Does This Sound Reasonable To Other Surveying Professionals?

My guess is that the $2,400 price was due to a hack/low baller or a firm still begging for work due to the Great Recession.?ÿ If the former, no PLS wants to clean up a mess, especially when most are turning away good jobs.

You are viewing this as if your previous survey is written in stone when it is just a professional opinion.?ÿ Asking a PLS to blindly agree with someone else's opinion would be similar to asking a doctor to perform surgery without reviewing x-rays or blood tests.

Some states allow a PLS to specify in their contract that they are not performing a boundary analysis. Maybe instead of asking the PLS to mark your boundary, and incur lifelong liability, tell them that you will pay them hourly to set wood stakes between points.?ÿ

You may want to consider that your seven year old survey was performed by someone who spent little to no time analyzing your deed in relation to all your adjoiners ad they relate to your state's jurisprudence.?ÿ Maybe the cheap surveyor skimps on equipment and didn't use a metal detector and your current boundary encroaches on your neighbor.?ÿ Maybe El Cheapo found every corner and is the embodiment of the surveyor's maxim, "You don't need to be a good surveyor, if you can find all the corners." Maybe you just got an amazing deal on a survey seven years ago.

I'd be questioning the former survey more than the recent proposal.

Posted by: @gr16

Using the previous firm is not an option.

why is that?

I think we're missing some relevant information from this story.

Is it possible that the corners are in wide open areas, but the lines are through thick forest, swamp, etc.??ÿ Maybe the guy from 7 years ago could get each corner with GPS, but setting stakes on the lines would require traversing.

Maybe the guy from 7 years ago had just finished surveying some adjoining parcels, and this was just a small additional amount of work for him.

Did the new surveyor actually say, that the prior survey was "useless", or is that you interpreting what you think he said?

There're lots of variables going on here.

Answering this by anyone not licensed in ID is pointless.?ÿ

I'm not a licensed surveyor nor in Idaho, but here's my 0 cents.

Surveyors in most of the US seem to be overwhelmed with work lately, so are pricing jobs high.

Even if a new surveyor didn't accept an old survey as gospel, they should examine it and the deeds. If Idaho is a mandatory recording state they may just get a copy from the official records and not need your copy. But the old survey isn't useless.

If you can find the old corners and feel you can trust them, you might be able to mark line between them yourself, depending on visibility. See the 4 pole method of making a straight line through hills

https://www.fao.org/3/R7021E/r7021e03.htm

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Edit: simultaneous posting, Norm

@norm?ÿ

Pointless??ÿ Nah, not really.?ÿ For specifics, maybe.?ÿ But my post mentioned conditions that I consider universal

If you're hiring a surveyor, based on price, you're doing it wrong.?ÿ

Would you price shop your doctor; your attorney; any other professional you need to help you with your problems??ÿ

A couple of red flags:?ÿ

You only paid $2,400 for a 26 acre survey, 7 years ago?ÿ

You don't need a survey, just the lines marked, based on the $2,400 survey

Going back to the first surveyor is not an option?ÿ

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Some clients try to hide under lying issues, thinking they will have them taken care of for free. I've developed a 6th sense about this and tend to add that in the quote; no surprises down the road.?ÿ

Like Bill said; if you know where your corners are, and just want the lines marked, it's not to difficult to figure out.?ÿ

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Good luck!?ÿ

Post your 7 yr old survey. Post your deed.?ÿ

You'll get more information.?ÿ

"Is what I was told about the previous survey being useless accurate?"

What the Surveyor most likely meant by that was, because of liability and professional standards issues he cannot rely on a boundary survey by someone else to perform the task you requested.?ÿ

I'd get an estimate from another surveyor.?ÿ If he explains to you why he needs to resurvey the property hire him.?ÿ Calling it useless is unprofessional IMHO.?ÿ

As for the cost.?ÿ I am only able to put a value on my work.

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Each new survey project has a wide variety of potential variables that may be encountered.?ÿ If a potential client insists on having a fixed price, my number will be high because I do not have knowledge as to which potential variables will come into play and how that will impact the total effort.?ÿ The fair process is to accept the professional surveyor based on reputation and experience.?ÿ The surveyor will treat you fairly as you are treating him/her fairly at the same time.?ÿ Nothing is worse than the surveyor in the field being told by some superior within the firm to cut corners and finish the job in no less than X hours.

