Commercial Title Surveys
Commercial real estate transactions often require a detailed land title survey to assist buyers, lenders, attorneys, and title companies in evaluating matters affecting the property.
Depending on the transaction, a commercial title survey may be certified to the TSPS Category 1A Land Title Survey standard or the ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey standard. These surveys combine boundary information with title commitments, easements, improvements, access, and other matters affecting the property.
Searchers has extensive experience preparing commercial title surveys and working with the professionals involved in complex real estate transactions.
ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys
What is an ALTA/NSPS Survey?
An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a specialized survey standard developed jointly by the American Land Title Association (ALTA) and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS). Unlike a standard boundary survey, which simply locates property lines and monuments, an ALTA/NSPS survey is built to support title insurance underwriting for commercial transactions. ALTA Surveys report the location of boundaries, improvements, easements, access, encroachments, and occupation affecting the property. First established in 1962 and updated on a five-year cycle since 2011 (most recently in 2026), the standard gives lenders, title insurers, attorneys, and buyers a consistent, nationally recognized framework for evaluating a property's physical condition before closing.
Why is it required?
Standard title insurance policies exclude "any discrepancies, conflicts, or shortages in area or boundary lines, or any encroachments" from coverage, which is commonly known as the "survey exception." For a commercial transaction, the survey exception creates a lot more risk for the lender because the property and the improvements tend to be significantly more valuable than with residential real estate. The survey exception excludes from coverage, issues that would be revealed on a title survey. Lenders prefer to be confident that their collateral is actually worth what appraised for. Encroachments and discrepancies or conflicts affecting the parcel's boundaries create risk that threatens the value of the collateral. To reduce risk, lenders and buyers typically require a current ALTA/NSPS survey before closing a commercial transaction so the title company can delete or narrow that exception. The Texas Realtors Commercial Contract itself requires either an ALTA/NSPS survey or a TSPS Category 1A survey. In short: if you're closing a commercial deal with financing, you likely need one.
What is included?
Every ALTA/NSPS survey is built around "Table A" items, which provide standardized options that allow the client or the client's representative to customize the ALTA/NSPS survey at the time of ordering. At Searchers we like to include the following Table A items in our ALTA/NSPS Surveys as a default.
Item 1. Monuments set at all major boundary corners unless there is a monument found at the corner or close by that we can reference.
Item 2. Addresses of the subject property if provided or observed while performing field work.
Item 3. Flood zone determination as scaled from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM).
Item 4. Gross land area combining the total acreage of all of the individual parcels surveyed.
Item 8. Visible evidence of substantial features observed while performing field work, including but not limited to signs, billboards, swimming pools, sidewalks, landscape features, and evidence of dumping and substantial refuse.
Item 20. A summary table flagging potential encroachments, setback violations, and undocumented access or use between the subject property and the adjoining properties.
Additional Table A items may be appropriate depending on the value, proposed use, and nature of the property being surveyed. Some Table A items can affect cost and timeline, being specific about what's needed at the time of ordering, ideally with the sales contract and title commitment in hand, helps avoid delays later.