Spent good money in 1987 buying a 160-acre parcel adjoining my existing ground. The fence looked like the boundary. It wasn't. Turned out the previous owner and my neighbor had settled a grazing dispute informally years back by moving the wire, and that line had been sitting wrong for nearly two decades. No paperwork, no recorded agreement — just a gentleman's handshake that became my headache.
I had a title search done. Passed clean. What I didn't do was hire a licensed surveyor before closing. Cost me $340 to survey it afterward, and about $2,200 in legal fees to resolve an adverse possession question that almost went the wrong way.
Every fence line should be treated as a rumor until a survey confirms it. I don't care if the seller's family has owned it since statehood. I don't care how friendly your neighbor seems. Get the survey before you sign, not after.
Curious whether anyone's run into a surveyed boundary that still got disputed post-closing — because I've heard that's becoming more common with GPS remeasurements kicking up old discrepancies.