Retireing

Probably the easiest way is to give the business away.
That way your clients can still be taken care of and your records can stay there.
Most surveyors would rather sell it so that they can retire with additional money.
That usually takes more planning and strategy that you have not done yet.

I would suggest finding that eager young PLS that wants to eventually own their own business and pull them in. Mentor them to become an owner and a business person and let them go with it.

That way you sign it all over to them so you are not still on the hook, and you are retired.

Many surveyors just stop working and the estate finally sells off their stuff when they are gone and the records are thrown in the trash since it is not worthwhile for them to pay storage on them. Done deal.

:good:

Retiring

> Probably the easiest way is to give the business away.
> That way your clients can still be taken care of and your records can stay there.

I wonder if there's really any value in the records of a survey firm, at least one in a mandatory filing state. The idea of digging through someone else's files, field books, and digital records seems more daunting than starting from scratch.

I'm still some years from retirement (I hope!), but I'm thinking I'll probably convert all the paper records to PDF, keep the digital stuff and the field books just in case, and recycle everything else. Maybe even offer the digital records (not including employee, client or accounting) to local firms for the price of media, just in case anyone's interested.

Retiring

> I wonder if there's really any value in the records of a survey firm, at least one in a mandatory filing state. The idea of digging through someone else's files, field books, and digital records seems more daunting than starting from scratch.
>

I've found incredible value in the records of a surveyor that used to practice in this county before he died. Even if his work was less than standard, there is still value in being able to look through job files and at plats he prepared.

All that said, however, the records would have been useless without some sort of indexing system and the ability to be able to decipher said system.

Retiring

My grandfather had his own surveying business for over 40 years. Many of those years, the state in which he practiced did not require filing records. He sold his business, which consisted of approximately 200 field books, his dated equipment/tools, dated office equipment and his business phone number. The amount he received for the above was quite lucrative from my standpoint. I am not saying this applies to all survey businesses, but in his case it was a great arrangement for both the buyer and seller.

My retirement plan is to do what I can and want to do and refer the rest to others that are reliable.

That is what a group of us have done around here for years because we learned long ago that one of us can't do it all and the pool of quality surveyor's helpers to choose from is rather small.

One option would be to give one of your best employees an opportunity to continue the business as you take the time to ease away from the helm.

good luck

I don't know you, so what I'm about to say isn't an opinion of you one way or the other, but in my very humble, youthful(?) opinion, a surveyor's business worth is directly proportional to his reputation. I base this on the theory that the two things a buyer is looking for regarding a survey business are records and client base. Equipment, particularly from a surveyor ready to retire, is probably somewhat antiquated, thus probably not a great deal of value.

In order to have a client base worth wanting, the retiring surveyor would have had to be reputable, bringing quality, return clients with quality projects.

The records are of little value if the retiring surveyor had a reputation among his peers as being shoddy. But a surveyor well known for doing a life time of good work while meticulously acquiring and producing good records would be quite valuable - even more so if those records are properly catalogued (no green books and rolodexes).

I know there are formulae for determining a business's worth from a matrix of statistics, and I don't disparage them. However, I think it ultimately depends on the life's blood a surveyor poured into his work.

Retiring

I'm within a couple years of the same situation and have several clients that I have done work for over 20 years. Oftentimes 1 or more days a week. My plan is to give them about 1 year advance notice. If they want to start breaking in a new company, I plan on giving them full cooperation.

As to the records, mine are indexed by sec, twp and range in a non recording state. I am surprised that there is little perceived value on old records. I have spent 40 years gathering records from retired surveyors and private companies with surveying departments and make use of them on many of them on today's surveys. I find it beneficial to know what might have been set, by whom and their reasoning for doing so.

My initial thought is that unless someone comes forward with a reasonable offer, my last day will be spent out back with a large bonfire.

Mike

Retiring

I am lucky enough to have a son that will hopefully be taking over my (our)business.

I say hopefully because even though he has the desire and savvy, but it seems that a person can become a brain surgeon in less time than it takes to get your survey license these days.

But if he does not end up doing it, I will consider reasonable offers for my records from someone that is sincere about becoming a worthy surveyor in this area. They are all scanned and organized very nice and tidy, i can put my hands on 95% of the surveys I have done in a matter of minutes and I am talking about many thousands of surveys and the fact that I am one of only 2 surveyors with an office in this county. The other one is a lot older than myself, so he is probably thinking more of this than I am.

But since this crazy business has its ups and downs and ups and downs, it has by no means afforded me the assurance of a comfortable retirement in the foreseeable future, so lord willing I will be plugging away for many more years.

Randy

I worked for a land surveyor. I left to work for a construction company and then an
engineering company. After getting started myself, I would get calls from the clients of the
land surveyor. I would help the prospective client find my former land surveying boss.
When I gave my former boss the name of the client (probably the purchaser), he asked
if I was trying to steal his client. I said no and that is why I am calling you. Besides,
your clients expect something really cheap!!

I have known a land surveyor who went around buying land surveying companies who had
thousands of mortgage surveys. He got so many threatening calls for bad mortgage surveys
that he left that city and moved out to the boon docks to survey.

Retiring

> I've found incredible value in the records of a surveyor that used to practice in this county before he died. Even if his work was less than standard, there is still value in being able to look through job files and at plats he prepared.

Ironically, the worst surveyors's records are probably quite valuable (depending upon area of practice, of course), because they can help untangle and explain some of the more unholy messes that the practitioner created for posterity.

The best surveyors's records are useful for the details they may contain that didn't make their way into the public records, but, generally the record of the work itself in the public records will be more than adequate.

In between those poles is a tale full of sound and fury.

Retiring

I agree with Kent whole heartedly.
N

I had a surveyor friend who put a great value on his records. He bought many business's over the years and had a huge amount of records. Then for years tried to sell them at what he thought was the value of them. He was older and his mind and business was falling. He had to do many moves due to financial troubles waiting for the big pay off. Finally I think the records pushed him over the edge trying to save and peddle them. I was contacted by his family to purchase them, when many others were after them. I brought in another survey friend to split the expense and the cost of the storage the moving on them. When we bought them they were in a broken down warehouse in the middle of a very bad section of the city. My truck was broken into and other issues whenever we went there.

We paid our family and friends to index them into a Microsoft Access program data base. We then split up the records between us. These records spanned many counties and we worked in different areas. We sold the rest of the records in the areas we did not work and made our money back.

I find these records to be of great value and worth the 6 years of headache getting them to where they are now. I get calls from other surveyors to look at files. Now that they are organized, I feel that they do hold great value to a boundary surveyor.
We have also received many leads on projects from these records, plus aided in many surveys.

Your records have value to the right surveyor. Don't let it bog you down like above, set a fair price and do what you can to help continue their use into the future....

Retiring

> ..., but it seems that a person can become a brain surgeon in less time than it takes to get your survey license these days....
>
> Randy

Made me think about that for a second, that is a heck of a state of affairs and true.
I guess land is more valuable than anyones brain.