I just was requested to do a survey in a location I haven't been near for 20 years. Love going there but it's a ways from my office and you need an overnight stay at least one night. It is west of a county I've been in often the last year call it County #1. County #1's records office is the most challenging I've ever been in. Not all the fault of the county, the records can be stored in at least three sites scattered over 70 miles. You never know for sure where to go, at least I don't feel too bad about that since I had a title person looking for a deed record and they finally gave up.
Well the county I hadn't been in for 20 years County #2 was less challenging back in those days but it was still a dusty place and I figured I would need to spend at least a morning to get going. Problem is all the vaults around here are closed, my local one makes you beg for permission, climb though the back window, tightrope a narrow taped down path, answer a page full of questions, sign your life away and then they might let you in if they deem it essential. So I went on line and what do you know, I was able to get everything and then some. Seems County #2 has it all on line unlike County #1 that has nothing. I got the deeds for my client, for the neighbors, all the corner records, the COS's and Subdivisions, I was even able to trace down a DOT survey that shows Section Corners ties that relate to the subdivisions and the COS's.
It took me a few hours but still quicker than sitting in the old vault. Which I doubt they would allow me to access cause of the virus. They have way more info online than my home county that has only goes back in the deed books to the year 2000 with their scans.
I was able to put together all the Subdivisions, the COS's the corner records and plot the entire boundary in state plane cause of the DOT info. My client's deed is old, it has courses like N54d30'W, 540 feet with no qualifiers to describe the boundary where all the neighbors are either in a new subdivision or a newer Certificate of Survey, since the DOT map ties the section corners referenced on the plats each corner of my client's boundary is shown as a fresh monument on a plat, I'm able to put the corners into TBC with a State Plane Coordinate, well a scaled State Plane Coordinate anyway. None of the subdivisions or Certificate of Surveys are state plane of course, even the DOT map is on ground coordinates which I ignored and used their metric state plane coordinate numbers and developed my own adjustment factor which matched a plat .06' over two miles.
Sweet, now if my home county can get on the ball...????...
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Lots of money and lots of time.?ÿ Nearly every county I work in does not have either of those items.?ÿ In the long run it is a tremendous savings to anyone in the county needing survey work accomplished, but, in old, established communities with little new construction that represents less than one percent of the tax payers.
That's one great thing about Alaska, all (almost) recorded deeds and surveys for the whole state are available online for free. The older ones are just the scanned books and aren't indexed anyway, except the old scanned index books, but they are all there.?ÿ
Free wasn't available for this county, it was $5/hr, +$.15 a print. Still it was way cheaper than a trip to the vault.
There are also some free online DOT resources that can be very helpful for highways and railroads.
I wish my county would go to the same fee schedule, 5/hr, 15/day, 480/yr. The local cost is 5/day, 1500/yr. The local cost makes no sense, why pay 1500/yr when you can pay 5/day.
Sweet, now if my home county can get on the ball...????...
Similar situation here, my county has nothing online, I had to file a Public Records Act request and follow it up with multiple letters to the Recorder and the County Counsel in order to get digital copies of filed maps.?ÿ The next county over has all maps online, no charge.
At least we have all maps, but there is a yearly fee, plus you need to organize them yourself which we do by STR, LBC.
It's my understanding from friends over at the SC DOT/PF ROW Dept that they scanned the regions entire volume of index books into a searchable Adobe Acrobat document. Took quite some time for their computers to chew through it all but they're now searchable.
I post certain boundary surveys online. Up to 2300. You can view them on your phone sorted by section, township range. County surveyors in Colorado required to file the maps. Unfortunately, the funding for this comes from the board of commissioners, therefore since it is political, very few counties offer this online feature of online convenience (waste of money)
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In the Boise area there's a third party company that created a GIS that you can subscribe to.?ÿ Has all the plats, ROS, CP&Fs, etc.?ÿ It's pretty incredible though it would be nice if every state in the US simply found the money to do it themselves...
Iowa has free online access to deeds, plats, and corner records for all counties on one site. Earliest date may vary among counties, but seems to be late 1990's/early 2000's where I've looked.
That's a lot better than nothing, but it's a rare survey that doesn't require research furhther back than the 90's.
Texas has regulated the cost per page of information at no more than $1 a page and drawings according to the size of paper, maxing out at $5, that is from the county records.
TxDot files are usually available in pdf and can order and receive in an email and their design departments usually have RR maps.
Half the counties in my area have information online and I have lost touch with my contacts that did deed research on those counties which makes getting research there difficult because of the distances needed to travel before being able to start on the ground.
Having sources to gather research is part of being able to compete in those areas, some know the right people that can run a query on their computer and have it all printed out in less time it would take to drive there or send it all in pdf to your email. Well worth the cost if you are among the "in crowd".
Many areas in each county have black holes in what information is available and the appraisal maps either simply do not show owners names or throws some info on there that does not really apply.
Presently, the courthouses and state offices are closed to the public and it is necessary to order any information and have it sent by mail or email.
Speaking of how far back records are available online, one can go to the South Middlesex (Middlesex County, MA) registry of deeds ( http://www.masslandrecords.com/MiddlesexSouth/), do a Recorded Land / Unindexed Property Search for Book 1 Page 1, and see a deed from 1649 by which Brian Pendleton of Watertown sold land and houses in Watertown to Robert Daniel of Cambridge, for 83 pounds to be paid in three installments.
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One neighboring county has them back to about 2010.?ÿ Another has them back to about 2018.?ÿ As was mentioned above, if they don't go back to the first deed in the first deed book they are probably inadequate for what we do in boundary surveying.?ÿ A couple of months ago I had to go back to about 1880 to find the document creating the railroad strip across our tract.?ÿ That date being critical because our longwinded but faulty description pre-dated the railroad as it was written about five years earlier.?ÿ Some had assumed the railroad was somehow defining one side of our tract.
I've got a tract that is split by a state highway. According to the regulators the 58 Ac. portion of the lands west of the highway can be sold off if the state highway is fee, if it's easement then no. Simple enough, just research back to the creation of the highway (guessing 1934) and go from there.
However the vault is closed cause of the virus. I'm guessing that that section of highway is fee, but I have both types along it so I'm not sure. Really wish they had those deeds online.
