Do I need a survey to locate an easement?

Recorded easements are described in words: a width, a centerline, a bearing and distance from a monument. Turning that description into stakes on the ground is surveying work, and small errors in reading it become expensive when a slab is already poured.

A boundary and easement survey does three things at once: it locates the parcel lines, it plots every recorded easement from the title commitment, and it shows where physical features actually sit relative to both. That last part is what reveals encroachments before someone else finds them.

You can skip the survey for low-stakes questions — understanding a title exception, planning shallow landscaping — and our parcel maps are useful for that. They are drawn from free public data and are not a survey, so they orient you rather than authorize construction.

What this looks like in practice

The rule of thumb professionals use is simple: if a mistake would cost more than the survey, buy the survey. A fence rebuilt is a weekend and a few hundred dollars. A foundation relocated, or a title objection cleared under closing pressure, is neither.

Surveys also catch the discrepancy nobody looks for, which is a facility installed outside its recorded corridor. That is common enough with older utility work to be worth confirming before you plan around the pole you can see.