompanied by a written contract for services.  Identifying a specific scope of service along with an expected schedule helps clients understand the process to completing survey work.  It also specifies the schedule of payments, some with a retainer or deposit, some a flat rate, some an hourly invoice, billed monthly.  One even had a daily rate for a set of specific tasks each day.

Better to be bidding projects than not.  I love to see new and different kinds of surveying projects come across my desk.  I've been doing this long enough to appreciate the variety.

more later

Satisfaction of the Day

Yesterday, I finished the field work for a 10 acre parcel in Pine Junction.  I knew ahead of time that it would take about 3 or 4 hours to traverse to one of the rear property corners as well as to a well head that I had previously missed.  With Saturday approaching, Robin was the clear choice to help.  She doesn't work for free, but at a very good rate..... a pitcher of beer and a slice of pizza is all I had to promise.  We left the house at about 8, grabbed a breakfast burrito and headed into the mountains.  About an hour later, we turned off the highway and drove a couple miles onto a graded dirt road.  I recognized the driveway to the property but paused, feeling like I was being watched.  Above is the photo from less than a hundred feet from the property.  A very good omen as we set to work.

We completed the traverse and picked up a series of utility poles along the back property line.  Robin enjoyed learning to use the instrument and I enjoyed some genuine interest.  I met with the property owner for a few minutes, commenting on how nice his property was.  I walked the property with the owner, exhibiting the boundary and discussing the easements, improvements and features of his land. After a while, we started back down the graded dirt road.  At Pine Junction we stopped to pick up a load of fire wood.  The wood was cheap because it was still a little green.  We hauled and stacked the wood with ease, thankful for the colorful aroma of the wood, the land, the mountains.  The drive back in to the Golden area was easy with the smell of the outdoors still in our noses.  We made a phone call for an ad on craigslist and completed our purchase easily.  (we bought a used wheel-barrow)  Then to Woody's Pizza in Golden for the promised beer and pizza.

The drive back to Arvada was difficult.  With the work at 8900 feet of elevation, the cool weather, hauling a load of firewood, and a belly of pizza, neither of us could keep our eyes open.  The beer didn't help either, but the satisfaction of the day lifted our spirits.  We slept well that night.

Legal Descriptions: Metes and Bounds

Recently, a legal description found its way across my desk that piqued my interest. I thought I would share a few  ideas about it.  A piece of property can be described in many ways, but the three most common forms are: lot and block, metes and bounds, and aliquot parts.  The metes and bounds description usually has a point of commencement, a point of beginning and makes a closed geometric figure.  For example, Smith's property might be described as:

Start at the Big Rock by the Old Church and go North 10 feet, West 10 feet, South 10 feet and East 10 feet.


This description makes a closed, geometric figure.  If one of the called distances were substituted with a distance of 8 feet, the previous square would now have an opening of 2 feet somewhere along the boundary.  This would result in a non-closure, a bust, or an error of closure.  What it really means is that there is an error in one of the calls. The error could be in any of the distances or a combined error of a bearing and a distance or maybe more.  The converse of this is also true, and here's the real kicker.  If a metes and bounds description, like the example above, makes a closed geometric figure, then each of the calls is proven to be correct.  Some exceptions exist, but very, rarely.  The value of a metes and bounds description is that it can be proven to be correct.  To rephrase: a closing metes and bounds description proves the validity of each of the called angles and distances.  A valuable tool to say the least.  Being able to prove mathematically, that a particular angle, bearing or distance is valid and accurate can turn out to be the missing puzzle piece when determining a property boundary.  It's not just the subject property description that I'm talking about.  Many times, calculating the adjoining property description can be just as helpful.
Here's a perfect example: an unrecorded subdivision of 8 parcels in a box canyon community are all described by metes and bounds descriptions.  The legal description of the subject property (the one I'm surveying) contains a scrivener's error that was perpetuated from the last set of transactions.  The subject property description doesn't close.  This is a problem that doesn't repair itself easily.  The solution: calculate the closure of each of the adjoining parcel descriptions to prove their validity and apply the resulting adjoiner angles and distances to the subject property.  Then, make notes and sketches describing the calculations to prove your results.  Maybe I would recommend a new legal description to be written based on those results.  Maybe a new legal description isn't necessary if the scrivener's error is an obvious blunder, and  can be verified by evidence found in the field.
The bottom line:  checking closure on a metes and bounds description is the first step in determining a property boundary.  This week, the words "more or less" within a metes and bounds description eliminated the possibility of checking its validity.  However, the adjoining descriptions, combined with the field evidence, clarified the subject property boundary.  
Problem solved.
more to follow

Acres of Area..... or Inches of Indefinite Boundary

In the past week or so, I have encountered two separate instances in which properties were casually (think casual friday) described by realtors, seller, buyers and others in terms of acres.  In one instance a 38  acres parcel turned out to only have 35 acres.  In another instance, a potential buyer wanted to make an offer on a home on three acres only to find out that the land included with the home was sitting on a one acre parcel and the other two acres had a separate legal description.  The potential buyers were unsure what one acre, two acres or three acres looked like.  To be honest, estimating acreage is difficult, at best, without the benefit of recorded distances associated with the property.  Secondly, just because a legal description has been confirmed to contain one acre, it is difficult to convey that information, over the phone per se, to a realtor or buyer standing in the backyard.  If the confirmed one-acre legal description isn't verified on the ground to see, the buyer and/or realtor might assume the fence line is the edge of the one acre parcel when in fact it isn't.

Background

     I'm from Houston originally, moved to Florida to finish high school, then graduated from the University of South Florida.  Upon graduation, and with no plans, I bumped around for a few months until I got a call from the National Park Service.  An application I had filled out in haste more than 6 months prior had come to fruition.  The job was in Grand Junction, Colorado at the Colorado National Monument as a seasonal park ranger.  I'd never been to Colorado as an adult and was completely blown away.  I'd never seen anything so big.   From that point on, I made it my goal to live and work here....... only took me 13 years.
     After renting a house here in Arvada for a year, we were able to buy a home, just a few blocks away.  My surveying business, Huffman Surveying, has been slow to get going, but improving with each passing season. (I know, seasons right?)
More later.

Welcome!

Welcome and enjoy.
I thought I would start with a little back ground information.  More to follow!