I got an email soliciting surveying services for a project in a nearby city. It was sent to me, some other local surveyors, and 456 others!
Throw out a big number and maybe you'll get lucky...
Ha!!!
You spend two days writing up a bid totaling $90k, job goes for $10K
Those are actual real numbers for a local bid package, I did a in my head cost of $89k and decided not to bother, but I never imagined $10k getting it. One of my colleagues came up with the 90k bid, he told me later about it and was so angry since all the bids were published. That can be a big downside. Better to simply not bid.
Are we back to this, now? For the last couple of years it has been name-your-price-and-make-it-big. Are we now back to racing to the bottom?
They probably sent the RFP to 456 surveyors hoping to get 5 proposals back from which to choose.
I don't think the market's changed that much yet. There's still plenty of work out there.
But there have been, and always will be, clients who employ the shotgun approach to proposing. And there have been, and always will be, some percentage of surveyor recipients who are in need of a project to keep the lights on. Or they are just corner-cutters and lowballers to begin with.
No need to play in that sandbox...
I give clients estimates, I don't bid jobs anymore, giving out high numbers hoping to score one is an iffy exercise. Especially for public projects cause your high bid might show up in public documents or even the paper, then locals might consider you a price gouger. The bottom feeders tend to fade away eventually.