See page 2, section C of this proposed form. The comment period seems to still be open, for all the good it will do.
Don't know how to respond to this without making it political or being accused of such, unless I just say, "oh my".
jud.
You know some jackleg will do it for $75.
It's shouldn't be a question of being political or not. Whoever put $85 for an estimated survey cost has no realistic concept of what it costs to do even a rudimentary boundary determination. Even a drive-by "is the house on the lot" in anything but a new subdivision with visible corner monuments would be pushing it.
It's interesting to see the flood determination costs, too. Mass production company with FEMA overlays on county GIS maps for $20. Find the right property on the map, is it in/near the FHZ boundary - yes/no? $20 please.
I'm guessing that a lot of this is just sample, but it makes it hard to charge $200 to do a survey when the estimate is $85. We must be cheating the property owners.
Someone moved the decimal point over one notch and no one else caught it.
:good:
Compare that to the home inspector.
He only has to have a ladder and a circuit checker to get his job done compared to the equipment required by the surveyor.
He also does not have to know as much and his license is not much more than a driver's license.
Makes us ask the question: Why can't a surveyor be a good businessman/businesswoman too?
Leave it to the Federal Government, their slide rule for estimating cost has been read wrong so many times it should be left in the desk drawer.
Why would they want to list possible costs to someone's fee and not care about what most other things cost that pass thru their doors.
In my opinion is is not a part of their duties to set or recommend the price of surveying or anything else for that matter without consulting surveyors.
I also believe what they are doing is price fixing at its worst.
:-O
I'm being 100% serious here, but the stated amounts for:
02 Survey Fee to Surveys Co. $85.00
-AND-
05 Title – Title Search to Epsilon Title Co. $800.00
seem to be reversed from the costs and fees that are charged (or should be) by companies in both of those businesses in my area. Mike Moe may disagree with that, but I did some title work on the side back in the day, and 60 years searches were typically around $100, and not much has changed in their pricing structure over the last 10 year, just like ours hasn't. It looks to me like those are some bogus numbers just thrown on there to take up space... At least I hope so.
Carl
I could be wrong (it's happened before) but I beleive they are referring to what some of us know as a "Mortgage Inspection Survey".
Even a Mortgage Inspection Survey, that isn't even close.
These days a title report is almost useless, read the fine print and the title co is only liable for damages not to exceed the cost of the title report.
A survey has a lot more liability and they are done for 10cent on the dollar.
I just went through the process to buy a Fannie Mae property. Nobody even suggested doing any sort of land survey. I went and did my own check for myself.
It's all digital now. The flood check was $12 (just look at a map).
The seller paid (about $1300) for a homeowners title insurance which does eliminate the "anything that a correct survey would reveal exception." The insurance folks know their risks and are willing to insure without a survey. So $85 is to much. The real cost is $0. The title insurance folks are sopping up the money and willing to pay a few claims thus no need for boundary surveys. They've probably already insured most properties several times already without paying any claims.
Look, they don't want any of the problems that a survey is going to cause. It's as simple as that. Surveyors are out of the loop in this business of selling homes. Get over it!
> These days a title report is almost useless, read the fine print and the title co is only liable for damages not to exceed the cost of the title report.
> A survey has a lot more liability and they are done for 10cent on the dollar.
True dat! A client has a ROW issue with the DEP, I'm sure there is a fee with access clause in the taking, but just for kicks, I asked for the title report. Four pages, one of which was the Schedule A. The other three? Taxes paid, no liens and the cover page. Worthless.
Rick
How about linking us to the comment page?
That is pathetic, so let's not be apathetic.