Land surveyors in Virginia: licensed DPOR surveyors, quoted

Virginia has a distinct, codified survey product for closings: the house location survey, also called a physical survey. It is governed by regulation 18VAC10-20-380 and applies to lots under two acres. Rather than re-establishing every boundary corner, it locates the improvements relative to the lines: the surveyor measures the closest distance from the front, side and rear property lines to the principal walls of each building, and shows structures, decks, porches, fences, visible utilities, encroachments across any line, and easements shown on the record plat.

In Virginia this is standard practice at a residential purchase. Lenders and title companies frequently require an up-to-date house location survey before closing to clear the survey exception on the title policy, though it is not universally mandatory and some lenders waive it. It is cheaper and faster than a full boundary survey because its scope is limited. In fact, in a set of Northern Virginia jurisdictions named in the regulation, including Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and the cities of Alexandria, Manassas, Fredericksburg and Falls Church, house location surveys are allowed without setting corner monuments, which is exactly what separates them from a boundary survey.

So know which one you need. A house location survey tells you whether the house, fence and improvements sit where they should and satisfies most closings. It does not definitively establish your corners. If you are about to build a fence or addition, resolve a dispute, or subdivide, order a full boundary survey instead, where the surveyor finds or sets the actual corner monuments and stands behind the lines.