@nate-the-surveyor agreed surveyors need be retrained. You also need to be retrained to not make a piss poor unprofessional response to the realtor. You missed an opportunity to provide a response that was clear, concise and educational not degrading. That realtor learned nothing from your response, all they digested was your attitude.
We get the same kind of calls weekly. It??s hard to bite your tongue but you have to.
?ÿ
Going on 30 years now @oldpacer.?ÿ In the first half of my career your scenario is exactly what we did at the 2 places I worked.?ÿ These places never made money.?ÿ They were not ran well from a business perspective but were good learning experiences.?ÿ Repeat business from public one-off survey clients is rare but does happen.
After learning the actual 'business' part of surveying I realize how to actually charge for my services.?ÿ If we conducted a survey on the same piece of property 1, 2, or 10 years ago and nothing has changed from the property perspective we charge them full price and always Lump Sum.?ÿ Sometimes they bite, sometimes they don't. It's a Win-Win either way as there are plenty of other profitable lump sum projects to work on.
my dad did the work. It is 3 days of work to update it properly. Minimum.?ÿ
It is very probable that several mons have moved. I can send you a copy of dads plat. And, his crew did make errors or blunders. Some of those blunders are significant.?ÿ
here, you update it!!
We need to charge enough to make a good profit, but charging the same amount you charged to survey the same property 1 year ago when nothing has changed goes way beyond that.?ÿ
We'll certainly agree to disagree on this concept.?ÿ I have no relationship with 'new owner', why do they benefit from my knowledge??ÿ It's the other way around.
?ÿ
If you bought a home in 2015 for 400k and the value in 2021 is 600k would you sell your house for for 450k? No, because that is bad business practice.?ÿ?ÿ
If you can sell old data to a new client for full price go for it. It's legitimate. But when you want to be sure to resell the old data and still make a handsome profit it may behoove you to cut your price a bit, lest you get underbid by a competitor and end up with nothing. Your floor price is the current charges to perform the necessary due diligence, plus some amount for the renewed liability. You do have the ability to deliver more quickly than the next guy, so that's a selling point, also.
Whatever else you can get is gravy. If you have profitable work coming out of your ears you may need more gravy than the next guy.?ÿ?ÿ
If you do not believe that the original work is reliable, or that there has been significant site changes & monument disturbance, then that is quite a different matter. In that case, it's not an update at all.?ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ
I don't get your analogy at all. You can't sell the house twice.
By all means cover your liability and make a profit, but charging to do the research, field investigation, drafting,?ÿ monument setting, and materials twice is not a a good way to engender good feelings.?ÿ
?ÿ
The goal should be to remain to be the requestor's surveyor for any future projects.?ÿ That does not mean you should do it at a low price.?ÿ It means you should do it at a fair price.?ÿ Perhaps 20 to 40 percent lower than what your charge would be today for the job that was done previously.?ÿ You will still make a fair profit for the time invested to be certain the previous information is still valid and update a few items you find.
Well it is...putting aside economies of scale, new products either cost more to cover the R&D (i.e. electronics and pharmaceuticals) or the cost of R&D is spread over what is expected to be many sales (i.e. a new flavor of coke). In the second case the producer is taking a risk of losing money if they don't sell enough of the product.
The tide analogy only works if you charge less than break even on the first survey of a property in the Hope's you will be able to charge the same price to survey it again.?ÿ
A better analogy is the detergent sold at natural food coops. You buy a jug of it, but when you need more you bring the empty jug back and fill it up again. You pay less the second time because they don't charge you for the jug more than one.?ÿ
Thank you for helping improve the reputation of our profession.?ÿ
Our costumers may be ignorant, but that doesn't mean we should abandon the golden rule.?ÿ
Thinking about when I have hired someone to provide a service that I am not an expert in there were many times that I did not go with the lowest quote because of honest non patronizing responses like yours. I am sure some of them were biting there toungs. We can't all be an expert at everything.?ÿ
Even if the prospective client passes on your services, they will know what to expect next time, and may be suspicious of a low ball quote.?ÿ
Just because PG could build refilling stations doesn't diminish the quality of the product, nor does it entitle the consumer to some sort of discount for subsequent purchases.?ÿ I think the bottle/no-bottle analogy is more akin to giving the client a paper map versus a .PDF.?ÿ In both cases the product is still the same.
You also need to be retrained to not make a piss poor unprofessional response to the realtor. You missed an opportunity to provide a response that was clear, concise and educational not degrading.
Yes I know. It was immature.?ÿ
Maybe even overdue to boot.?ÿ
I have welcomed business at expense to myself for too long..
Thank you
Nate
piss poor unprofessional response to the .... You missed an opportunity to provide a response that was clear, concise and educational not degrading... ?ÿ
That ... learned nothing from your response, all they digested was your attitude
Take a look in the mirror, friend.
I don't think you are getting what I am trying to say. The first bottle of Tide sold wasn't sold for a high enough price to cover the R&D of the product line. They figured they would have more customers for the same product, so they spread the cost of R&D over millions of purchases.?ÿ
We don't price a survey under cost, expecting to recoup our research and field investigation time on subsequent purchases.
I understand that customers have unrealistic expectations for a second survey, but I would be mad too if a surveyor asked for the same price again.?ÿ
When I estimate a project price it can go down by as much ad 50% if there was any prior dependable modern survey, much less one of my own. The cost to the client is not wholly dependent on the work we need to do to provide the product the client wants, but it certainly isn't independent.
What you are doing is charging the same price for the small bottle of 7-11 Tide as the big Costo one.?ÿ
?ÿ
