I've been in business now for about 2 weeks, while working my full time job. I have had my website setup; my google ad is bringing attention to my site. Thus far, I have had 10 people contact me for surveys. I did further investigation having a friend call around town to get some quotes, while I was doing his survey. One surveyor was close to my quote, and another wanted $300 for a "stake survey" plus a $100 if he needed to reset a corner. I was shocked. ?ÿKnowing this information it is not surprising the clients in my area are asking for "one side" surveys.?ÿ
I was taught a survey meant that you located the entire parcel. Further than that you located the government corners ( if applicable), and then located surrounding parcels to support your findings. I'm constantly educating prospective clients that regardless of whomever surveyor quoted you this absurdly low price, I cannot in good practice provide you with a "stake survey" of a certain lot line. ?ÿI need to conduct a full and complete certified survey, as I am legally bound/tied to that work for the remainder of my career. ?ÿPerforming a "survey of one line" is not helpful, as without a certified survey there is nothing of legally binding.?ÿ
Sorry for the rant fellas. It's been a rough week of answering phone calls and emails. But at least they are pouring in! I just need to up my salesmanship.?ÿ
Does anyone have a different / better way of informing the public?
Thanks in advance.
Dave
Don't justify or go overboard explaining the details because they don't care about the details.
Give them a price to do a proper job and once again don't wring your hands in anguish justifying your fee. You do not have to explain your fee.
Edit: maybe consider having an extra charge applied if you have to work in a yard with dog shit or step in dog shit.
One line, one point, whatever they want. I see no problem with that.
Is it just to determine where their new construction will be, and they don't really care about the rest? Strike up a conversation and see what they are up to. Nobody "wants a survey", but they Need one. Find out why.
Up-sell if you can, maybe one line would be 80% of the cost of the whole property. Scratch your head and decide.
Of course you need to abide by your mapping and filing requirements, whatever they may be.
?ÿ
not to say that sometimes you do need to figure out the whole damned neighborhood to find "that one line".
?ÿ
1295 to survey whole lot.
1225 just one line...
I had a family friend explain that she had one side of her lot Surveyed for $1,200 and then decided to have the other side done as well, she was a little perturbed that the same Surveyor wanted $1,400 to do it but he was the lowest available price so she went with it. The whole time she was telling me the story I was admiring the Surveyors pricing schedule.
Residential lot in Berkeley California for context on the pricing.
?ÿ
?ÿ
Lady called yesterday thinking she needed a surveyor. ?ÿEventually learned her neighbor must have had a survey because several red flags and lath had suddenly appeared going across her property. ?ÿShe needed one to prove to the neighbor that they were in the wrong place.
I asked where she lived. Then I had the pleasure of explaining to her that I had surveyed her tract in 2002 when it was created AND I was the dirty bird that set the flags and lath she had seen as I had found her property corners while surveying for her neighbor last week. ?ÿOnce she calmed down she asked what I would charge to find her other two corners.
I have done one line before and will do it again. The Land owners don't need to know the details. They don't need to know that you need more points to confirm that one line. Do what you have to do to tie down those two points and stake the one line they want.?ÿ
This idea that you were taught a survey is only done one way is silly. Some people, many people do not need a full survey, especially is they already have a good and proper survey. They just need one bloody line to put in some shrubbery.
Like most things, it depends.?ÿ If it's a simple subdivision lot survey, they're not getting much of a bargain doing just one line, since the fieldwork required would probably be sufficient to stake the whole lot.
If it's a larger more rural lot, then staking only one line might be all they need and want, and could save them a lot on cost.
"I was taught a survey meant that you located the entire parcel."
And you were taught correctly. The only exception, at least for me, is I will stake one line only on a survey I had performed previously. Otherwise the whole parcel would have be surveyed.
That's just my 0.2'?ÿ ??ÿ
When I get calls asking if I can stake one line, I say sure no problem which side do you need stake. I give them a price of Surveying their tract plus the extra cost to stake the line.?ÿ I give them what they ask for, and I do a complete survey.?ÿ
When you go to a restaurant and order a steak, do you ask the waiter about the process that brought that steak from calving to feedlot and how much methane was released in the whole?ÿprocess? Maybe if your in Berkley, but never mind, the first order of salesmanship is sell the sizzle and not the steak.?ÿIf they're just shopping for the cheapest steak they can possibly find, send them to your competition.?ÿ
?ÿ
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
"I was taught a survey meant that you located the entire parcel."
