unit 8

Question 1

A square foot is equal to

Answer 1

144 square inches (12 inches × 12 inches).

Question 2

Property descriptions by metes and bounds is the oldest method of describing property. As such, property descriptions used today could date back to

Answer 2

when Texas was under the rule of Spain.

Question 3

Which equals one square mile or 640 acres?

Answer 3

Section

Question 4

Legal descriptions tend to prefer neat straight lines from point to point, regardless of describing a square, rectangle, triangle or even a smooth circle. When might a property boundary end up being a squiggly line?

Answer 4

When describing a property line drawn down the center of a creek bed

Question 5

When a township map references Section 16, what is it referring to?

Answer 5

The school section

Question 6

A unit of measurement used almost exclusively in farm and ranch deals is the “chain.” How long is a chain?

Answer 6

66 feet (four rods, 100 links)

Question 7

Under what circumstances does a legal land description not return to its point of beginning (POB)?

Answer 7

Property descriptions always return to their POB (closure)

Question 8

What is the effective life of a datum or benchmark?

Answer 8

Datums and benchmarks are considered permanent markers that can be (and have been) used for more than 100 years.

Question 9

A legal description refers a prospective purchaser to a document that shows land divided into lots, with streets, easements, and lot dimensions mapped out. Which legal description was used to describe this property?

Answer 9

Recorded subdivision plat method

Question 10

10. Which one of these isNOTa standard unit of measurement used in Texas land transactions?

Answer 10

Furlong

Question 11

The bearing ofMOSTproperty boundary lines in Texas is

Answer 11

northbound or southbound.

Question 12

What land features tend to warp property descriptions in surveys?

Answer 12

None

Question 13

Which describes a datum?

Answer 13

A point, line, or surface from which elevations are measured or indicated

Question 14

A square yard is how many square feet?

Answer 14

9 square feet

Question 15

The term “sections” is used throughout the real estate industry, and throughout Texas, but is the term of any practical use in urban areas?

Answer 15

Yes, section numbers are still key to locating property on maps, even if descriptions eventually are broken down into much smaller units.

Question 16

Sales agents are warned that metes-and-bounds descriptions “are highly complicated and should be handled with extreme care.” Who should be called in to help with complex descriptions?

Answer 16

A surveyor who can take (or retake) precise measurements

Question 17

Because each city or town is permitted to establish datums, the elevation point

Answer 17

is decided by the U.S. Geological Survey and is the accurate local measurement of height above sea level in New York Harbor.

Question 18

In the metes-and-bounds description reading “beginning at an iron rod set for the corner; thence 90° 0’ 0” E 180.0’; thence 0° 0’ 0” S 160.0’; thence back to the POB,” the parcel identified is

Answer 18

a triangle.

Question 19

Which may be a natural object, such as a tree or boulder, or a man-made object, such as a steel rod or stake driven into the ground?

Answer 19

Monument

Question 20

In any dispute involving the location of boundaries based on monuments, what is the typical resolution?

Answer 20

Natural monuments take precedent over man-made monuments.

Question 21

The land on either side of a principal meridian is divided into six-mile-wide strips by lines that run north and south, parallel to the meridian. These north-south strips of land are called

Answer 21

ranges.