Using a plat map?

[Robert R]

Never seen one.  Not sure what one is except I think it is the map that shows property ownership put out by the county.  Anyway, my grandfather bought quite a few lots in a heavily wooded area as an investment many, many years ago.  I thought they had quit paying the taxes on them and just forfeited them as the area never developed.  I asked my grandmother and she still has them and all the paperwork and maps but has no idea where they specifically are at.  She does know the general location.  She is not planning on paying the taxes this year but said if I wanted them, I could pay the taxes and she would sign them over.  I'd like to go take a look at them but since it is an hour and half away, I want to know how to find them once I get in the general vicinity.  Am I going to need a surveyor for that?  Or are plat maps fairly self explanatory?

[Radar67]

In my experiences, a plat map is basically a line drawing of the area showing the general boundaries of the parcel. They usually have a reference point (a road or permanent object) to help you locate the parcel. I would suggest looking at the deed for the legal description. The legal will give you the location of the section, township, and range of the property. With that information, you can get the topographic maps for the sections from www.topozone.com (they charge for hard copies), but you can do a screen print to save to your computer, or just print it out. (free)

The paperwork your Grandmother has should have all the info you need to locate them. If you need help finding the topo maps, PM me with info and I'll help you out.

Stew

[Onthesauk]

Our county now has most of that on line.  You can look up property by tax number, review permits issued or open and even switch to the most recent arial photos.  Photos aren't always real current, so not perfect for locating property but all in all, works pretty good.

[Texas Ranger]

The county surveyor or the county court house should have a record of all subdivisions showing lots on a platt, if not, start checking the local surveyors for a copy of the platt.

[SwampDonkey]

Similar to Onthesauk, we have everything online. Each land parcel has a unit ID (PID) number that you type in and it pulls up the map. Then what I use is a Provincial GIS map that is indexed to locate where the lot is. You can see that online too, or download the whole map book as a PDF file. Then I download the aerial photo of that section of the map. All forestry companies have a similar system

[Larry]

Yes, no, and maybe.  Most counties in Missouri sell a plat book at the county courthouse.  It has an index with the property owners name along with a map to the property.  Most of the time they only record landowners with some acreage...say 5 acres or more.  They will let you look for free and might even copy a page for you free.  FSA (Farm Service Agency) also has maps, and aerial photos with property lines shown...again only for acreage.

Smaller properties you will need the legal description which should be on the tax statement.  Take this to the county courthouse and they can show you the location on a tax map.  This is where it gets sticky...some of our poorer counties don't have the resources to help you, records may be stored in a dusty dirty location, and you may have to hunt through who knows what for the records.  Time spent could range from just a few minutes to couple of days...all dependent on the county.

Another option is a title company...probably only one or two in each county.  Their records are normally up to date.  They can pin point the location from the legal description in a matter of minutes.  Might do it for free or charge a fee to cover their time.

If you get to the general area the next thing is to pin point property lines...sometimes easy if you know what to look for and sometimes the only option is a surveyor.  Check with adjoining property owners...lot of times they can point out the line.  If you have to get a surveyor plan on shelling out some bucks.

[Billy_Bob]

My county assessor's office provides these maps. The person in charge of making the maps is called a cartographer. I can get a copy of a map on the internet at my county web site by giving a street address or the name of the owner.

Then I can view it. My county's on-line maps are in "tif" image format. (You may not be able to view these depending on your computer.)

The maps I have of my area do not have anything on them with corresponds to GPS coordinates. But maybe you could visit your county cartographer (once you get a map of the area from your county) and ask if he can give you the GPS coordinates of your property. Then you could find it with a handheld GPS.

Other maps for my area like forest service maps have GPS coordinates on them. In one case, the Forest Service changed the name of a road on the road sign, but not on the map! So I drove right past it. And the numbered road sign (like 3122) was about 100 ft. down the road from the main road, so I could not see it going by. Anyway I was able to stop further up, figure out where I was with my GPS, then go back to the road I was looking for. I said this must be it (even though it had a different name), and it was the road I needed. (I gave the forest service a few choice words when I got back to town, about how they need to update their maps, etc...)

[maple flats]

If it is anything like New York State (and few things are) The tax bill will show a parcel #. Take this info to the county tax map dept. They will sell you a copy of the entire area the parcel is in, and it will be a line drawing map. You can choose the scale from a few choices (3 in my county). This map will give you everything you need, but realize these are not survey accurate. Some of the old deeds here have things for description of boundries like "If the parcel fronts on a road you are in luck, if it is land locked might have problems, but this will most likely help. With the map if you locate some good logging you will need to get a survey to do the logging since someone else might question your property line and a survey is the only way, and by the way, 2 surveyers will likely not get the exact same line and sometimes there is a significant difference, but with a survey you are legally protected, sort of.
In the past I have done several purchases of tax sale property and have researched the properties this way. On one I bought a tax sale parcel (actually consisted of several original parcels that all changed hands many times including some old railroad property of a now non existant RR) that had been thru tax sale several times and there was a real mess with cleaning up the deed description. I went to a title abstract company who could not find all they needed. After this I went to the county records and spent about 20 hours tracing leads in the lod books of deeds, mortgages, and anything else I could find filed in legal documents there. After the approx. 20 hours I finally found the missing link and got a cleaned up title as a result. Then I sold the for a handsome profit with a warranty deed, (singular). This kind of stuff fascinates me if I can relate it to some piece of local history (the RR AND it bordered my grand parents land) and thus proved not to bore me. I'M DONE RAMBELING NOW

[Ron Wenrich]

So far, you've got a lot of good information on how to find your property on a piece of paper.  But, sometimes finding it on paper is a whole lot easier than finding it on the ground.  I suppose you want to find it on the ground.

I usually get the legal description and plot it out.  Take the metes and bounds and change all those rods and perches over to feet. 

But, for added measure, I also take the a gander at the the adjoining plots.  That gives me an idea of what I'm looking for in the woods.  This takes a little research, but can be very worthwhile if your using old records.

I try to find some kind of corner in the woods or adjoining property.  If you can run from an established corner, so much the better.  Then, I use a compass and pace just to rough in the boundaries and find all the corners.  Sometimes you find that what's written in the deeds ain't necessarily what you find in the woods.

[SwampDonkey]

I've seen some boundaries with two lines 20 feet apart, one is blue, one is red and they've been marked with healed over wounds for years.  I remember another lot where I followed the back line, it ended in the middle, then I walked toward the frontage and about 50 feet I hit the line again. Fun stuff. ;D

Give me a good GIS map book with coordinates,  boundaryline map, a photo, and a GPS and I can find it. Most times you don't even need the GPS, just measure the distance from intersections or edge of a field. Also, our GIS maps show field and woodlot roads, streams, and silviculture as well as public roads. But, I can understand that some maps are just showing boundary lines and maybe a road frontage.  It also helps to know your state, some people can get lost outside their county. :-\