What a coastal survey actually tells you

A standard structural survey is a good document written for the wrong house. It will tell you about the roof, the joists and the damp, and on this coast that is roughly a third of what you need to know before you commit.

Ask for erosion mapping first. The state coastal survey publishes shoreline change data going back to 1954, and any surveyor working here should be reading it into their report rather than leaving you to find it. What you want is the rate, not the position — a bluff retreating at four inches a year is a different asset to one retreating at two feet.

Second, ask for a drone elevation pass. Salt attacks from above and seaward, and the elements that fail first — flashing, ridge fixings, seaward-facing fascia — are exactly the ones nobody can see from a ladder. It adds a few hundred dollars and it is the best money in the whole process.

Third, ask for the insurance history rather than an insurance quote. A quote tells you what a company will charge a stranger. The claim history tells you what has actually happened to that building in the last fifteen years, and sellers are generally willing to provide it if you ask early and politely.

None of this is meant to frighten anyone off. Almost every house we sell passes all three comfortably. But the ones that do not, fail visibly, and it is much better to find that out in week two than in month six.