Point of beginning (POB)

The point of beginning (POB) is the corner where a metes and bounds description starts and to which it must return - the anchor of the whole description. Every course is read in sequence from it, and a description "closes" when the last course lands back on it.

Descriptions often reach the POB through a preliminary chain of courses from a known reference - "commencing at the section corner, thence..." That starting reference is the point of commencement (POC); the POB is where the described parcel itself begins. Only the courses after the POB bound the parcel.

Because the POB anchors everything, ambiguity in it - a lost monument, a vague reference - propagates through the entire parcel, which is why descriptions tie the POB to something durable and findable.

Related: Deed to CAD software