Can you quote from an address alone?

An address is enough to start. A firm number comes after the deeds and prior surveys have been looked at, because the record is the part that varies most.

Why did two surveyors give very different numbers?

Often the scopes differ. One proposal includes setting monuments and recording a record of survey and the other does not, or one surveyor has already worked nearby and holds control and research. Where corners are not monumented, Idaho law requires a boundary survey that is not preliminary to set them (Idaho Code 54-1227) and to file a record of survey (Idaho Code 55-1904), so ask what the lower number leaves out and why.

What makes a survey take longer than expected?

Conflicting prior surveys, missing section corners, snow, locked sites, and review comments that change the scope.

Sending the deed, any prior survey, the title commitment if there is one, and a clear statement of what you need the survey for. A defined scope costs less than an open one.

What Drives a Land Survey Fee in Idaho

What drives a land survey fee

A survey fee is mostly research time, field time, and drafting time, and each depends on things that can be known before work starts. This page lists them so you can send the right information with a request and compare proposals on the same scope.

Seth Kursel, PLS (Idaho license 1181318) scopes every job and writes the proposal. Scale and Key Surveying works from Boise across the Treasure Valley and in the Wood River Valley.

The record

How many deeds, plats, and records of survey describe the parcel and its neighbors
Whether prior surveys agree with each other
Whether section and quarter corners nearby have corner records on file
Metes-and-bounds descriptions take longer to retrace than platted lots

The ground

Parcel size and number of corners
Terrain, tree cover, and snow
Whether existing monuments can be found
Access: gates, tenants, livestock, active construction
Travel distance from Boise

The deliverable

Corners marked only, or a drawing as well
Topography: contour interval, features to locate, extent beyond the boundary
CAD files and the datum and coordinate system they must be on
For ALTA/NSPS surveys, the Table A items selected
Staking: number of trips, points per trip, and cut sheets

Filing and review

Whether the survey must be recorded, and county recording fees
Corner records for section and quarter corners used, where no current corner record is on file
Agency or county surveyor review for plats
Number of reviewing parties and rounds of comments

When a survey has to be recorded.

Idaho requires a record of survey to be filed with the county recorder within 90 days after completing a survey that sets monuments at corners of record that were not previously monumented, establishes boundary lines or corners not previously of record, discloses a material discrepancy with earlier surveys of record, produces evidence that varies from or is not contained in surveys of record relating to the public land survey or its lost or obliterated corners, or sets monuments at the corners of an easement or lease area (Idaho Code 55-1904). A corner record is also filed within 90 days after the survey is completed for each public land survey corner, center quarter corner or tie corner that the survey sets, resets or uses as control, unless a corner record already on file describes the corner substantially as it is (Idaho Code 55-1604).

That means "just mark my corners" often includes a recorded drawing by law. A proposal should say whether recording is included. More detail is on the recording page.

Check that two numbers cover the same work.

Is this a boundary survey, with monuments set at every corner found unmonumented as Idaho Code 54-1227 requires, or only a preliminary or record-based depiction of the lines?

Is a record of survey and its recording fee included?

Is the drawing delivered as PDF only, or with CAD files?

How many site visits and how many rounds of revisions?

What is excluded, and what is billed hourly if it comes up?