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Please cancel my survey
Caller: Please cancel the survey I called you about a couple of weeks ago.
Me: Not a problem. But, great timing as I was planning to hit the courthouse later today to start researching.
Caller: The guy who had agreed to sell me the piece you were to survey stopped by last night to tell me in person his wife had him served yesterday with divorce papers. Everything they own together is tied up until they get the divorce settled, so, I may never get to buy that tract.
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Sure glad I didn’t jump right on that job. Too many others in the hopper right now.
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6 Replies
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If I were interested in buying a property I would do as much research as possible at my expense, considering it an investment. If the opportunity pops up to make a quick purchase decision I would be able to make a better informed decision, such as, “Would I buy this without surveying first and at what price?” If I do get to do the survey I recover my expenses, because I may not get the purchase chance.
Paul in PA
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There was a 10 acre encroachment between two landowners. To clean it up they finally decided to do a BLA and get the 10 acres to the owner occupying the ground. The seller was starting to have issues with his mental health and the son took over for his dad; the son had an ex that decided to sue the ranch the moment the son took over. That was right when the survey was supposed to start. Well, the case went to the state supreme court, the ex wife lost, then sued again and ended up in the supreme court a second time (lost again). Finally last year I finished the survey, the job started in 2010.
Maybe yours will come back.
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I had a client pass away while I was in the middle of a survey. I didn’t find out until the survey was completed. My invoices remained unanswered and unpaid for a couple of years…I pretty much forgot about it. I had never released the survey.
An attorney handling the estate eventually called and wanted a copy of the survey…the kids were fighting over the property. I was quick to remind them I was never paid for my work.
It was around five years later I received payment. I mailed a copy of the survey after the check cleared. 😉
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Must be a rich family if they can take it all the way to the supreme court two times!
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People do not understand that time usually begins when you pick up the phone and during the conversation I am on the computer opening google earth and a couple of other sites like the appraisal district interactive map and clerk records and are beginning the research as we talk about the property because they want a quote and I must have some sense of what I am getting myself into and then they are expecting me to be there in a day or so.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a guy that wanted 15?ñ acres surveyed and I was asking how to get there and I was on google earth looking for the place and he was giving me directions and then he ask what I was driving because he had gone out to the end of his drive to wave me down. He was really upset when I said that I was sitting in my office using google earth and other maps to find his name and property and was not going to be there in 15min. After 45min on the phone and telling him that it would be at least 4wks before I could come out there he said that needed it now and not in a couple of days. I told him good luck unless he was willing to pay a lot extra because I can not think of any surveyors sitting by the phone needing something to do as we all have a list already.
Can not count the times I’ve been give then go ahead and received my survey order when for some reason the call will come to cancel the survey.
Thru time, what efforts I’ve put into a property, I get my opportunity to pull out the old folder and am able to charge today’s rates for years ago research.
??
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Had a potential client on the phone. I knew her first name and the address of her house. She was whining because the owner (but not resident) of the house next door had built a privacy fence with the ugly side (her words) facing her house. What seemed to be worse, in her opinion, was that it wasn’t built where she assumed the property line to be but several feet closer to HIS house not hers. She was certain that a privacy fence was required to be constructed along the property line. Somewhere in the conversation I suggested she visit the city offices to confirm various policies. Then, while checking the information on line for her property , I clicked on the adjoining tract with the offensive fence. Guess who owns that tract. The City Manager and her husband. When I mentioned that fact, the potential client got very worried,because she had been trying to hide that from me. In her view, as explained to me, the adjoiner was low-life scum simply out to abuse her because he was a bully.
The odds I will allow her to me my client are not good.
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