If you're acquiring, refinancing, or developing commercial property in McDonough, an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is usually not optional. Your lender wants one. Your title underwriter wants one before they'll delete the standard survey exception. And your attorney wants one before advising you to close.
The trouble is that "ALTA survey" gets used loosely, and the scope varies more than most buyers expect. Ordering the wrong scope means either paying for work you didn't need or discovering at the eleventh hour that a required item is missing.
Here's what an ALTA survey actually is, what drives its scope, and how to order one in Henry County without delaying your closing.
What Makes an ALTA Survey Different
A
standard boundary survey answers one question: where are the property lines? An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey answers that question and then keeps going.
It is prepared to a national standard — the
2026 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, jointly adopted by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors — so that a lender in another state can read a survey of a McDonough warehouse and know exactly what level of work stands behind it.
The core deliverable includes:
- Boundary lines resolved against the record and field evidence
- Every document listed in the title commitment plotted or noted, including easements
- Rights-of-way and access to a public street
- Improvements on the site
- Observable evidence of use by others
- A surveyor's certification in the ALTA-specified language
That title commitment is central. The surveyor works from the actual commitment your title company issues and addresses each Schedule B exception on the drawing. That's the mechanism that lets the underwriter remove the survey exception from your policy.
The 2026 Standards Took Effect This Year
If you've ordered ALTA surveys before, note that the requirements changed. The 2026 standards became effective February 23, 2026, replacing the 2021 version that governed for the previous five years.
This isn't a rewrite, but it matters practically:
- Specify the right version. Survey requests should call for a "2026 ALTA/NSPS LAND TITLE SURVEY." Using outdated language in a request letter creates avoidable confusion.
- Relative Positional Precision was redefined. This is the statistical measure of boundary accuracy, and the revision tightens how it's expressed.
- Encroachment reporting is more standardized. Lenders reviewing multiple surveys benefit from consistent presentation.
- Documentation and communication requirements expanded. More is expected in writing between surveyor, client, lender, and insurer up front.
- Table A was revised. Item numbering shifted, so a requirements letter written against the 2021 list may not map cleanly.
If your lender's internal survey template hasn't been updated since 2021, flag it early. We'd rather resolve a version mismatch during scoping than after the drawing is issued.
Table A: Where Scope Is Actually Decided
Attached to the standards is Table A — a menu of optional items the client selects. This is where cost and timeline are set, and where most ordering mistakes happen.
Items frequently requested on Henry County commercial transactions include:
- Monuments set at all major corners
- Address and flood zone classification
- Gross land area and, when needed, area by zoning district
- Zoning information, typically supplied by a third-party zoning report
- Building dimensions, height, and square footage
- Parking count and striping, which matters on retail and office deals
- Utility evidence, from observable features and utility provider records
- Adjoining owner names per current tax records
- Distance to the nearest intersecting street
- Evidence of recent earth moving or construction
- Offsite easements benefiting the property
- Wetlands delineation markers, when a delineation exists
Nobody should order all of them by default. The right answer comes from your lender's survey requirements letter and your attorney's read of the deal. Send us both and we'll scope it precisely against the current Table A.
Why McDonough Commercial Buyers Need Local Record Knowledge
Henry County has been one of Georgia's fastest-changing markets. The I-75 corridor through McDonough has absorbed distribution centers, industrial parks, retail, and mixed-use development at a pace that leaves a complicated paper trail behind it.
Practically, that means commercial tracts here often carry:
- Layered easements from decades of utility extensions and road improvements
- Right-of-way takings from highway and arterial widening
- Assembled parcels stitched together from several older deeds with inconsistent descriptions
- Detention and access agreements shared across adjoining developments
- Original land lot lines from Henry County's 1821 formation still controlling older tract boundaries
Reconciling that against a title commitment is research work, not just field work. Legacy Surveying brings more than forty years of combined local surveying heritage through Joe Rowan Land Surveying and Jeff Kuhn, and deep familiarity with Henry County courthouse records. Our
Henry and Spalding County surveying work means we've plotted these easements before and know which older plats in the county hold up.
