[ckissick]

I'm a civil engineer who does surveying, although not for property boundaries. I create site maps for the work that we do. You need to first talk to the City or County, get the Assessor's Parcel Map, and any other maps they may have. See if there is a "record of survey" for your property or an adjacent property.

Then you will probably need to hire a surveyor who does a lot of work in your area, since he will have his own accurate bench marks. But some surveyors are pretty lame. I know which ones to hire and avoid here on the Peninsula, but not Oakland. I've seen property corners that were off by a few feet, mismarked orientations of property lines, and even incorrect north arrows.

PM me and we can talk about it. I can call some engineer friends in the East Bay and see who they recommend. I can recommend a guy out of Foster City, but he may not want to do work in Oakland. But he might know a good guy. This kind of work often goes to court.