Metes and bounds
National Real Estate Exam glossary · Transfer Of Title
Definition
A method of legally describing land by tracing its boundaries as a series of distances (metes) and directions or natural markers (bounds), beginning and returning to a fixed point of beginning. It is the oldest survey system and the one used where the rectangular survey does not apply.
Metes and bounds in plain English
Metes and bounds is the old-school way of describing a piece of land by literally walking its edges and writing down the directions. You start at a fixed landmark (the 'point of beginning'), then record each leg — how far to go and which way ('metes' are the distances, 'bounds' are the directions or natural markers like a creek) — until you loop all the way back to where you started. It's like giving someone a treasure-map route around the property's perimeter: 'go 200 feet north to the big oak, then 150 feet east to the stream...' This is the oldest survey system and gets used in places where the newer grid-style survey doesn't apply.
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