We have some land between Corsicana and Palestine, with some frontage on the Trinity River. I'd like to put up 3 or 4 strand barbed wire. I need at 4,500 feet of fence.

The property is 'virgin' river bottom that has never been cleared before. There was a fence maybe 20 years ago., but it will take a dozer to cut a new fence row. There is not enough of the old fence left to be certain of the property line, so I'm going to need a survey to mark the new fence line. It's a rectangle, so only 4 corners and one gate.

Anybody willing to throw out some ballpark estimates on the the fencing and/or the survey will cost us?

Had an estimate for 40 acres here not long ago was $3500. Had a survey done on 11 acres last week and it was easy, the same company who surveyed it years ago, and it cost $1400

I'm afraid the survey will be as expensive as the fence. Trees, hills and gullies prevent LOS across the property. Unless they can set markers strictly by GPS, they will have to a lot of clearing.

for the fence, anywhere from 2.20-3.00 a ft depending on the kind of wire and what kind of corners your want. is 4500' the complete perimeter? how many acres? survey will be at least 1500, and dozer work...not exactly cheap. I'm a little far from that area, but there should be somebody around there that does all of that kind of stuff. survey can be done with GPS, but you still have to clear for the fence. if your aren't keeping cows, id mark it and get some purple paint

A few thoughts. Do you really need a fence? If there hasn't been one in many years, why clear it and put one up? The law allows you to just paint a stripe on a tree every few feet with purple paint and it's an official boundary. Unless you're going to have cattle that needs a fence, why go to all the expense and trouble?

As for the survey, I had a similar issue with some property I bought a year ago. The boundaries had overgrown many years ago and were difficult to find. I saved a bunch of money by spending a day wandering the woods and finding the old corner markers. If it has ever been surveyed in the past, there will be corner markers. Find them, mark them with yellow flagging tape, and the surveyor can do his job with a GPS.....all he has to do is find the corners. My property is crazy shaped and one surveyor bid about $6500. By me finding the corners and leading the surveyor to them, I got it down to $2800. Keep in mind that the field work is only a part of the surveyor's job....the rest is done at the courthouse looking up the old deed records. If they can find the old records quickly, it's cheaper. In my case, the records went back over 100 years and changed hands a few times, so it was a bit of a mess.

It sounds like you're wanting a survey just to find the fence lines, not because you're making a purchase and need the legal document. If that's the case, if you have access to an old survey, and you can find even one corner, you can find the fence lines with a compass. Just be there when the dozer guy is there and point him in the right direction.

With a compass and following the old barbed wire, I was able to trace out the old property lines that were probably 80 years old. But I don't mind climbing through brush. So it's up to you......you can spend 10,000 or buy a compass and climb through the brush with a can of purple paint and some yellow flagging tape and mark everywhere the old fence was. A dozer operator can follow that.

Also, if you want a surveyor to "mark the fence line" that is different than making a survey. They would have to put up some sort of marker or fence post every few feet, which would cost you their time, which is money.

Thanks for the info.

Wife wants some cows and maybe a couple of donkeys.

We plan on retiring to this property is a few years.