Land plat maps

mandm

mandm

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Does anyone have a subscription to a land plat map service or well versed in finding information on land?

I’m looking at a lot, I have the survey, but I want to see from an aerial perspective where the lot lines are and the river frontage and preferably the distances of the boundary lines in feet.
 
I am able to see mine with GE, but I set all my fences 6" from surveyor's marks and can see it all clearly from space! Does your survey have boundaries in coordinates or is it all that old school "a 520' line beginning 12' 4" due S of an "X" engraved on a rocky outcropping..."
 
mandm said:
Does anyone have a subscription to a land plat map service or well versed in finding information on land?

I’m looking at a lot, I have the survey, but I want to see from an aerial perspective where the lot lines are and the river frontage and preferably the distances of the boundary lines in feet.
Click to expand...
I just went through something similar for a property we are in the process of buying. I searched by county/city and "GIS" and was able to find our county's property plats on GIS maps. In our case, and I've been told in general, the shapes of the plats are correct or match what is registered, but the placement on the map may be off by tens of feet. YMMV.

An example: https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=fauquier+county+GIS
This will eventually get you to the Fauquier (VA) GIS site and the tax parcel viewer will let you see the property lines. Different locations apparently have different levels of service.

Nauga,
and his PLAT camera
 
Last edited:
Let'sgoflying! said:
I am able to see mine with GE, but I set all my fences 6" from surveyor's marks and can see it all clearly from space! Does your survey have boundaries in coordinates or is it all that old school "a 520' line beginning 12' 4" due S of an "X" engraved on a rocky outcropping..."
Click to expand...
Sent a PM, it has coordinates.
 
nauga said:
I just went through something similar for a property we are in the process of buying. I searched by county/city and "GIS" and was able to find our county's property plats on GIS maps. In our case, and I've been told in general, the shapes of the plats are correct or match what is registered, but the placement on the map may be off by tens of feet. YMMV.

An example: https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=fauquier+county+GIS
This will eventually get you to the Fauquier (VA) GIS site and the tax parcel viewer will let you see the property lines. Different locations apparently have different levels of service.

Nauga,
and his PLAT camera
Click to expand...
I’m finding some private services but the plat map shape doesn’t match the survey lot shape, the acres on both matches. Trying to figure out what’s up.
 
mandm said:
I’m finding some private services but the plat map shape doesn’t match the survey lot shape, the acres on both matches. Trying to figure out what’s up.
Click to expand...
I went through something similar and got to know people in my county's Assessor's Office very well. If these services aren't using what's registered with the local Assessor in their data find a better service. If the Assessor's version of the lot shape doesn't match what you have, there's a new deed or survey or some something like that that is later than yours. It took us a while to sort out a boundary discrepancy.

ETA: It's also possible your survey was not registered with your assessor. AMHIK.

Nauga,
bounded and gaggded
 
The "tax maps" previously mentioned are generally accessible through the county assessor's website.
 
Also, some properties may have more than one PIN. For instance, C81 has like 6 PIN's attached to it. So that could be a reason things don't match up.
 
I’ve always used the County’s GIS map. Free to use online and works well with HTML5 viewer.
 
The acres of the survey and the plat maps online match exactly. But the shape of said lot is widely different.
 
There is an iOS app called “LandGlide” that’s really good, with owner info, etc.”. There is a charge, I think it’s $10/mo.
 
mandm said:
The acres of the survey and the plat maps online match exactly. But the shape of said lot is widely different.
Click to expand...
We had something similar and after extensive digging found that a land swap that changed the shape but not the acreage (for permitting purposes) had occurred that was not reflected in the plat that was provided to us but was registered with the county. Your assessor will have the accepted plat, if you have something the assessor does not you're going to have a tough time convincing your assessor that they are wrong and you are right.

Nauga,
coloring inside the lines
 
RyanB said:
I’ve always used the County’s GIS map.
Click to expand...
Word of warning - the locality GIS maps should reflect the registered boundary shapes, but there is no assurance that the placement of the boundaries on the map image is correct. In our case the GIS map showed the property line passing through a building on the property, while actually walking the lines based on survey markers showed the building was ~30 ft inside the line. The county warned us about this and a couple of surveyers we spoke to in the course of straightening this out said that the maps are notoriously inaccurate, regardless of county or state.

Nauga,
and Johnny Cash
 
nauga said:
Word of warning - the locality GIS maps should reflect the registered boundary shapes, but there is no assurance that the placement of the boundaries on the map image is correct. In our case the GIS map showed the property line passing through a building on the property, while actually walking the lines based on survey markers showed the building was ~30 ft inside the line. The county warned us about this and a couple of surveyers we spoke to in the course of straightening this out said that the maps are notoriously inaccurate, regardless of county or state.

