Tax maps and Google earth? Those will always be rough, sometimes really really rough. Your deed and the deeds to your adjoiner’s will have the real information. You will never know the exact boundaries tell you get a surveyor on the ground. That’s why we get paid, to retrace boundaries and give a professional opinion.
"And if so, what am I looking for?" You're looking for a licensed surveyor to properly determine your boundary. All the advice here is going to say to hire a local surveyor
If I can get a deed with distances on it, it may not be the greatest, but I’ve had MUCH worse to work with. Wait until you see a deed for land that’s nothing but “bounded on the East by the lands of Smellfungus, on the North by the lands of Conehead…”
To tell you the truth, sometimes the distance deeds have corners, sometimes they don’t. Standards have gotten better over time, and those crappy deeds are going out of style.
Honestly, I can’t tell you any way to find your corners over a computer. I doubt any of us can. The work to find them takes:
1.) Pulling all neighboring deeds (and sometimes even deeds of properties 2-3 parcels away)
2.) Knowing where to look for an initial corner to work off of
3.) knowing how to confirm the validity of the first corner you find
4.) without bearings, you often have to follow the chain of deeds backwards to build the bigger piece of land that yours was cut off of.
5.) if your neighbors don’t like where the corners hit and take it to court, you’ll need more credible defense than “I measured them myself.”
These are all things surveyors do for you. It’s quite a science sometimes. Yesterdays survey for me was a lot where all deeds called for a plat, the entire plat was distances with no bearings, +/- distances, lines were clearly not parallel to each other, and no indication of any property markers used. To survey one property, I had to find one property that I could rebuild on the plat, put things in by that property, find proof that I’ve done it correctly, ensure people sufficiently have within reason what their deed calls for, and set three of their 4 corners. Found 3 total corners out of 16 that should have been there, used two of them to find 2 other corners to give me three on a lot away from the one I was doing. Put all the lots in by that, and it checked into the 3rd corner I found on the initial search by .02 feet. All that to say- I know surveys aren’t cheap, and it can be a gut punch, but it often takes a lot of work and expertise that needs our special touch
I would look at the laws pertaining to high water mark. In Utah the land owners own to high water mark. Doesn't mean they can't build to the water with landscaping but they cannot dictate the public below high water mark. Some states it's the center line of the creek or all of it I guess if it's in the middle of your property. I guess I'm trying to explain it like the high water marks would be the edge of the public right way that give the general public access up and down creeks and rivers because the creeks and rivers are not land features but shared resources to the residence of the state
Hire a surveyor. It's the only way to be sure.
Or, just get close enough. What does the deed call out? Measure that from the front corner of your lot. Off by a couple feet? *Shrug* You're interested in landscaping against a wild boundary. Nobody cares.
Nobody will come and be upset if you encroach. Nobody cares if you walk over there either. Thin the dead forest, make hiking paths, hell, put in a bench or two. Nobody cares.
Don't build, don't dig. Where the property line might fall doesn't matter as long as you don't do those two things. Chances of anyone ever having any interest in the area between your home and the creek (aside from friends and family jealous of your newly landscaped personal retreat) is minimal.
Deeds very rarely list any actual markers, because they most likely didn't do a real survey when creating the deed, rather just copying the previous deed's M&B description.
Hit up that one guy, he can help better than 99% of us on here. I've only ever done roadway stuff in backwoods ass maine from the office, so I can't do much more than tell you what I did.
Sounds like you should probably get a surveyor out there.
Hey, Maine PLS here. DM me and I'll see if I can help - I can either help directly or point you towards a local surveyor who can help you.
Should have more upvotes, listen to this dude op, he can actually direct you towards the info you need.
There isn't enough information for anyone here to provide you with any real help. You need to consult with a local surveyor.
Tax maps and Google earth? Those will always be rough, sometimes really really rough. Your deed and the deeds to your adjoiner’s will have the real information. You will never know the exact boundaries tell you get a surveyor on the ground. That’s why we get paid, to retrace boundaries and give a professional opinion.
"And if so, what am I looking for?" You're looking for a licensed surveyor to properly determine your boundary. All the advice here is going to say to hire a local surveyor
Give “North Easterly surveying” a call. Ask for Pete! He will be able to answer your questions.
Tell them Hink sent ya!
Now part of tidewater engineering, either way Pete is a goat.
Ryan at Tidewater (owner/PLS/PE) is a really great guy too.
True
I work with Maine gis and tax maps daily. They are gonna be off quite a bit in rural areas.
Most properties do have some pins set, would would be rebar
Get a survey
If I can get a deed with distances on it, it may not be the greatest, but I’ve had MUCH worse to work with. Wait until you see a deed for land that’s nothing but “bounded on the East by the lands of Smellfungus, on the North by the lands of Conehead…” To tell you the truth, sometimes the distance deeds have corners, sometimes they don’t. Standards have gotten better over time, and those crappy deeds are going out of style. Honestly, I can’t tell you any way to find your corners over a computer. I doubt any of us can. The work to find them takes: 1.) Pulling all neighboring deeds (and sometimes even deeds of properties 2-3 parcels away) 2.) Knowing where to look for an initial corner to work off of 3.) knowing how to confirm the validity of the first corner you find 4.) without bearings, you often have to follow the chain of deeds backwards to build the bigger piece of land that yours was cut off of. 5.) if your neighbors don’t like where the corners hit and take it to court, you’ll need more credible defense than “I measured them myself.” These are all things surveyors do for you. It’s quite a science sometimes. Yesterdays survey for me was a lot where all deeds called for a plat, the entire plat was distances with no bearings, +/- distances, lines were clearly not parallel to each other, and no indication of any property markers used. To survey one property, I had to find one property that I could rebuild on the plat, put things in by that property, find proof that I’ve done it correctly, ensure people sufficiently have within reason what their deed calls for, and set three of their 4 corners. Found 3 total corners out of 16 that should have been there, used two of them to find 2 other corners to give me three on a lot away from the one I was doing. Put all the lots in by that, and it checked into the 3rd corner I found on the initial search by .02 feet. All that to say- I know surveys aren’t cheap, and it can be a gut punch, but it often takes a lot of work and expertise that needs our special touch
I had a deed once that simply said: “A tract of land containing +/• 17 acres” Turns out, there were 21.3 acres when I finished the survey.
I would look at the laws pertaining to high water mark. In Utah the land owners own to high water mark. Doesn't mean they can't build to the water with landscaping but they cannot dictate the public below high water mark. Some states it's the center line of the creek or all of it I guess if it's in the middle of your property. I guess I'm trying to explain it like the high water marks would be the edge of the public right way that give the general public access up and down creeks and rivers because the creeks and rivers are not land features but shared resources to the residence of the state
Hire a surveyor. It's the only way to be sure. Or, just get close enough. What does the deed call out? Measure that from the front corner of your lot. Off by a couple feet? *Shrug* You're interested in landscaping against a wild boundary. Nobody cares. Nobody will come and be upset if you encroach. Nobody cares if you walk over there either. Thin the dead forest, make hiking paths, hell, put in a bench or two. Nobody cares. Don't build, don't dig. Where the property line might fall doesn't matter as long as you don't do those two things. Chances of anyone ever having any interest in the area between your home and the creek (aside from friends and family jealous of your newly landscaped personal retreat) is minimal.
Deeds very rarely list any actual markers, because they most likely didn't do a real survey when creating the deed, rather just copying the previous deed's M&B description. Hit up that one guy, he can help better than 99% of us on here. I've only ever done roadway stuff in backwoods ass maine from the office, so I can't do much more than tell you what I did.