Bay Area ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys

Survey-grade due diligence for commercial acquisitions, refinances, and 1031 closings — built to the 2021 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, with the Table A items your lender, title underwriter, or buyer's counsel actually requires.

We work directly with title officers, CRE attorneys, lenders, and brokers across the Bay Area and Northern California. Send the title commitment and the closing date — we will tell you what the survey needs and what it will cost.

For deal teams

Standard turnaround: 3–5 weeks from receipt of the title commitment.
Rush available: when the closing date is the constraint, call us before you sign the PSA.
Underwriters worked with: Chicago Title, First American, Fidelity, Stewart, Old Republic, Commonwealth, WFG.
Licensed: PLS 9686, California Professional Land Surveyor.

Start an ALTA Order

Who orders ALTA surveys from us

ALTAs are private-side work driven by commercial transactions, not a public RFP. Most of our ALTA work comes from referrals across the deal team — title, counsel, lender, broker. If you are any of the below, the intake form at the bottom of this page is built for you.

Title Company / Underwriter

We coordinate directly with the title officer on Schedule B plotting and the surveyor's certificate so the survey lines up with the policy.

CRE Attorney

We work from the title commitment, deliver draft plats for counsel review, and add or revise certificate addressees before signing.

Commercial Lender

We meet lender-specific certificate language and underwriter checklists, including life-co, bank, CMBS, SBA 504, and bridge debt requirements.

CRE Broker

We hold a tentative crew slot to your LOI or PSA date so the survey doesn't become the long pole in the tent during the due-diligence window.

Buyer / Investor

We help you assemble the right Table A scope before you spend on a survey — and flag any title items that warrant the seller addressing before close.

Property Owner (Refi / 1031)

Update or new ALTA surveys for refinances, recapitalizations, and 1031 replacement-property closings, coordinated to your debt timeline.

Table A items we deliver

Table A is the menu of optional items you can request on top of the base ALTA/NSPS standard. The right list comes from the title commitment, the lender's survey instructions, and the property type. Send those over and we will recommend a scope; or check the items you already know you need on the intake form below.

Item	Scope	Typical context
1	Monuments at major corners	Typical
2	Address of surveyed property	Standard add
3	Flood zone designation	Per FEMA FIRM panel
4	Gross land area	Common
5	Vertical relief / contours	Topo work
6(a)	Current zoning classification	From third-party report
6(b)	Zoning setbacks, height, floor-space ratio	From third-party report
7(a)	Exterior dimensions of buildings	Field measured
7(b)	Square footage of building footprint	Field measured
7(c)	Measured height of buildings	Lender-driven
8	Substantial features (parking, pools, walls)	Common
9	Parking count & striping detail	Retail / office
10(a)	Division walls of party walls	Attached buildings
10(b)	Joint-use driveways and easements	Attached buildings
11	Utility evidence — above and below grade	Often required by lender
13	Names of adjoining owners per current tax rolls	Title-driven
14	Distance to nearest intersecting street	Common
16	Observable evidence of recent earth-moving	Site condition flag
17	Proposed changes / improvements per plans	Development deals
18	Wetlands per delineation report	Environmental-sensitive sites
19	Offsite easements benefiting the property	Access, utility
20	Professional liability / E&O confirmation	Lender certificate

Item 12 was removed from the 2021 ALTA/NSPS standard. Item 15 (subdivision) and Item 21 (client-negotiated additions) are available on request.

How an ALTA order flows

Six steps from the title commitment hitting our inbox to a signed plat delivered before close.

Open the deal

Send the title commitment, legal, prior survey if you have one, and the closing date.

Scope & quote

We confirm Table A items, certificate addressees, and turnaround, then issue a written proposal.

Research

Record research and Schedule B plotting begins as soon as the proposal is signed.

Fieldwork

Boundary recovery, improvement and encroachment location, utility and Table A field work.

Draft & title review

Draft plat circulates to title and counsel. Schedule B exceptions are noted on the face of the survey.

Sign & deliver

Wet-stamped plat with certificate addressed per the commitment, delivered as PDF and DWG before close.

Start an ALTA order

The faster we get the title commitment, the faster we can quote. Use the form to send the deal in, or email info@contour-survey.com with the documents attached. For hard closing dates, call (510) 543-2220 first so we can hold a field crew.

