Mapping a recorded deed: common questions

How do I read the legal description in my deed?

A metes-and-bounds description walks the boundary of the land one course at a time. It starts at the point of beginning, then repeats the word "thence" before each new course until it closes back where it started.

Each course carries a bearing and a distance. A bearing like N 45°30'00" E means 45 degrees and 30 minutes east of due north. The distance that follows it is the length of that course in feet. A course that curves adds a radius, an arc length, and a chord instead of a single straight run.

• Point of beginning: the corner every course is measured from, usually tied to a road or a survey monument.
• Bearing: a compass direction written as quadrant, degrees, minutes, seconds, quadrant.
• Distance: always read in feet here. Older deeds use chains (66 feet), rods (16.5 feet), links (0.66 feet) and varas, and those are converted to feet for you.
• Curve: radius, arc length and chord bearing together describe a bend rather than a straight line.

What kind of scan or file works best?

A PDF with real text in it reads most accurately, because the numbers come straight off the page instead of being guessed from pixels. A clean flatbed scan at 300 dpi reads nearly as well.

Photographs of a page, heavily skewed scans, and pages with a recording stamp printed over the description are where numbers get misread — a distance of 53.50 feet can come back as something else entirely. When a scan is rough, pasting the typed text of the description always works and is the most reliable path.

• Best: text-based PDF of the recorded instrument.
• Good: a straight 300 dpi scan of the page.
• Risky: phone photos, skewed pages, stamps or handwriting across the description.
• Always reliable: paste the legal description as text.

How do I confirm the drawn shape matches the county map?

Three checks settle it. First, compare the area we report in square feet against the square footage the deed itself states — they should agree closely, and a gap of more than a few percent usually means a digit was misread. Second, check that the strip sits on the side of the lot the deed names: a description that says the south line should not draw along the north line. Third, compare the drawn shape against the county's own recorded strip, which is shown on the same map when the county publishes one.

When the figures disagree, trust the recorded document over the drawing and re-read the course where the numbers diverge. A single mistyped bearing or distance moves everything after it, so the first course that looks wrong is usually the only one that is.

Why do some exceptions show as "no shape could be placed"?

Many recorded exceptions describe a right without describing where it runs — a blanket utility easement, a covenant, or a reference to a plat that is not in the document you uploaded. There is no geometry to draw from that text.

In those cases the exception is listed rather than drawn. We will not invent a location the document does not state, because a guessed strip on a map is worse than an honest line of text.