How much is the average home in your area? How much are your average fees for a 'survey'? What is the percentage? By 'survey' I mean some sort of average you expect to be compensated between a boundary staking and a division of land. Don't include oddballs, just a good rough guess.
This could be interesting as I expect my fees to be high, but my percentage of the property value to be low.
Average Home in Chatham, MA is about $750k. Average survey is about $3,000, or 0.4%.
Average sales price in Charlotte is around 180k.
I start at $350 for a "standard" loan closing survey or about 0.2%
Work is dead right now.
$350??? Are you serious? I can't set a job up for that!!
Is a "Loan closing survey" a "drive-by"? Like a Mortgage Survey?
Does 0.2% seem right to you? The property boundary location is really that worthless??
Just guessing... We're about the same as JB.
Average sale price is either about 150k or 325k (or it seems like it)
I'd like to think that other surveyors are getting at least $600~$700 for a closing survey. These are not drive-bys either. So, it looks like it works out to anywhere from 0.2% to 0.5% of the cost of the property.
As with everything surveying... It all depends.
We're at a snail's pace also.
Carl
it does all depend
we don't touch the mortgage plans
generally our plot plans are 600-1000
staking is typically a little more
once we get into real plans the numbers go up
we do septic designs and sewer connections
and site plans
plus permitting
so our fees do jump with the hoops
I hear you. That septic design thing must be a northern state thing, because doesn't one of the New Hampshire guys to that too? We'll located drainfields, and show contours, but not do the soil analysis. I can do a lite site plan, but nothing heavy.
> $350??? Are you serious? I can't set a job up for that!!
>
> Is a "Loan closing survey" a "drive-by"? Like a Mortgage Survey?
>
> Does 0.2% seem right to you? The property boundary location is really that worthless??
Nope, it's a real-deal survey and is considered a boundary survey like any other by our BOR.
I am on the front edge price-wise in my area for these surveys for which I schedule 2 hours in the the field and another 1.5 for research and drafting.
There are guys out there doing shockingly shi#$ty ones for $150-200. They are our main problem here.
Why would you not be able to set up a job for less than $350?
Setup:
1) Get record plat
2) Get deeds, search grantor/grantee index back to last sale, check adjoiner deeds
3) Enter lot and adjoiners into cad, get coordinates into DC for initial orientation
4) Go to the field
30 Minutes
If you think you can blow on in to town and charge more, I would welcome you to give it a shot.
Does it seem right to me? No. I would LOVE to charge according to the listing price or maybe a tax value. It seems to me it would more closely reflect the liability for the survey. Never happen. Works for the brokers just fine though.
We have an in-house engineer that i technically work under for engineering work.
I wish they would change our license to Geomatic Engineering and give us some of engineering...
> We have an in-house engineer that i technically work under for engineering work.
>
> I wish they would change our license to Geomatic Engineering and give us some of engineering...
we have a "B" license in Virginia. I don't know anybody that has one though.
Same problem here. One of my attorney clients (family friend) tries to chat up the attorney from the other side when she does a closing and throw me leads if she can. One guy bragged that he gets his surveys for $275.
Been getting a lot of calls for pricing, but they don't call back once they find someone who'll do it for $300.
Not right at all.
wow,
so i guess the idea that GIS will have all the correct property lines will come true in about a million years
That's piss
$350 is too low... I have several very good clients in NC, they pay top dollar.... But I don't do residential survey in Charlotte. None the less $350 is too loooooooow
"Why would you not be able to set up a job for less than $350?"
Because I charge what my services are worth to my clients, not how much it costs me to produce them. If and when I think hourly, I start at $150/hr and go up.
$350 is prostitution and a disservice to the profession.
NC is still in bad shape economy wise . You take what you can get . 350 is the going rate in my area and there are guys doing them for 200. Go figure .
NO
it is not the economy
it is the simple fact that we undercut and underbid each other
we let the lawyers specify the fees for a mortgage plot plan
we let these awful surveyors continue their awful plans at their minimal fees
if we all raised our fees at once, people would have no choice but to realize our services are worth more.
the trouble is, we will have that one SOB in each area who will see the chance to get more work by not raising his fees.
There are surveyors in my area doing lot surveys for $150.00....if you charge by the value around here, you'll be on food stamps (like me) and not getting any work...:-(
My fees are always 10% lower than spledeus's...
don, you usually underbid by significantly more than 10%
As far as I know neither one of us "bids" on projects... submit a proposal but we discourage bidding!!
I reckon my superior efficiency, as well as my significantly less overhead, allows me to work less expensively than you guys 🙂
Plus I don't feel the need to rectify all my projects to SPC !!
WOW! I sure am appreciative that they don't have that type of 'survey' in the states I work. How can it even be called a survey? More like a drive by with a limited amount of research. I do more than that just looking at providing a potential client a survey cost.
I'm with Jim from AZ on this one.