The spotlight is usually on improvements when shopping for and buying real estate. That's "improvements" in the legal sense which refers to buildings, garages, trees and anything added on or under the land itself. With the emphasis on the structure and interior of buildings, the land may only receive cursory "what I see, is what I get" attention. This is where problems arise.

"Just by looking at the land, you don't really know anything," says Brian Munday, Edmonton-based Executive Director of the Alberta Land Surveyors' Association. "We tend to make a lot of assumptions. Yes, that fence is on the property line and that brush is cleared to the property line … . What is very common is for an easement to run across the property."

Easements are restrictions on title that dictate what the property owner can and cannot do with the land. For instance, municipal and utility easements run across the front and/or rear of most properties limiting the use of these areas. A large fenced backyard may seem like an ideal setting for an inground pool, but only a survey can ensure that is true.

The only way to accurately and legally establish property boundaries and use restrictions is through a land survey by an accredited land surveyor.

Munday reports that the City of Edmonton is cracking down on property owners with land along the North Saskatchewan River who have extended their fences to corral city-owned shore land. Some have added swimming pools and out buildings to property that may have looked like an extension of their land, but isn't. Possession and use of land that you don't own will not lead to ownership in spite of all you hear about squatters' rights or adverse possession.

Boundary issues, as well as right of way limitations, often lead to neighbour disputes and to hitches in real estate development. The more complex the land use, particularly in industrial and commercial development, the more complex the ownership issues. Land surveyors are hired by land owners to establish what can and can't be done with the property, so problems do not arise later.

"Land surveyors hold a special kind of role as a professional," said Munday. "In other professions, the doctor advocates for the patient, the lawyer advocates for the client. A land surveyor holds a different kind of perspective. Yes, they have a client, but land surveyors are there to be sure the boundaries are established, without any partiality, to protect the public."

This means, instead of having to settle for what you get, you should get what you pay for. The property should be valued and purchased based on how it can be used. Restrictions on use may lower value. Accurately established boundaries may increase or decrease value.

Munday tells the story of a property owner who called ALSA, frantic because the next-door neighbour had just thanked this homeowner for the C$11,000 in landscaping that had been added to the neighbour's real estate. Existing fences had led the caller to believe a large expanse of the neighbour's property was owned by the caller. This false impression was not corrected because the homeowner said that with C$11,000 going into landscaping there was no money for a survey.

"The average person comes in contact with a land surveyor when they buy or sell a house," said Munday, who explained that a land survey is not required by law when real estate changes hands. "The important thing is when spending all that money, you want to make sure all of that shed, house, garage...is on your property."

Munday cautions there are some people armed with a GPS who think they can stand-in for a surveyor. Measuring distances is the "easy" part. University-educated surveyors consider GPS another useful tool, but they know where to measure from and where to measure to—that's the skill and knowledge that matter. The goal is not merely to measure, but to recreate what the original surveyor did, perhaps a 100 years ago, and reveal true boundaries.

Cost will be related to factors including the size of the property, complexity of survey detail required and how quickly the survey is needed. Verifying the location of one corner of a residential lot would be less expensive than surveying a rural house with acreage. Contact two or three land surveyors before you hire. If a survey exists, locating that surveyor may cut costs for an updated version.

"Land surveying is a little bit like playing Sherlock Holmes to solve a mystery, not of who done it, but where was it," explained Munday who encourages consumers to contact their provincial land surveyor association.