Survey Broker

Is there any argument for doing this?

Keep the work local and make a bunch of money?

You can be signing a contract that would seem to provide you with the assurance you will be paid on MONTH/DAY/YEAR. Don't count on that happening........every time.

I've done a few when I worked in a different place now refuse to even entertain submitting a proposal on one. These clearinghouses are not interested in quality, they are interested in going with the lowest price so they can maximize their own profit

You'd be lucky to be paid in less than two months after closing.

If you have plenty of work from other sources then you can either:

a) say thanks, but no thanks, or

b) give them a price for what it really costs, including both the compressed delivery and the delayed payment elements.

You are unlikely to get the job, but at least you are being responsive. Which leaves that door open for the inevitable times when you are waiting for a big long term job to kick off, and so need to keep your team together, but don't have anything for them in the short term. Under such conditions an ALTA or two that only covers cash flow costs might be a useful bit of business to have.

One doesn't want to build a business based on work from brokers. That's a losers game. But they do have a place.

That depends on how you look at things, meaning from a business or human perspective. Surveyors tend to look at the human side and resist cutting back staff to run a lean operation based on current and projected workflow. When the workflow is not there, you can't gamble and wait for the next big job to start, it's too much of a financial risk when you borrow money or leverage assets waiting for things to change. Bidding on projects that you know you are not going to win is a wasted effort, just to stay on the list for future opportunities to bid. On the opposite side of the coin, if you are bidding to break even to retain staff, you have no clue what level of stupidity that you are going to face with lawyers and paralegals that are clueless. After considering that, you have to use the clearinghouse's templates and layering/font standards. How are you going to do that and almost certainly take a loss in the interest of retaining staff?

There have been times when staff could be sent home and be counted on to be there waiting for your call. Not these days.

"What is your response when a big firm, from across the country, wants to hire you to do a big ALTA/NSPS survey for one of their big clients in your area?"

Some clarification is needed. If Big Firm is asking you to contract directly with their client, then it's just another job. But in CA, if Big Firm doesn't have a CA-licensed land surveyor or engineer on staff, then they're a broker, and aiding/abetting a broker is illegal here. Taking the job with Big Firm as your client could put your license in jeopardy.

If you are asking me, I don't care about a "big firm" from thousands of miles away reaching out to several others as well through google searches. If you arrive at a contract situation, they are never going to give you a retainer fee but will be quick to give you the shaft if the deal falls through. You are signing their contract, not them signing yours with protection clauses.

I work statewide for several major investors that I have forged relationships with for over three decades and originally reached out to me through word of mouth. If I have to bid for their work, it is extremely rare, and they sign my contract that includes contingencies.

In the last three years, even through the COVID shut down, our workload increased statewide and there has never been a reason to take on risk on the unknown client end. We have been hovering between six and seven field crews, no back up to seven and the workflow keeps them busy, regardless of the market rates.

In just one example, in the market crash of 2008, I was running survey in a satellite office for a large firm. When the market crashed, they closed the office, laid off my staff and brought be back to the corporate office and paid me very well to sit in a corner, twiddling my thumbs, while they waited and hoped that things would turn around.

A year and a half later, they laid me off, gave me a great severance package and there is nothing negative that I have to say about the firm, how well they paid me and the amazing yearly bonuses that they gave me mid and end of year.

These days, we live in a different world where people working outside of government will either suffer or improve their situations based on the results of the November vote.

Doing work for them means I'm supporting their business model. It is a model that intends to insert itself between me and my clients in order to siphon off a portion of the revenue generated. This is not beneficial for me in the long term and I will not in any way facilitate the survey brokers continued success.

I would get calls from far-flung title companies. They would want a cheap ALTA survey for complicated properties, such as trailer parks. They would tell me how much work they are going to have in the area (right). I eventually wised up and now I simply don't respond.

I only got one of those jobs and what they wanted was ridiculous (surveyors here do that), I wouldn't capitulate and never heard from them again.

I'm guessing these Survey Brokers are an extension of those title companies' business model.

Basically, a clearinghouse to get surveys done.

If they pay promptly and don't ask for outrageous stipulations, I suppose it can work, I did get paid very quickly for my one job.

Like Mighty Moe, one time is enough to get you educated. Forty very detailed pages of instructions and a nineteen (19) page contract. All of that for a small convenience store with two pumps outside. Parking for maybe eight vehicles in front of the building.

IF you go forward with this make sure to add budget to review a certain set of comments or they will hog tie you to fixing every little thing, even if it's not a survey issue, even if it's not required in YOUR state but IS required in the state they're working in.