Have you spoken to the City yet? If not, I'd start there before engaging a surveyor. Most City's have right-of-Way agents who handle real estate transactions. They are usually employed by the building department or in a facilities unit. Good luck with your project.

Does the city want to sell?

Yep, before you do anything, make sure the city wants to sell. Also, get permission for anyone you have walking on city property.

Long story short, we asked if it is possible to acquire this land. The city said if we do survey, appraisal and offer they don’t see a reason why not to sell it to us. So we decided to try and the first obstacle we encounter is finding a surveyor

I had to have my 1/4 acre house lot on Long Island resurveyed 4 years ago, and it cost $750; it included a lot of details about the house (walkways, deck, etc.), but there were existing survey markers at the property boundaries.

If you are considering entering into a purchase transaction with the city, get a property/real estate attorney involved. They will have all the resources and contacts necessary to expedite the transaction, which can just be a can of worms for the average Joe :-)

If within Seattle city limits, the property should already be very well defined with regards to its boundaries. At least that has been my experience when requesting plat maps, which I used to do frequently for design projects (I no longer work or live in the area).

You CAN'T buy the land, it's against the law without first going through the proper state regulated process and you're wasting your time and money thinking you can by it. At best you would be given first rights to buy the land, if the land was not buildable, and if it went to puplic auction, as an adjoining property owner (but rare), AND no other government entities wanted it. It's a long process and goes something like this:

In most cities, counties and states in the U.S. it is illegal for a municipality to conduct a private sale of real estate to an individual by state law. Unwanted surplus real estate usually needs to be appraised and then offered for sale in a public auction with an appraised value as the starting minimum bid with proper public notice.

My state of Minnesota requires all municipalities to offer any surplus real estate to a long list of other government entities first before going to auction, and the first in line here is the Department of natural resources. If no other agency wants the property then it will go to public auction, or they may also used sealed bids in the selling process.

Some municipalities will auction the property through auction companies like Govdeals and many other auction sites. To find how or where they sell the property due diligence is required to find the information. You may have a link on your cities website to recieve notification of upcoming public sales. It's easy to bid once you learn how, hard to win.

In no way would you be able to walk into the city hall and make an offer for the land, even with a certified survey, and even if they wanted to sell it, it doesn't work that way. There is also a possibility the strip of land is an easement for some purpose. I follow many of the sources in my state looking for the sale of surplus property, including property tax forfeited real estate.

Kevin9408 is spot on. Whoever told you that you could buy public land (without jumping through ALL the hoops) does NOT know what they're talking about.

Different areas have different rules about purchasing from governmental groups. You need to ask the planning area to see if there is future usage planning for that strip. If there is you may find that you do cannot use if for what you want to. There may be a holding area for city owned property which goes by many names but here it is called Land Trust that holds property. Much acquired either from tax sales or where a project was scheduled such as expanding an intersection. If acquired in a tax sale or other condemnation procedure there may be things that may need to be paid before clear title can be obtained. Secondly check with your county if any to see if there is anything owed to them on the property.

If it is owned by the city, it is not necessarily all "public" land!

Also, each municipality will have its own rules and regulations regarding the property it owns and how it may be disposed of, which are not necessarily going to be the same universally. FWIW, the City of Seattle publishes an inventory of excess or surplus city owned property annually in February, some of which is designated for sale. My research did not turn up any restrictions regarding the sales of these surplus properties to private parties, other than the sale needing approval by the city council.

Beware of those making blanket generalizations. They are rarely accurate :-)

I returned to mention the sale needing approval by the city council in this area accept those that are on that excess inventory have to have been approved before they reach the For Sale listing.

Yes the poster does. She wishes to do something with the property. Just contacting the city and asking if they would sell a property does not mean that there are not a lot of things that are involved or that the person on the other end has the knowledge about a particular piece of land. The planning division can tell the poster what the city has/had plans for it. Of course then there are the various utilities that may have easements on that property. Can be lots of separate places to check especially to see if a property can be used for it's intended purpose.

Good example is the idiots in my city council approved an apartment building right next to a bridge about 7 years ago on city owned property. Like twenty feed from the existing bridge that was in the planning process of widening it from two to four lanes each way. Just because a governmental group sells a property does not mean that they do not have future plans for it.

"Seattle publishes an inventory of excess or surplus city owned property annually"

Exactly, so every private citizen has an equally opportunity to bid and buy the land, not just the mayor's brother-in-law or the city planner's cousin for $2 an acre.

But I did find an exception to the laws in San Jose California's municipal code so I'll correct my last post and say Simona Stafano could negotiate privately if his city's code has something similar to this:

4.20.070 - Sale of surplus real property and buildings to adjacent property owner.

A.

Surplus real property for which the city has paid or given consideration of any kind may be sold to the owner or owners of property adjacent to such surplus city property through direct negotiation at the fair market value of such real property.