Many times in wooded areas some of the locations specified to be marked can be done quickly and others may take 50 times the effort to mark.?ÿ Yes, 50 times the effort (time-wise).?ÿ GPS equipment has limitations.?ÿ Total station equipment has limitations.?ÿ Unfriendly neighbors can greatly impact the time and effort required to get to certain locations.?ÿ The steepness of the terrain can be an issue.?ÿ What can be accessed by something like a four-wheeler providing room for supplies that may be vital.?ÿ What can only be accessed on-foot while lugging vital supplies over awkward terrain conditions.?ÿ Everything from hornet nests, impenetrable vegetation, poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac and what seems to be a sea of spider webs hitting your face add to the time.?ÿ The size of the total tract is many times not a true indicator as to the level of effort required to set/find the same number of points required to do the job correctly.?ÿ In open country, we may be able to do the same job on 260 acres of?ÿ land as you desire on your 26 acre tract for a much lower fee.

I have a feeling the County Surveyor knows something we donƒ??t.

$2400 for a 23 acre survey in the woods is less than rock bottom. Itƒ??s like getting a brand new Mercedes Benz for $10,000.

I'll try to respond to all the questions/thoughts here...

For starters, for all I know about surveying it's safe to say I don't know anything, which is why I'm here asking questions.?ÿ So thank you very much for all the replies!

The property:?ÿ It's largely flat but heavily treed.?ÿ There is a mild incline leading from one side to the other, but this incline is a small portion between two otherwise flat areas.?ÿ When we bought the one parcel, we also bought about half of the parcel next to it.?ÿ That parcel was a north/south parcel that ran alongside our east/west parcel.?ÿ All we did was extend the north property line of the east/west parcel to the east line of the north/south parcel and bought everything south of that. The initial survey was to mark the existing corners of the east/west parcel and to mark the "new" corner at the east line of the north/south parcel and to mark the other existing corners of that same parcel.?ÿ Most of the pins/markers were in place and were located (we went out with the crew when they did the surveying).?ÿ

The original firm:

The firm we first used was well established and had a great reputation.?ÿ I didn't set next to her when she did it, but a woman in the office said she would be doing all the "due diligence" and checking maps/deeds, etc.?ÿ The two guys who did the field work had their wazoo GPS unit ?ÿ The reason I say they are not an option is that in checking into them again for this project, I learned that recently there had been some changes in the office and many of their "good" surveyors had moved on/retired and the latest feedback on them was, let's say, not as glowing as the first time around.

The "useless" survey"

Ok, I was paraphrasing.?ÿ What was actually said was that they don't use other firms' work since they can't guarantee the accuracy and, therefore, they would be doing their own work starting from scratch.?ÿ Based on that statement, I inferred that the other survey would be of no use to them, hence "useless." ?ÿ With my limited knowledge of how the industry works, I did not know if that was reasonable.?ÿ Even with what little I know, it sounded understandable that they wouldn't take the other survey as gospel, but just wanted to double check with those in the know.

There are no hidden issues with my request.?ÿ The current firm said they would have to locate the corners in order to mark the lines.?ÿ And that would entail verifying the location of the "corners" of the entire section (which is what, 640 acres?).?ÿ?ÿ If they've done any work in this section, would that have to be done again or wouldn't they already have that info?

I'm not hiring based on price, but was a little shocked at the price based on the cost of the first survey.?ÿ

Forgive my lack of knowledge of the surveying field, but it just seemed to me that if I could take these guys out and show them the corners (and the original pins/markers) they wouldn't have to search for anything.?ÿ All they would have to do is verify those locations (which they do via GPS, right?).?ÿ?ÿ Am I somewhat on track with that or am I completely oversimplifying it??ÿ

Nobody actually said whether or not $16,000 to mark those corners and put up 16 intermittent markers along the lines was a reasonable price for that work.?ÿ All I have to go on is the discrepancy between when the other firm located/marked the corners for $2400 and this firm doing the same thing plus adding the property line markers and wanting $16k.?ÿ I understand prices have gone up over 7 years, but that's a huge jump even with the additional marking.?ÿ?ÿ I'm not afraid to pay a fair price for quality work, and I get "supply and demand," but I want to know if that actually is a fair price or if this firm is so busy they are throwing out a ridiculous number that they would take If I were willing to pay it because they don't really need my business.

Thanks again for your help!!

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Thank you for the follow up information.?ÿ That is helpful.

Any further comments should be a tad more useful.

Please note.?ÿ One thing that is always a concern is when a client shows the surveyor various monuments (bars, pipes, stones, whatever) and says, "I know this is the corner."?ÿ The reason for that is that there are many unscrupulous people in this world that we meet frequently who have already moved monuments they did not like to a location they like much better.?ÿ That is not to say you would do that.?ÿ That is not to say that your neighbor would do that.?ÿ ?ÿIt is simply a truth that the experienced surveyor has encountered too many times.?ÿ That is a significant part of the "we need to determine if this monument is correct" reasoning that is being applied by your consulting professional surveyor.