ALTA/NSPS
The commercial standard. If a lender or title underwriter asked for "an ALTA," this is it, and the thing that decides the price is a menu most buyers do not know they are ordering from.
An ALTA/NSPS survey exists to let a title insurer remove the standard survey exception from a policy. That is its actual job. Everything else follows from it.
You will be asked for one on essentially any significant commercial purchase or refinance, and sometimes on large or complicated residential transactions. The requesting party is normally the lender, the title company, or both.
Because it is a title product, an ALTA survey is done against a current title commitment. The surveyor plots the recorded easements and exceptions listed in that commitment and shows where they physically fall on the property. That is often the most useful output, because a right of way that reads harmlessly in a document can turn out to run straight through where you planned the building.
The current standards, adopted in 2021 and jointly published by ALTA and NSPS, set a minimum scope that every ALTA survey includes:
That baseline is what you get before anyone adds anything.
Table A is an optional list. The client picks which items they want, and each one adds scope, time and money. Commonly requested items include:
The single most useful thing you can do. Get the Table A list from your lender and title company in writing before you order the survey. Buyers routinely order every item because nobody told them it was optional, and then pay for utility locates and building measurements nobody asked for. Ask which items are actually required to remove the survey exception.
Two to six weeks is normal depending on site size, Table A scope and how quickly the title commitment arrives. Utility items and offsite work push toward the upper end. If you are on a tight closing, say so at the quote stage rather than after.
Send the address, the closing date, and the Table A list if you have it.