An open letter, to Real Estate Brokers, Title agents, and Lending institutions (Let's Talk about it)
If you are a Real Estate Agent, and you sell a piece of property, for say 200k, and normal Real Estate fees are somewhere around 6%, this becomes a profit of 12k.
Now, if you sell a piece of property, in MARCH of that year, you earn your commission, one time. If you sell that same piece of real estate again, in the fall, you also get your commission.
Now, when it comes to land surveying, Let's say that the survey of that given piece of land costed 4k. And, on the SECOND sale of that land, what do you do?
YOU CALL UP THAT SURVEYOR, and ASK HIM for a copy of the previous survey.
In essence, you ÛÏCut him out of his commissionÛ. If you can.
Do you forego you commission, if you sell the same parcel 10 times? No.
Don't ask the surveyor to either.
We are responsible for, and liable for the marks that delineate the boundaries of said property.
I have seen innocent persons, with a trencher, or backhoe, destroy a survey mark, and then PLACE IT BACK as good as they can. Then, the neighbor relies on it, to build a fence.
I have seen the pwr company drill a hole, set a power pole, and throw the pin back, near where they think it came from.
I have SEEN guilty parties, pull out pins, cut down witness trees, and literally, try to ÛÏmake the survey say things it did not sayÛ.
When you sell title insurance, do you sign, and DATE and Affix the TIME of that title insurance? YES, because folks ÛÏDo thingsÛ that they ÛÏforget aboutÛ. You know it, and I know it.
So, if you want an update of an existing survey, call me. If you want a free survey, well, we'll talk about it, when you stop charging Real Estate commission, after ONE SALE. And, when you no longer charge to update your title insurance.
Nathaniel Dearyan, PLS Arkansas.
We aren't ALL like that, Nate. Some of us are good ol' boys, just like you.
I know a surveyor that is now in the real estate business from my county. He was a good surveyor and a beacon of hope in the real estate business round here. I think him and Cow might have a lot in common. Hell, it's the smart ones that figure out how to supplement their surveying earnings.
The two career opportunities have a great deal in common. The number one thing I do, though, is to not promote my real estate license to those for whom I am providing survey services and vice versa. Plenty of clients get free advice based on decades of experience in both arenas. That is part of the exasperation I tell about in the other thread about clients not listening to sound advice. I've been in so many real estate transactions over the years as surveyor or agent or buyer or seller that I have encountered or heard about just about everything. Especially about the things that can really muck up a transaction.
I think you are spending too much thought on this, Nate. It's much simpler. You have something they want and need. It will cost them. It makes no difference what it cost you.
I was at a presentation by Milton Denny who writes in one of these survey mags. He would do large 100k surveys of commercial sites then get a call back a few years later requesting that he "change the date" on the map. His general rule was to charge 2/3 of the original cost. This sounded about right to me.
Mark Mayer, post: 402987, member: 424 wrote: I think you are spending too much thought on this, Nate. It's much simpler. You have something they want and need. It will cost them. It makes no difference what it cost you.
The argument that the RE agent shouldn't charge to sell the property a second time doesn't work anyway. To sell it a second time they have to market it, show it, advertise it. Find a new buyer. The same as if they had never sold it before. Whereas a surveyor could just run a copy of an old survey in a minutes times and be done. So the argument doesn't work.
But that is not cause to yield to pressure and just give stuff you have and they want away. Lawyers charge hundreds, if not thousands, to write a letter. Doctors charge hundreds to write a quick prescription. Apple charges hundreds of dollars for an iphone that costs a few dollars to produce.
