Trapfinding without a rogue [Pathfinder]

[DaltonTrigger]

I'm playing in a campaign that just started up with some friends of mine. While I wouldn't say the campaign is non-serious in any manner, we're a group that prefers RP and creative/dark story telling over strict adherence to rules, and powergaming/super-optimizing is not something we really do.

That being said, we have a pretty goofy party setup right now...
1. Cleric of a trickster god. She is a full casting progression cleric and is probably going to be our party's buffbot/healer in adventures.
2. Master summoner with a heavy focus on summoning spells and party-wide buffs to enhance us and especially all of our summons.
3. Fey-blooded sorcerer with a ferret familiar (was allowed by DM fiat at the cost of some feats and skill ranks). Said familiar uses the 'Pilferer' archetype and is basically the party's pickpocket, treasure finder, trap finder, and lock picker.

The story, in case you're wondering, is that we're all basically part of this group of wandering performers, thieves, and heroic ne'er-do-wells, like if Robin Hood and his merry men were gypsies and witches. We mostly perform, and have performance/profession ranks as fitting for our characters' careers, but we sometimes help to... redistribute wealth from well-to-do merchants and snotty nobles into the pockets of impoverished who can barely afford to eat. And we might take a little cut off the top, but such is the perk of being a hero of the commonfolk.

Aaaanyhow, onto the point. Even with maxed out perception ranks and a magical pair of tiny ferret-sized goggles that give my ferret a +5 to perception (I'm not even kidding) my familiar's perception and trapfinding score is merely +14, which I am pretty sure is sub-par for a level 5 party. correct me if I'm wrong there.

So what I'm wondering is, what are some good and hopefully not too expensive options in terms of feats, spell choices, or magical items that could help my familiar to be more functional as the party's trapfinder? Can using Detect Magic grant an advantage to finding magical traps, which are usually really hard to detect? We have yet to tackle our first major dungeon (that will be next session) and since we just went through character creation a few days ago, the DM is giving us leeway on last-minute 'fixes' to our character sheets before the proverbial doo-doo hits the fan.

I almost wonder if just having the Master Summoner send a bunch of celestial cows through the dungeon to intentionally spring all the traps might be our best bet...

[avr]

Celestial cows (or whatever to open doors) are reliable trapfinders if unsubtle.

Some ways to raise the ferrets perception would be Owl's Wisdom or similar as a buff, Aid Another to search an area, an ioun stone (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/ioun-stones/dark-blue-rhomboid-ioun-stone), magic boots (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/boots-burglar) (may need to be custom made), or temporary items like an elixir of vision (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/e-g/elixir-of-vision).

[DaltonTrigger]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but say my sorcerer and her ferret are walking side-by-side down a passageway searching for traps. Do I just roll each perception separately, do I have one of them use Aid Another while the other rolls perception normally, or can each aid each other while also each getting to roll perception?

Edit: Also, I believe magical items that boost skills (eg goggles of perception or cloak of elvenkind) grant a 'competence' bonus. That means they won't stack with the elixer of vision or the ioun stones, correct?

[avr]

Aid another takes an action, searching takes an action. So the second I think.

The type of the bonus depends on the item, but competence is the most common and it doesn't stack. The elixir is a higher bonus so gives something at least. The ioun stone grants the Alertness feat which is an untyped bonus, providing the familiar doesn't have the feat of course.

One more thing, clear ear (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/herbs-oils-other-substances#TOC-Clear-Ear) is a +2 alchemical bonus to all perception checks (not just hearing) for 6 hours which costs 15 GP/dose.

[DaltonTrigger]

The clear ear is a great suggestion, especially since the DM has said that we have an NPC alchemist contact who can give us small discounts on alchemical items! I can't believe I overlooked that.

The Aid Another still has me confused, based on this wording:

You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you're helping gets a +2 bonus on his or her check.

That reads to me at least that it's more like this: We both roll perception, and a result above ten essentially gives the other a +2 on their final result. Of course getting a result under ten is practically impossible so that really just amounts to a free +2 and I can see why this might not be intentional design. So... I don't know, if more people could weigh in on it, that'd be nice. I'll also look at the search feature and see if I can find other threads that discuss aiding another.