Auto news on Youtube Mar 27 2018

Hello folks, Frank Schaefer III

with Coldwell Banker here to

answer your real estate questions

from the mail bag.

This week's question comes from

David in the great City of Baltimore.

When I look at my estimate of

settlement costs

it shows that I am paying for a survey.

I understand that a survey is used

to verify property boundaries.

Do you really think it is necessary

to pay for a survey if I am buying

a townhouse with practically no yard?

I think it should be pretty obvious

to everyone where the

property's boundaries are.

Okay, good question.

You are correct about the

survey's purpose which is

to verify property location.

And what a surveyor does,

is they take the legal description of the property

which they can acquire

though the public land records

and they create a survey,

which includes a location drawing

of where the property boundaries are,

and where any structures or improvements

may be, like the house, the driveway,

a fence, a shed-

and it will show where those things

are in relation to the boundaries.

It illustrates certain details like,

whose property is that fence actually on,

or is it right on the line?

Are there any setbacks or easements

on the property that would that would

limit your own use of it?

A utility easement is something that

commonly shows up on a survey.

So, is it possible to purchase a home

without having a survey done?

Well sure it is, but it is

probably not wise.

And if you are using a home loan

to purchase, which is usually the case,

your lender or mortgage company will

require a survey to be done before

they will fork over the money.

So even if it's not important to you,

which by the way it should be,

it will be very important to your lender

because the collateral for the loan is,

of course, the house.

So yeah, you pretty much need one.

By the way, a lender is probably just as

concerned with the value of the

collateral as they are with

the creditworthiness of

the or buyer, or borrower.

So they like to verify all

sorts of things about

the specific property that

they're lending on.

Hey, we are just scratching the surface here.

There is a lot to this stuff.

If you have any real estate questions,

you should feel free to reach out to a

knowledgable real estate agent

that you trust.

And if that'd be me,

I would consider it an honor and a privilege.