How to Read a Legal Description of Property

Metes and bounds is the oldest system of land description in the United States. It describes property boundaries by listing a sequence of directions and distances that trace the perimeter of a parcel, starting and ending at a fixed Point of Beginning (POB). If you work in surveying, title, or real estate, reading these descriptions is a core skill.

This guide breaks down each component of a metes and bounds description so you can read them confidently.

The Point of Beginning (POB)

Every metes and bounds description starts at a defined location called the Point of Beginning. This is a fixed, identifiable point — often referenced to a section corner, monument, or coordinate.

Example: "Beginning at an iron pin found at the northeast corner of Lot 12, Block 3, of the Smith Subdivision..."

The POB anchors the entire description. If it's wrong or ambiguous, the whole boundary is in question. When reviewing deeds, always verify the POB against known monuments or coordinates.

Bearings: Direction of Each Line

A bearing tells you which direction a boundary line runs. Bearings are expressed as an angle measured from either North or South, turning toward East or West.

The format is: N/S [degrees] [minutes] [seconds] E/W

Examples:

• N 45° 30' 00" E — Start facing North, rotate 45 degrees 30 minutes toward the East
• S 12° 15' 30" W — Start facing South, rotate 12 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds toward the West
• Due North — N 00° 00' 00" E (straight north)

Bearings always fall between 0° and 90°. If you see a bearing greater than 90°, it's using a different notation system (azimuth), which measures clockwise from North through 360°.

Distances: Length of Each Line

After each bearing comes a distance, measured in feet (occasionally chains or varas in older deeds). This tells you how far to travel along that bearing before changing direction.

Example: "...thence N 45° 30' E a distance of 200.00 feet to an iron pin..."

Distances should be precise. Modern surveys use hundredths of a foot. Older deeds may use whole feet or chains (1 chain = 66 feet). Some Texas deeds use varas (1 vara ≈ 33.33 inches).

Curve Calls

Not all boundary lines are straight. When a boundary follows a curve (common along roads, rivers, or easements), the description includes curve data:

• Radius — the radius of the circular arc
• Arc length — the distance along the curve
• Chord bearing and distance — the straight-line shortcut from the start to end of the curve
• Delta angle — the central angle of the arc
• Direction — whether the curve turns left or right

You typically need at least two of these values (plus direction) to plot a curve. Most modern descriptions include all of them for redundancy.

Calls: Putting It Together

Each bearing-distance pair (or curve) in the description is called a "call." The word "thence" signals the start of each new call. A typical sequence looks like:

This describes a roughly rectangular parcel. Notice the last call returns to the POB — that's called closure. A description that doesn't close has an error somewhere.

Closure and Error of Closure

When you plot all the calls, the last point should land exactly on the POB. In practice, there's usually a small gap — the error of closure. This is expressed as a ratio, like 1:10,000 (meaning for every 10,000 feet of perimeter, the gap is 1 foot).

Acceptable closure varies by purpose: 1:5,000 may be fine for rural land, while subdivision plats often require 1:15,000 or better.

Common Pitfalls

• Transposed bearings — N 45 E written as S 45 W (exactly reversed). The plot will still close but the parcel will be mirrored.
• Typos in distances — 200.00 vs 2000.00 feet. Always check if a distance seems unreasonable for the context.
• Missing calls — especially in older handwritten deeds where a call was skipped or illegible.
• Ambiguous POB — "Beginning at a stone in the creek" is hard to locate 100 years later.
• Magnetic vs. true north — older deeds used magnetic bearings, which shift over time due to declination.

Let AI Do the Reading

Reading legal descriptions by hand works fine for simple parcels. But when you're dealing with dozens of calls, curve data, or a handwritten deed from 1920, it gets tedious and error-prone.

CADastral uses AI to extract every call from a deed document — typed or handwritten — and feed them directly into an interactive plotter. You get the boundary plotted in seconds instead of spending 30 minutes on manual data entry.