Has anyone else seen this?
I did a ranch survey and one of the requests was that it be an ALTA survey. Even bidding such a thing was extremely difficult and after long discussion the idea was dropped by the title company and the buyers.
Now I'm doing a smaller boundary less that a tenth the size and the title people are talking ALTA again.
Well there is quite a bit of infrastructure on this parcel, and to do an ALTA would be very costly.
It looks like the idea is being dropped again once they got a cost from me to do such a thing, but still I wonder where the idea is coming from.
Is it just a check list title people have, there just wasn't anyway to adjust the list of requirements where an ALTA makes any sense for these properties, just how far do you take something like that on ranch properties?
Wind farms?
It's the money. Many lenders require them and if title won't provide coverage without waiving the survey requirement then an ALTA is born!:-)
maybe, you could be onto something with one property. Not the other one however. I think they were just not that experienced with dealing with large properties, I know the title work could have been better.
There weren't any lenders, that's what is strange
We get a lot of these lately. Clients are wanting insurance that 'deal breaker' conditions won't make engineering efforts worthless...
A few out of State metro dwellers have inquired upon having an ALTA survey made on their get away vacation spot or the family estate they have inherited.
I would be happy to do that for them, the price usually detours into a simple land survey very quickly, that is if they don't hang up first.
I once did a survey on property that was in total was around 10,000 acres in several large tracts. After I was done they asked me how much to turn them into ALTA surveys. I told them over a million dollars and I wasn't joking. They just had no idea what it took to do an ALTA.
Yeah, the first property would have been well over a million for a full blown ALTA, I suppose all the items could have been excluded, but then why bother.
just the flood plain itself would have been a major undertaking.
> I did a ranch survey and one of the requests was that it be an ALTA survey. Even bidding such a thing was extremely difficult and after long discussion the idea was dropped by the title company and the buyers.
An basic ALTA with no (or very limited) Table A items would not be far different from a very thorough boundary survey.
They think that asking for an ALTA makes them sound like they know what they're doing.
I think you nailed it.
> An basic ALTA with no (or very limited) Table A items would not be far different from a very thorough boundary survey.
That's what I am thinking as well. In Florida, the basic boundary survey with its existing requirements is pretty close to a minimal ALTA survey. The only major difference is the basic Florida boundary survey does not require a review of the title commitment and the showing the B2 encumbrances. If it is a simple property, an ALTA many not cost that much more.
