So I've been surveying on my on for about 5 years now.?ÿ ?ÿNot doing a large volume of business since I work a full time job and pick up small survey gigs on the weekends.?ÿ Most of the jobs I've done have been lot surveys, family subdivisions, and existing conditions/topo for engineers.?ÿ I've recently been asked to give a quote for a survey that would split 33 acres from a 133 acre parcel.?ÿ ?ÿThis land was managed by Weyerhaeuser and has been recently cut over.?ÿ ?ÿThe perspective client has told me that he can drive me to every existing corner of the property and I would only have to set one property corner.?ÿ He assures me it is an "open and shut, easy, survey"?ÿ (No such thing, I know).?ÿ If I follow my regular fee schedule, it would place the cost of this survey to almost 10K.?ÿ ?ÿI know he doesn't want to hear that. (he's buying the entire 33 acres for 30K)?ÿ ?ÿI've never quoted a survey of this size.?ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ
Assuming that all things are clear and there is no line to cut, (again, has never happened to me) what's the best way to bid this??ÿ I don't want to scare this guy off, but I also am not in this for charity work!?ÿ ?ÿ Ideas?
-Chris
I would suggest time and materials and maybe throw in a "not to exceed" price?
?ÿ
Following...I'm curious what others have to say on this as well.
Off topic a little, but this reminded me of something that I saw in POB(?) QUITE a few years ago. They posed the question "What is the strangest excuse you've gotten to justify not getting paid by the client" (along those lines anyway). I only remember one response - "Three days to cut line! You coulda stuck that transit thing in a good tree and seen everything."
I would recommend fixed price with fixed scope.?ÿ Signed contract, with at least 25% retainer.?ÿ If he decides to ask for more work, great--price goes up and he signs a contract amendment/work order.?ÿ
Don't let him price pressure you.?ÿ As a contractor friend of mine says "I bid 'em happy-happy.?ÿ Happy if I get 'em.?ÿ Happy if I don't."?ÿ I think that's good advice.
I would caution against T&E with a not-to-exceed (NTE).?ÿ Unless your NTE is really high, that only protects the client, and stands a real chance of screwing you.?ÿ?ÿ
Drive to the corner and there??ll be a giant pile of slash on top of it and maybe a giant deck of unmarketable logs in the way of getting to it. The other ways blocked by a tangle of huckleberry.
?ÿYou aren??t getting paid depending on off it is easy or hard to get to the corners, you are getting paid to know what the monuments are and what to do with them
Assuming you need to survey most or all of the 133 acres to subdivide the 33 acres then your fee could be reasonable. Unfortunately the cost of a subdivision survey is often a large percentage of the purchase price of the property and some perspective clients are shocked, others don't bat an eye. It is what it is. Good luck.
Gregg
I would recommend fixed price with fixed scope.?ÿ Signed contract, with at least 25% retainer.?ÿ If he decides to ask for more work, great--price goes up and he signs a contract amendment/work order.?ÿ
Don't let him price pressure you.?ÿ As a contractor friend of mine says "I bid 'em happy-happy.?ÿ Happy if I get 'em.?ÿ Happy if I don't."?ÿ I think that's good advice.
I would caution against T&E with a not-to-exceed (NTE).?ÿ Unless your NTE is really high, that only protects the client, and stands a real chance of screwing you.?ÿ?ÿ
Agreed, T&M/not to exceed is really a lose/lose situation for you (but great for your client). Why is it going to be $10k? Do you have to topo the entire site or is the price high because of boundary and recording costs?
I would caution against T&E with a not-to-exceed (NTE).?ÿ Unless your NTE is really high, that only protects the client, and stands a real chance of screwing you.?ÿ
Well Said.
N
OMG?ÿ The odds of this being a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am survey are slim to none.?ÿ The PROSPECTIVE client is only thinking of his idea of field time and absolutely none of the other work items you must do.?ÿ Do not let him fool you into a lower than great-for-you price.?ÿ What he paid for the property is completely irrelevant.?ÿ ?ÿ It could have been given to him, but what a surveyor needs to do is still the same expense.
We had a survey in a timber area along a river that had been?ÿ hit with a tornado.?ÿ Physically getting to any spot was next to impossible.
How many days will it take you to do this job for your prospective client? How much do you want to earn per day? How many extra days will it take if something goes wrong? That is the price I give him.
@drew-r?ÿ
I came up with the 10k price from a couple of fee schedules I received from fellow surveyors in the area.?ÿ "Large boundary surveys $1.25 per linear foot."?ÿ ?ÿ The perimeter is over 7,000 ft.
1. Linear feet of boundary says nothing about the difficulty of access, nor the existence/condition of monuments you will need to tie into, nor the bureaucratic fees that some must deal with.
2. Do not ever say things that might be interpreted as pr!ce f!x!ng between surveyors.
I recommend you drive the site with the prospective client.?ÿ Make sure to squeeze into your conversation, as he is pointing out where the corners are supposed to be located under a pile of tree tops or root balls, that you have to actually get a fixed location on the boundary evidence and make comparisons to the record documents and if they don't match, more work will be required before you can certify the division of land.?ÿ Give him a realistic estimate based on your observations during your site visit AND what you estimate the value of your survey to be.?ÿ I think the phrase one of my mentors used was, "realistic and equitable".
Will you be locating evidence of occupation along or near the property lines??ÿ How about family cemeteries or slave graves?
Just a couple of things you may want to consider.
Your client isn??t the owner of the property. My experience is that this makes the chances greater of something going wrong.