Field measurements are taken with high-precision GNSS satellite equipment and total stations, so positional accuracy meets the standard's relative positional precision requirements.
How to Keep an ALTA Survey Off the Critical Path
ALTA surveys delay closings more often than they should, almost always for avoidable reasons. To keep yours moving:
- Order at the start of due diligence, not the end. This is the single biggest factor.
- Send the title commitment with all Schedule B documents. Not just the commitment — the underlying easement and agreement documents too. Missing exhibits stop research cold.
- Send the lender's survey requirements letter. It usually specifies Table A items and certification language verbatim.
- Confirm the certification list early. Who needs to be named — buyer, lender, title company, attorney? Adding parties later means reissuing.
- Arrange site access. Tenanted or secured industrial sites need coordination before the crew arrives.
- Flag known issues. Pending rezoning, a planned road project, or a disputed line changes how we approach the work.
Why Henry County Developers Choose Legacy Surveying
We work directly with commercial buyers, lenders, title attorneys, and engineers on Henry County transactions. That means we speak the language of the closing table: we know what an underwriter needs to see to delete an exception, and we'd rather raise a problem in week one than have it surface the day before funding.
When a project moves from acquisition into design, we also provide
topographic and site plan surveys so your engineer isn't waiting on base mapping.
If our research turns up a gap, an overlap, an access question, or an easement that conflicts with your intended use, you'll hear about it as soon as we know.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ALTA survey?
An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a commercial-grade survey prepared to nationally adopted standards. It resolves boundaries, plots title commitment exceptions, documents improvements and access, and carries a specific certification lenders and title underwriters rely on.
Which version of the standards applies to my survey?
The 2026 ALTA/NSPS standards took effect February 23, 2026 and govern surveys contracted on or after that date. Transition situations, where a contract was signed before the effective date but the survey finishes after, should be addressed in writing among the surveyor, client, lender, and title insurer.
Do I need an ALTA survey or just a boundary survey?
If a commercial lender or title underwriter is involved, it's almost always ALTA. Residential purchases and simple line questions are usually served by a boundary survey. Your lender's requirements letter is the deciding document.
How much does an ALTA survey cost in Georgia?
It depends on acreage, the number of improvements, how many title exceptions must be plotted, and which Table A items you select. A vacant McDonough outparcel and a fully improved distribution facility are very different jobs. Send us the title commitment and requirements letter and we'll quote accurately.
How long does an ALTA survey take?
Typically several weeks, driven mainly by research volume and how quickly complete title documents arrive. Incomplete Schedule B exhibits are the most common cause of delay.
Can you certify the survey to my lender and title company?
Yes. Provide the full list of parties to be certified and the exact certification language required before we finalize, so the drawing doesn't need reissuing.
Will the survey show flood zone information?
Flood zone classification is a Table A item. When selected, we identify the mapped zone using
current FEMA flood mapping. A survey-based elevation certificate is a separate product if your lender requires one.
What happens if the survey finds an encroachment?
We show it and describe it, using the standardized encroachment reporting the current standards call for. Resolution is a legal and negotiation matter handled by your attorney and the title company — but finding it during due diligence is exactly why the survey exists.
Do you handle ALTA surveys outside McDonough?
Yes. We serve Stockbridge, Locust Grove, and the rest of Henry County, plus Fayette, Coweta, Spalding, Pike, Butts, and Lamar Counties.
Order Early, Close on Time
An ALTA survey is the document that turns assumptions about a commercial property into documented fact. Ordered early with complete title materials, it's routine. Ordered late with missing exhibits, it's the reason a closing slips.
Need an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey in McDonough, Stockbridge, Locust Grove, Griffin, or anywhere in South Metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia? Contact Legacy Surveying today for commercial title surveys, boundary surveys, topographic mapping, and construction staking backed by decades of local courthouse expertise.
Call Legacy Surveying at 404-569-9115 or
request your free quote online.