And you were taught correctly. The only exception, at least for me, is I will stake one line only on a survey I had performed previously. Otherwise the whole parcel would have be surveyed.
That's just my 0.2'?ÿ ??ÿ
OK, imagine there is a ranch, several thousand acres.
One segment of the boundary is determined by the location of a river/section line/highway right of way/whatever.
Solvable on it's own.
The owner want's just that One Line mapped/marked/described, whatever.
What would you do?
It's like asking a baker for two slices of bread.?ÿ He still has to bake a whole loaf.?ÿ If there's no market for the rest of the loaf, he's going to charge you for the whole loaf.?ÿ How much of it you use is up to you.
"I was taught a survey meant that you located the entire parcel."
And you were taught correctly. The only exception, at least for me, is I will stake one line only on a survey I had performed previously. Otherwise the whole parcel would have be surveyed.
That's just my 0.2'?ÿ ??ÿ
OK, imagine there is a ranch, several thousand acres.
One segment of the boundary is determined by the location of a river/section line/highway right of way/whatever.
Solvable on it's own.
The owner want's just that One Line mapped/marked/described, whatever.
What would you do?
Great point. Many examples like this could be made. Telling the client "I have to survey the whole parcel of every parcel I survey" is nearly as simplistic and inaccurate as the client telling you "I only need you to survey one line."
"OK, imagine there is a ranch, several thousand acres. "
My bad. I only survey new construction production housing. So I was thinking about "Estate Lots" in Florida, which are 50'x100" and the "Executive Estate Lots" 60'x100'. I don't perform any large surveys.?ÿ ??ÿ
There are all sorts of surveyor-connected projects that do not qualify as surveys. ?ÿI put them in the same category as construction staking. ?ÿSo long as they do not get confused with property rights, you are fine. ?ÿSay a greyhound raiser wants 30 parallel dog runs ten feet wide on his property. ?ÿDo it. ?ÿBut, don't put any of your stakes anywhere close to an exterior boundary. ?ÿLet him extend your alignment to wherever he wants the end of the runs to be. ?ÿIf that happens to be an existing fence, so be it. ?ÿYou have your records proving you made no determination as to who owns the fence as that was not within your job.
There is no problem with monumenting only one line or one corner. ?ÿYou do the same level of research as normal. ?ÿYou do the same level of drafting. ?ÿYou do a bit less monumenting than usual so might reduce the field time a bit. ?ÿBill for what you have done. ?ÿSure, the client assumes they are saving some significant fraction of the usual cost, but you know better.
You don??t always have to survey an entire boundary to stake a line. Sometimes you do. Sometimes the evidence is plain and simple. Other times it is not. I contend ?ÿthere is no ??cookbook? method for surveying. That??s what makes it interesting and also difficult at times.?ÿ
?ÿ
Anyway, to answer your question:
"OK, imagine there is a ranch, several thousand acres.
One segment of the boundary is determined by the location of a river/section line/highway right of way/whatever.
Solvable on it's own.
The owner want's just that One Line mapped/marked/described, whatever.
What would you do?"
If I had not performed a previous boundary survey on the whole parcel there is no way I would stake "one line".?ÿ Way too much liability and it's illegal to do so in FL.?ÿ?ÿ ??ÿ
We have a 90,000 acre state forest with probably 200 miles of boundary. Harvest requires 1 mile to be marked. Might have to survey a couple of miles to check interdependent monument relationships but certainly not the whole thing. Surveying all the boundaries is a project that has been going on since the 1960s.
Small subdivision lot is a horse of a different color though.
I'm?ÿ with Peter on this one. Sometimes, not often, one line is independent of the others. More frequently you make measurements to monuments not on that one line to satisfy yourself that the one line is correct - then not monument those extraneous lines nor show them on your map - thereby not taking liability for them.?ÿ
One example of a survey that only defines one line of a property is a right of way survey such as is done by DOT surveyors every day.
If that's not legal in Florida then that is too bad for Floridians.