Send these with your request

Title commitment with all Schedule B exception documents
The commitment drives the survey — without it we can't plot easements or address the certificate correctly.
Current legal description and APN
Copy from the deed or commitment. If the legal is a metes-and-bounds, send any prior survey it references.
Prior survey if one exists
Even an older survey can dramatically cut research time. PDF is fine; DWG is better if available.
Transaction type and target closing date
Acquisition, refinance, recap, 1031, or development loan close. Hard or soft date.
Lender name and any survey instruction letter
Underwriter-specific certificate language and Table A checklists usually come from the lender or lender counsel.
Title underwriter and title officer contact
Chicago Title, First American, Fidelity, Stewart, Old Republic, Commonwealth, WFG, etc.
Requested Table A items
If you're not sure, send the lender instructions and the title commitment and we'll recommend a list.
Certificate addressees
Buyer, lender, title underwriter, title agent, and sometimes seller. Confirm names before we sign.
Site access constraints
Gated property, tenant coordination, hours of access, hazardous areas, locked utility vaults.

ALTA intake

Please reference "ALTA/NSPS" in the project notes so the request routes correctly.

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Or call us directly at (415) 555-0192

ALTA/NSPS FAQ

Common questions from title officers, lender counsel, brokers, and buyers.

An ALTA/NSPS survey is a boundary and improvement survey performed to a national standard jointly published by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors. It is the survey product title insurance underwriters rely on to issue extended-coverage (ALTA) title insurance on commercial transactions, and it is the survey commercial lenders typically require for acquisition and refinance closings.

Table A is the menu of optional items a client can request beyond the base ALTA/NSPS standard — things like topography (item 5), flood zone (item 3), zoning classification (item 6), utilities (item 11), and offsite easements benefiting the property (item 19). Which items you need is driven by the title commitment, the lender's instructions, the buyer's due-diligence list, and the property type. We help you assemble the right Table A list before we start so the survey is built once and accepted by everyone.

Typically the buyer, the buyer's lender, the title underwriter issuing the policy (Chicago Title, First American, Fidelity, Stewart, Old Republic, Commonwealth, WFG, etc.), and sometimes the seller and the title agent. We confirm the exact list with title and counsel before the survey is signed, because adding names after the fact requires a re-certification.

Standard turnaround for a Bay Area commercial site is roughly three to five weeks from receipt of the title commitment, depending on size, complexity, Table A items, and record-research demands. Rush schedules driven by hard closing dates can often be accommodated — call early in the deal so we can hold a field crew.

Sometimes. Most underwriters will not accept a re-certification of someone else's survey, and the 2021 ALTA/NSPS standard limits how an existing survey can be updated. The typical path is an update survey: field verification of conditions, addition of any new improvements or encroachments, replotting of the current Schedule B, and a new surveyor's certificate. Send us the prior survey and the current commitment and we will recommend the right path.

Yes — this is most of what we do on ALTA work. We coordinate directly with the title officer on Schedule B plotting and the certificate, with lender counsel on any underwriter-specific requirements, and with the buyer's broker or attorney on scheduling around access and closing dates.

Office, retail, multifamily, industrial, mixed-use, hospitality, self-storage, medical office, mobile home parks, vacant land for development, and unusual or assemblage parcels across the Bay Area and Northern California. If the deal is unusual we will tell you up front whether it is in our wheelhouse.

Related Services

Other services that often run alongside an ALTA on a commercial deal.

Boundary Determination

Establish clear, legally defensible property boundaries with a licensed Bay Area boundary surveyor — including difficult boundaries on hillside lots, irregular parcels, post-1906 SF blocks, fire-rebuild areas, and properties with conflicting record evidence.

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Site Plan Surveys

Stamped site plan surveys, boundary + topographic base maps, and existing-condition documentation for Bay Area permit submittals.

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Condo Conversions

Convert existing buildings into condominium ownership with 3D laser scanning, accurate interior and exterior as-builts, and boundary coordination.

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Have a closing on the calendar?

Send the title commitment and the closing date. We will confirm whether we can hit the date and what the survey needs to include.

Get a Quoteor(510) 543-2220

Meeting-first estimates • Response within 24 hours • Serious projects only