Buying a couple acres, how to make legal?

Nevada- please read this again:

Nevada- What works for you may not work for others in different parts of the Country in different situations. Here, I KNOW PEOPLE who are now regretting they didn't do what I wrote. Skipping any of those can work out sometimes (when the situations are right), but I don't think it is worth the risk unless the Buyer knows enough. Certainly, I am entitled to my opinion as are you and seeing first hand the results of not getting a survey when there has NOT been one done to legally confirm the corners of the property, having a proper Legal Description drawn up (if there isn't one). If the Seller is saavy enough about how to write a Legal Description, you bet he can do it himself. This Post, had to do with a property owner portioning off a piece to sell to the HTer (not a legally separate parcel). So, I stand by my post and respect you have your own opinion and am glad it worked out for you I'd never buy a piece of land without it legally being a separate parcel.

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

While a land surveyor should certainly be savvy enough to prepare a property description, it's normally done by an engineer. One thing's for sure, a lawyer or title agent couldn't prepare one if their lives depended on it. I know, I used to prepare legal descriptions back in Arizona.

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Here, Real Estate Attorneys do Legal Descriptions, too. I use a very sharp one who uncovered mistakes in the original Legal Description, which benefited the Buyers in a BIG way He made the corrections to it, and made sure it was filed correctly with the County. In other States, you may need an Engineer to do the Legal Description, but not here. I can also do my own, have to be able to read them, and don't consider it a big deal. I am prohibited from assisting others to write them or face incurring a fine. No thanks! Title Officers aren't allowed to write Legal Descriptions. The Survey wouldn't be necessary if the main property has marked corners and a proper Legal Description. Can you imagine buying property and building your home, only to find a corner of the house was on someone else's property? Where that property is, there may not be UBC's. Here, we don't trust the County for anything, errors all the time. I am sure you see that, too!

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

It wasn't required in Arizona. It was just one of those things they asked us to do.

But for a simple subdivision I don't have a problem with using an existing legal description and saying that the new sub-parcel is, for example, the eastern half of that parcel. I see that kind of thing a lot.

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This topic has been interesting to me because I am going to sell some land soon to my sister. Only in out case selling her the whole piece instead of just part of it.

Thanks for all the help, I will certainly be diligent, no matter how trustworthy the farmer is.

There is some confusion here because a "description" actual is a survey. A survey can either be a verbal written description (called a "metes and bounds description") or it can be a plat. In either case, part of the metes and bounds description would certainly include the dimensions of the parcel you are getting as well as the exact location -- where it is in relation to other known points of reference. I didn't see where you live, obviously a less "developed" area than mine.

FYI, as example to sort of guide your awareness, in my county in Virginia, in order to sell a small parcel to a person I (mistakenly) trusted, there were a lot of hoops to jump through: first an application for permission (cost $75) which included a copy of my recorded plat with a hand-drawn tiny plat to indicate where the proposed buyer's parcel would be; then a permit from the health department (I forget the cost) that the soil would perk and where the septic field and back-up field would be (which sometimes means you have to hire a backhoe to dig test pits and sometimes you hire a soils engineer), where the buyer's house would be located and how many bedrooms (to determine the size of the septic fields) and where the well would be (distant from and above the septic field) which process required a survey of the boundary lines of the parcel and a separate survey (indicated for the health department on the plat of the boundary survey) of the septic fields and the fall of the land; there were copies of this data for the health, zoning and building departments to make sure such things as set-backs for the home were complied with, etc. In addition, there is title search (did I actually own the property?), title insurance, the lawyer to draw up the deed and file it with the courts, an addressing person who came out with his gps and designated a house number and filed the coordinates for the 911 system, and of course, as has been mentioned by almost everyone, the matter of the easement across the larger parcel to the parcel that was going to be subdivided and off-conveyed. In my county, a new easement has to be 50 feet and there are permits to be obtained for soil disturbance and that is an enormous can of worms including recorded maintenance agreements. Perhaps the parcel you are getting in on a county-maintained road, so you don't have to deal with an easement across other people's land? If not, beware!!!!!

All this red tape and paperwork relate to your property tax bills which are in part based on what you paid for the land and in part what an assessor thinks it is worth based on commensurate nearby sales and property transfers.

I wish you very good luck. Your situation sounds ideal and quite lovely, but you also ought to know that from time to time people have made verbal or unrecorded or improperly recorded purchase agreements which were revoked or nullified, whereby it was determined after an expensive court proceeding that they had built their home and barns or whatever on other peoples' land (which is why everybody here is so adamant that you get a proper survey)and after they have a falling out or dispute as a result of which they are ejected from the land, guess what? If that nice home is affixed to the land, it stays with the land and tough noogies for the builder who paid for all the materials and invested the labor and love.

In any case, you want this to be a win-win situation for you and for your benefactor, so be sure to do everything right so as to avoid loss and friction in the future. I wish you the best of luck!

What we're referring to is the legal description that appears on the deed, which is very often described as metes and bounds but doesn't need to be. The survey is recorded separately from the deed and can be extensive. The survey for most properties is recorded by the subdivision developer and covers the entire subdivision phase. Unless the property is subdivided, there is seldom any need for a future survey.

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The property will not be divided again. This is quiet rare for the mennonit community here. They are buying up land as fast as they can, so the fact that this yoder is willing to split off a small part is a God thing. I believe it will be possible to just have a legal description drawn up, bc of the lay. Of this land.