Why You Need A Survey On A Charlotte, NC. House You Purchase

In Real Estate when I deal with a buyer and we locate a house I go over a checklist of items that I recommend the buyer do once we have reached an agreeable set of terms with the seller. One of those items which more times than not goes without being done is the survey. A survey will be able to tell you exactly where your property lines are and where your boundaries are on the house. It can tell you if someone is encroaching on your property with their fence or out building. It can also tell if you are encroaching on another person property as well....You should never take for granted that the property line is where a fence or a tree lined row of trees are... I recently had two individual situations where the buyers got a survey done on the house they were buying and had an issue with each one. On the first one the neighbors all had fenced in their yards and the current seller piggybacked off that fence and closed in his yard. When the buyer had a survey done she found out that the neighbors fences ALL encroached on her property by at least five feet on each side all along the property lines. This made for an interesting situation since it was three different neighbors that had encroached on the property. It delayed our closing and made for some disgruntled neighbors....However; fi the buyer had not done the survey and went to sell the house down the road it might have come up again when the new buyer did their due diligence and got a survey and then my buyer would be dealing with the neighbors about moving the fence lines. On another situation the seller had put a fence up on her property about 15 years ago. The house was a corner lot and the buyer said I do not need a survey. But decided to get one after telling her the potential issues that could arise without having one. In this case we found out the existing fence was actually 10 feet into the neighbor’s yard along the back part of the house. A fence that has been standing for over 15 years was never really put on the property correctly....had my buyer gone ahead and bought the house without the survey and repaired the fence like she intended to do; she may have had issues down the road if the neighbor decided to sell and found out her property line was actually shorter and had to move the fence.... These are just two recent examples of issues that arose because of a survey...Without one they may not have been known until it was too late... Getting a survey protects you and your rights on what your property lines are. A home is the largest purchase you are going to make. Why not make sure that investment is fully protected? Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker www.davedicecco.com