With every legal property deed, there is a description of the land with detailed dimensions of a piece of property. Most property maps can be obtained from the city or county recorder's office. Make sure you know the page number of the section map where the piece of property is located. However, it is easy to draw a property map without this information if you have a copy of the deed.
Instructions
Step 1
List the property dimensions from the description section of the deed on a separate piece of paper. Make sure to include the directions that these dimensions run. Most real estate property purchased and sold includes a legal survey and a detailed description as part of the deed, under the "description" part of the deed. This lists the corners of the property, the directions of the lines.
Step 2
Draw an arrow pointing up at the top of the paper with an "N" above it for a compass point.
Step 3
Mark a scale on the top of the map. If the piece of property is large, choose a smaller scale. General construction scale equates 1/4 inch to 1 foot. For property maps, this may be too large of a scale, so choose the scale of the map according to the size of the paper used. For instance, use a scale of 1 inch equals 100 feet.
Step 4
Start at the bottom or the southern-most corner of the paper and draw the back edge of the property line according to the dimensions listed from step one with the ruler. This is the line that runs south to north or variations thereof from a southerly direction to a northerly direction. Follow the chosen scale. For a 500-foot back line, using 1 inch equals 100 feet, the back line of the map equates to five inches.
Step 5
Complete the rest of the map continuing in a clockwise direction, using the dimensions, scale and ruler to complete the process and end up at the point where you started.
References
Writer Bio
As a native Californian, artist, journalist and published author, Laurie Brenner began writing professionally in 1975. She has written for newspapers, magazines, online publications and sites. Brenner graduated from San Diego's Coleman College.