Before you buy land, it is important to understand the boundaries, access, and site conditions that’ll inform what you can do with the property.

While no single report can answer everything you need to know about a property, land surveying and civil engineering give you a reliable picture of the site and a basis for testing what you hope to build.

Start with the acquisition decision

A request for “a survey” does not tell us what could make or break the deal. Your intended use does.

You may need to confirm that the property matches the offering materials, test a development concept, meet a lender’s requirements, investigate access, or understand an easement through the proposed building area. Identify those questions at the outset.

Identify what must be resolved before closing and what can wait until after the purchase. That helps your team focus available time on the facts that affect value, feasibility, and risk.

Establish the property boundary

We compare record descriptions, prior surveys, monuments, and field evidence to determine the relevant boundaries. That work can reveal gaps, overlaps, unclear descriptions, or improvements that do not follow the record lines.

An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is often part of a commercial transaction. Another acquisition may need boundary work, topography, or a phased combination. We’ll coordinate the deliverable with your lender, title insurer, and design team.

Send us the current title commitment and complete exception documents, along with the parcels and any off-site rights included in the acquisition. We’ll use those records to help define the survey scope. If an ALTA survey is required, we’ll confirm the applicable standards and Table A selections with the transaction team before finalizing it.

Put title information on the site plan

An easement or restriction can change where a project works. Review the underlying documents early enough to test their effect against the concept.

Your attorney and title company interpret the legal rights. We map applicable matters that can be plotted and compare them with field conditions. Your design team evaluates the effect on the intended use.

A recorded access easement may be narrower than the proposed drive. A utility corridor may cross the preferred building area. A title exception may refer to a document missing from the initial package. Resolve those gaps before treating the concept as feasible.

Check access in three ways

Access needs to work on the ground, in the records, and for the intended permit.

• Physical access: the route, width, grade, and condition between the public street and the property.
• Legal access: frontage or recorded rights that support the intended use.
• Regulatory access: the jurisdiction’s and fire authority’s requirements for the proposed development.

A visible driveway does not establish a legal right. A recorded easement does not establish that a suitable road can be built. Even public frontage may require improvements or a different access design.

Ask whether utilities can serve the project

A nearby main or a line on a utility map does not establish service capacity, connection rights, or construction cost. Contact the providers early and bring the findings into the feasibility review.

• Water: availability, pressure, meter requirements, and fire flow.
• Sewer: connection location and depth, gravity feasibility, capacity, and extensions.
• Stormwater: discharge options, infiltration, detention, and downstream constraints.
• Power and communications: service routes, equipment, relocations, and easements.
• Private systems: wells, septic, shared facilities, and maintenance rights.

The civil engineer and providers evaluate feasibility. Survey data supplies the locations and elevations needed to test routes, grades, and conflicts. If buried conditions need verification, define the additional investigation rather than assuming a map has answered the question.

Identify what reduces usable land

Gross acreage can hide important constraints. Slopes, wetlands, streams, shorelines, flood hazards, trees, drainage features, contamination, archaeological resources, and existing improvements may affect the development area.

FEMA flood maps and Washington Ecology’s wetland guidance can support initial screening. They do not replace the site-specific work your project may need.

Qualified specialists make the determinations within their disciplines. We locate relevant features and incorporate their information into the survey base. Each line should have a clear source and status so the team can distinguish screening assumptions from verified conditions.

Test the concept against the site

Pair the survey with early land-use and civil engineering review. Your team can then test setbacks, height, coverage, parking, access, frontage, grading, and utilities against a dependable base.

A zoning designation alone does not establish the project’s yield. The property’s geometry, title rights, infrastructure, and physical constraints can be just as consequential.

If the architect or engineer needs design information during the contingency period, define the boundary and topographic scope early. That lets early fieldwork support the next phase where practical.

Work back from the contingency deadline

List the decisions and the last date each can affect the purchase. Allow time for records, site access, fieldwork, analysis, specialist findings, and your team’s review.

Run independent reviews in parallel where useful. Give each open issue an owner, deadline, and stated effect on the acquisition. Reports only help if their findings reach the people making the decision.

A phased survey may focus first on boundary, access, and critical constraints, with further design detail added later. Agree on the limits of the early release so it supports the decisions it can.

A due-diligence brief you can use

• Property: address, all parcels, legal descriptions, and off-site rights.
• Records: title commitment, exception documents, deeds, prior surveys, and plans.
• Intended use: the development concept and key feasibility questions.
• Transaction: lender and title requirements, certification parties, and review deadlines.
• Access and utilities: known rights, provider correspondence, and unresolved service questions.
• Site constraints: available environmental, geotechnical, arborist, and other reports.
• Fieldwork: access contacts, tenant coordination, and restrictions.
• Decision: contingency date, closing date, and the issues that must be answered first.

Common questions

Does a survey establish that land is buildable? No. It establishes important property and site information. Buildability also depends on title, land-use rules, infrastructure, permits, and specialist findings.

Do we always need an ALTA survey? No. The transaction and relying parties determine the appropriate scope. Tell us the acquisition, lender, title, and design requirements.

Can due diligence begin before the concept is finished? Yes. Share the intended use and known questions. Early findings may help shape the concept before your team invests in detailed design.

What should happen to unresolved issues? Give each one an owner and an acquisition decision. Your legal and transaction team can determine how remaining risk affects the agreement, price, schedule, or closing conditions.

Ready for a scope?

Just punch the pulsing green button, fill out a few questions, and we’ll get right to work on your estimate. Because time is the measure.