Service Detail
Surveying for homeowners, buyers and sellers.
A residential land survey is any survey performed on a house lot or a piece of family land rather than on a commercial or industrial site. It is a category, not a single product. When a homeowner in Georgia calls and asks for a residential property survey, the right answer depends entirely on what they are trying to accomplish, and the survey that settles a fence question is not always the survey a county wants attached to a permit application.
That is what this page is for. Below, we have organized the work by situation instead of by survey name, so you can find the circumstance that matches yours and see which service it points to. If you would rather read about the core work itself, the boundary survey page covers the technical side of retracing a parcel from the deed record and the monuments in the ground, and our plain-language property survey page walks a homeowner through the same work without the terminology.
Most residential requests fall into a handful of situations. A buyer wants the lines confirmed before closing. An owner wants to know where to put a fence. Someone is adding a garage or a pool and has to prove the structure clears the setbacks. A county wants a drawing before it will issue a building or septic permit. A parent wants to split an acre off the back of the family place for a child. Someone has been told their house sits in a flood zone and needs to know what that means for their insurance. Each of those is a different scope of work, and the difference matters because it changes what you receive at the end.
S&S Land Surveying LLC works out of 549 West Ave in Cedartown and handles residential surveys throughout Polk, Floyd, Bartow, Paulding, Carroll, Haralson, Douglas, and Gordon counties, along with the wider northwest Georgia and metro Atlanta region. The company was founded at the end of 2021 by William "Bart" Sims, who brings more than forty years of surveying experience to the work. If you are not sure which survey your situation calls for, call 678-873-3119 and describe what you are trying to do. Scoping the right survey up front is cheaper than paying for a larger one you did not need.
Founder William "Bart" Sims brings four decades of surveying experience to residential work.
Rated 4.9 out of 5 by 50+ Google reviewers across northwest Georgia.
Plats are signed and sealed by a licensed Georgia land surveyor.
We match the survey to what you are actually trying to do, not to the biggest invoice.
Cost depends on the size and shape of the lot, how many corners have to be recovered or set, how much recorded evidence already exists for the parcel, how heavily wooded or steep the ground is, and which type of survey your situation actually calls for. A small in-town lot with recent corner monuments is a different job from acreage that has never been surveyed. Contact S&S Land Surveying for a free estimate specific to your property.
Whether a survey is required for your purchase depends on your lender, your title company, and the terms of the transaction, so ask them early rather than assuming one way or the other. Many buyers order one regardless. A survey confirms the acreage you are paying for, shows whether the fence, driveway, or shed sits where everyone believes it does, and brings encroachments and easements to light before closing rather than after. Once you own the property, those problems become yours to resolve.
Sometimes. If your parcel has been surveyed before, the record is clear, and the original monuments can still be recovered, property line marking may be all you need to see your lines on the ground. If the corners have never been set, or the evidence in the field does not agree with the deed, a boundary survey has to come first, because there is nothing reliable to mark until the boundary itself is established. Tell us what is already on your property and we will tell you which one applies.
A survey is not required in every case, but it is strongly recommended. Existing fences, hedgerows, and tree lines were rarely set by measurement, so building along one can put your new fence on your neighbor's land. Moving a fence after the fact costs far more than locating the line first. Some Georgia cities and counties also ask for a survey or a site plan before they will issue a fence permit, so check with your local permitting office.
That depends on which survey your situation called for. A boundary survey ends with monumented corners you can find on the ground and a plat signed and sealed by a licensed Georgia surveyor, suitable for recording with the Clerk of Superior Court. Property line marking ends with stakes, flags, or paint along the line itself. A site plan is a drawing prepared for your permit application. A parcel split produces new plats and legal descriptions for the resulting tracts.
These are the individual services a residential situation usually routes to. Each page explains that survey in detail:
Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you which survey it takes. Free estimates.
Request Free Quote