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105 Ac ALTA
Posted by MightyMoe on July 29, 2020 at 3:37 pmA buyer from out of town requested an ALTA survey on a 105 Acre tract. Far as I know it’s a fully checked ALTA. He gets two quotes from locals 2.5k and 5k. Yikes!!!
The boundary is not too bad, it’s in a sectional area but it’s metes and bounds, no sectional breakdown required.
But an ALTA?. For 105 acre hobby farm, on a creek, needs topo, flood plain, it’s in a recently active O&G area, probably a research of the O&G surface use agreements, water rights, on and on.
Of course all the ALTA boxes can be checked off leaving only a boundary, still…????…
andy-bruner replied 3 years, 8 months ago 15 Members · 26 Replies- 26 Replies
2.5k….Wow, I cant even get a crew to a project site for that little. Don’t these idiot realize they can make a lot more money? should be more like 35-50k.
I agree with @stlsurveyor! Especially if there are active well heads with leases and undoubtedly numerous extraction and access easements. $50/acre on the high quote…how does one even keep the lights on for that?
This really shouldn’t be an ALTA, of course I wouldn’t even bid it without knowing exactly how many items for an ALTA would be checked. I figure only the boundary checked would get you down there.
Sometimes people from the urban east will request an ALTA when it’s not done here for ranch/farm lands. It’s always a commercial property that requests an ALTA.
I did have one title company request an ALTA for a 33,000 acre parcel, we talked them down from that one.
Not many ALTA surveys made here, mostly Title Boundary surveys for a mortgage and title insurance purposes.
It is not uncommon for a similar survey to cost half that or perhaps $1,500.
Many times it is done under a lot of canopy with RTK and only gathering data around the corners of the property and ignoring any monuments to adjoining lands along the boundaries and not locating fences or timber markings along and around the boundaries.
Mostly they are wanting it as soon as possible and are leaving the decisions for accuracy and what is located and shown up to the surveyor.
We have a responsibility to survey every project with an extensive search for monuments and locate all fences and lanes and other aspects found along all the boundaries and to take into consideration the senior and junior rights of meets and bounds surveys which means locating monuments beyond the project property.
I can not understand some of the results that have made their way into the records when I follow them and record distances 0.6ft different and that is when I can find what monument is at the corners.
Cut-rate surveying is not for me and I really do not like following after them.
0.02
A lot of times they will ask for an ALTA survey when what they really want or need is a topo survey. Apparently they heard someone say ALTA survey in order to get a topo survey.
@charles-l-dowdell that happens a lot. Had a guy I went to church with selling vacant lot in a platted subdivision. He asked me to do a ALTA for him. I told him no! And educated on the difference.
5k is about half of what just a boundary survey would cost in FL. ????
@flga
That would be far more than the price paid to acquire the tract in many cases in Smalltown USA. I have had a few surveys where the survey cost was more than the purchase price but very few over the years. I did survey my own tract consisting of three city lots that I acquired at a tax sale for a purchase price of $1. But, I charged myself $0 for the job.
@holy-cow I took a call yesterday from a gentleman who was wanting to buy 3 acres from a 100 acre tract in the middle of BFE with riparian right issues. I told him about 5-6 k. He said he was buying the land for about 3.5k, it’s swamp wasteland, only good for shooting turkeys.
Here’s an example of Oceanfront raw land that sold for $1.71m.
$1,395,000 – 2.8 acresAvailable7142 County Road 30A , Port St Joe, FL 32456 – Gulf CountyResidentialUndevelopedBeachfrontWaterfrontCould buy turkey at the supermarket for the rest of his life for less total dollars. Besides, wild turkey isn’t very tasty, in my opinion.
@flga
I understand. We just don’t have anything that pricey anywhere near here. I am familiar though with people who have more dollars than sense. People who will pay triple the going price for a piece of land just because they think they might be able to shoot a deer or turkey once or twice per year. Maybe even get drunk with some of their buddies while sending one to the hospital on occasion due to carelessness.
@flga
Prices are soaring here. People pumping money in fleeing other parts of the country.
Table A and Schedule B- I won’t give any new client who wants a proposal a number without seeing those two things first. That said- I can see 5K on a tract that size in a very-best case scenario around here. Gimme 4 corners, no exceptions, improvements, conflicts, or cloud of title all the way around it, and minimal Table A and you’re there- a day for field, a day for office, and a day for “just in case”.
I once did a survey of a little over 10,000 acres, in about 6 different parcels. A very rural area, and after I was done they asked how much to make it an ALTA survey. I can??t remember exactly what I said but I think I told them a million dollars.
It’s been like that here since Disney World opened in 1971 and still going strong. ????
- Posted by: @holy-cow
@flga
I understand. We just don’t have anything that pricey anywhere near here. I am familiar though with people who have more dollars than sense. People who will pay triple the going price for a piece of land just because they think they might be able to shoot a deer or turkey once or twice per year. Maybe even get drunk with some of their buddies while sending one to the hospital on occasion due to carelessness.
We are selling my father’s place. 20 acres, 2 acre pond, 2000 sf log cabin, 3 outbuildings, windmill, 2 water wells. All for $245,000. I sure do hate to see it go but my sisters and I can’t afford to keep it up. Now we’re got to sort out all the STUFF that’s in it and the outbuildings, some of it over 100 years old I’m sure.
Andy
@andy-bruner that is tough buddy. I feel your pain, we are going through similar stuff with my dad’s folks farm. Emotions. Feelings. Allow them.
I went to my Dad’s funeral in foam Lake Saskatchewan and went for a little drive around town. I saw a for sale sign on a vacant lot. It said for sale $1. That’s not a typo, it was for sale for a buck.
I remember my Dad telling me about the guy across the street from his apartment. He sold his 2 bedroom, 1 bath, with a detached garage, for $1,250.00. That wasn’t a typo either…
Location, location, location…
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
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