B.

Notwithstanding Section 4.20.070A. to the contrary, surplus real property for which the city has paid or given consideration of any kind may be transferred through direct negotiationwith the adjacent property owner for nominal consideration where the council determines that:

1.

The property is not usable for a municipal purpose;

2.

The property is not independently developable and would not significantly enhance the development potential of the adjacent property pursuant toTitle 20 of this code as it may be amended from time to time; and

3.

The conveyance demonstrably reduces the expense to the city of ongoing maintenance for the property.

I did make reference to this in my first post it wasn't very clear and with some uncertianity. But what I'd like to know now is "If it is owned by the city, it is not necessarily all "public" land!" then who's land is it?!!

I've had Home owner's association managers tell me certain area's belonging to the association are private and not owned by the association owners, who by the way own the building. Hmmmm........

$4400 for what should be a simple survey is awfully high. Something else might be going on -- who knows what. As Gardengal suggested, I'd talk with a property/real estate attorney in your specific area.

You didn't say what you wanted to do with the land. If all you want to do is plant a few trees on this 20 foot strip, maybe someone in your city govt can give you permission to do that for free. Who mows or maintains this strip now? If it's Public Works, I'd call them first.

As always YMMV for where you live. But from my experience, you do not need a survey to buy a piece of property. The land was platted long ago, and recorded with a description of the parcel, such as "Lot X in Block Y of Subdivision Z in County A . . also known as 109 Main Street . . ." There will be a tax assessment and value associated with it. That would be for a recognized parcel and the title can exchange hands based on that description.

However, if it was platted for say part of an easement for a road, but the road (and other utility easements etc) never fully utilized the complete easement, and the city is willing to forego some of that property, then it may need platted as a parcel, which would require a survey to be recorded.

A couple other reasons the surveyor's cost is so high, is what their deliverable is. Are they combining this parcel with yours? What type of survey are they performing - an ALTA, subdivision, MLS, or boundary?

There should be many surveyors to choose from in Seattle. Some surveyors are part of larger civil engineering firms, so those prices would be high. After confirmation of what exactly you need to have the survey perform, a company that strictly does surveys for residential may suffice and be much cheaper.

Thank you for all comments. For the reason of privacy I stated Seattle area. It is small city, less than 25000, 15 miles from city of Seattle boundaries. It is completely separate city. So I asked them couple years back if I can take care of this strip and also plant some arbor vitae trees for privacy. The city said no, because the arbor vitae can fall on the sidewalk it is safety issue. Than they pass ordinance that is my responsibility to maintain the trees outside of my lot, but adjacent. I asked them to cut the trees, based on same reason that they gave me safety for the sidewalk:) they said no, even though trees are falling over the street and power lines every time when we have rainy windy situation. This strip is not continuous, it pops like this around my property, than disappears, it is not usable. The only use is for dog toilet- literally. My plans are if I can acquire it to move the fence, place the arbor vitae tree and have more privacy. The way how the lot is - it is close to a street and the house is way closer to the fence for me to put any significant greens for privacy. Why I want to buy it- not sure what other ordinance and decision city can make, looks like if you are big builder everything stupid is allowed , for me to have little privacy -arbor vitae are safety issue! It should not cost a lot as appraised-the strip is not usable for anything but me. Again we are talking probably for less than 2k square feet.

Contact your electric power provider - they will "trim" (with shall-we-say "extreme enthusiasm") any trees that even think about coming near power lines.

Looks like you have some butt kissing to do at city hall. Wine and Dine the right people, hang out a city council meetings and laugh it up with the council members and the mayor. If you can't beat them, join them.

How frustrating! A picture of the area might help -- someone might be able to suggest alternate plantings that would satisfy you, and the city.

Given that arbor vitae is a fast growing tree which means they break easily along with their often multiple leaders/trunks I can see why the city saw a problem in the making. Perhaps some other type tree or plant. Kevin's idea is the fastest method to have a city council do things in your favor unless the majority are friends of friends.

That surveyor possibly gave you a very high price because he is not interested in doing the job.

We had a quote for a ridiculous price for our chimney repair, I think it was about $5,000. We called another guy and he did it for $800!

Yes the surveyor's price seems high and it may in fact be that he did not want the job but there are other things to consider. The OP said it is not a contiguous piece but rather made up of several pieces which means the borders of each individual piece have to be surveyed so it is not just one piece to survey.

Our city owns a bunch of vacant lots. Anyone can buy them for $500, just call the City Manager and sign some paperwork. And there's a vacant building downtown that they'll sell for $1 to anyone that wants to take on its property taxes. So I agree, there's no blanket rule.

What city is it? I might want to by a building downtown for a buck.

PM me if you're really interested @kevin9408.