Nauga,
and Johnny Cash
Click to expand...
How many acres do you have? How many acres do you need so you don’t hear your neighbors? Hehe

The whole area according to the apps and tax roll is owned by the same family, not the same person but cousins uncles aunts etc all the same last name. Doing further research it appears the road to access this particular lot of interest is on the cousins land, the road is labeled as CR so I assume it’s “county road” but the survey also shows this road as going directly onto the neighbors lot (maybe not county then? and who would maintain it?) whereas the river behind it is shown as another lot (public land). So I am guessing this land is basically landlocked? So typically you’d want to skip something like this, but it appears as though there is a camper with electricity on the lot of interest so there is access, but this might be a family ok you can pass through my land to get to yours, this would be called an “easement” right? I’m guessing I need to check if there is a recorded easement of access and then it would be ok? Or since it’s family as long as they are on good terms could the other lot owner agree to the access and it’s officially on record? Or does this sound like a deal breaker? I don’t want to risk not having access to the lot from this road, so my questions are more how to make this so it’s official and cannot later be challenged.

Thanks for all of the information, all new stuff to me. And yes will have the proper items checked out in due course but I want to do my own research and negotiation before proceeding, once terms are agreed there would be a contingency and then everything would be checked out by a survey title and lawyer as needed prior to closing. If the stuff doesn’t line up then would not proceed and use the contingency to back out.
 
nauga said:
Word of warning - the locality GIS maps should reflect the registered boundary shapes, but there is no assurance that the placement of the boundaries on the map image is correct. In our case the GIS map showed the property line passing through a building on the property, while actually walking the lines based on survey markers showed the building was ~30 ft inside the line. The county warned us about this and a couple of surveyers we spoke to in the course of straightening this out said that the maps are notoriously inaccurate, regardless of county or state.

Nauga,
and Johnny Cash
Click to expand...
Yep, I’ve found several errors in our local GIS map. I have used it primarily for City business, but don’t put much stock into it until our engineers send out a surveyor. It gives a pretty good idea, but it’s basically just advisory.
 
Have you gone to the courthouse and looked at the plat itself? If not, I would suggest doing so. GIS websites are helpful, but it's the plat that governs. While you're there, take a look at the deed for any recorded easements. Have you done a survey? If not, it's worth the money to prevent confusion later. I've purchased three parcels of unimproved land and on two of them, the survey was off on one corner from what the seller portrayed (one to my advantage, the other not). Finally, once everyone is in agreement as to the property boundaries, I recommend purchasing title insurance at the closing. It is relatively inexpensive, and covers you if there is a dispute in the future.
 
mandm said:
How many acres do you have? How many acres do you need so you don’t hear your neighbors? Hehe

The whole area according to the apps and tax roll is owned by the same family, not the same person but cousins uncles aunts etc all the same last name. Doing further research it appears the road to access this particular lot of interest is on the cousins land, the road is labeled as CR so I assume it’s “county road” but the survey also shows this road as going directly onto the neighbors lot (maybe not county then? and who would maintain it?) whereas the river behind it is shown as another lot (public land). So I am guessing this land is basically landlocked? So typically you’d want to skip something like this, but it appears as though there is a camper with electricity on the lot of interest so there is access, but this might be a family ok you can pass through my land to get to yours, this would be called an “easement” right? I’m guessing I need to check if there is a recorded easement of access and then it would be ok? Or since it’s family as long as they are on good terms could the other lot owner agree to the access and it’s officially on record? Or does this sound like a deal breaker? I don’t want to risk not having access to the lot from this road, so my questions are more how to make this so it’s official and cannot later be challenged.

Thanks for all of the information, all new stuff to me. And yes will have the proper items checked out in due course but I want to do my own research and negotiation before proceeding, once terms are agreed there would be a contingency and then everything would be checked out by a survey title and lawyer as needed prior to closing. If the stuff doesn’t line up then would not proceed and use the contingency to back out.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure who you could ask for this info, but from experience, I do know who NOT to ask: the realtor! I once attempted to buy a house, with cash no less, that turns out, was improperly located on the lot. It was built right ON the property line between it's 20 acres and the neighbor's 20 acres (they had 20 acres to work with, and still built the damn thing right ON the property line!!!). Against the realtor's advice (advice was "it can be easily handled since you're a cash buyer") I walked on that one, and 5 years after, I saw it was still for sale, with both owners still in court.
 
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