Whats with the ALTA requests/demands? Out here they are rare and always requested by some out of state person. The last one was that it HAD to be done last week of Sep. When informed of my schedule and when I could even think about getting to it they couldn't understand why I wouldn't drop everything and do it. Well since I'm busy and will never see you again......
Gave them a few names of other surveyors, two weeks get a panic call, they wanted so much and they would take so long, you HAVE to do it for us.
SIGH!!!!!
I was able to squeeze one into my busy schedule for a big city (NYC) outfit a couple weeks ago after they wired a fat retainer fee. Then I agreed to email pdfs of the final drawing after the fat fee balance due was wired too. I think Larry would be proud of my "hourly rate" on that one.
Investment firms and hedge funds have been moving into the purchase of farm and range land for the last few years. Their lenders councils are used to seeing ALTA surveys before they sign off on the loans.
http://www.pbig.ml.com/pwa/pages/back-to-the-land.aspx
:good:
It's all about value. They saw the value in the service you provided. The amount of time you had to invest in providing that service is irrelevant.
Larry P
Heck, gave them the rush cost on my timeframe, they didn't like the timeframe or the cost and went shopping, now they are back wanting the same end date two-three weeks later.
The thing is they have a survey already done as a site survey by an engineering firm. Then they wanted it changed to ALTA but the surveyor who oversaw the first survey did it as a favor to the old firm he worked for and said he didn't have time or interest to turn it into an ALTA (I think he is on the road now for a while).
So they HAVE to have an ALTA and I think expect other surveyors to take the site survey and do a little magic and sign off on it. Maybe the business model in areas they are used to working in have surveyors doing lots of ALTA's. I doubt it approaches 1% of business here.
Two weeks ago I got a request for 7 ALTAs to be done within 45 days. I told them I could do it. They said to send them a proposal. Did that. Haven't heard a word. Must not be of any value to them. I'm sure they found someone to do it for gas money.
SD
Every so often I do one, I kinda like doing them, but they need to be realistic on timeframes and cost.
One guy sent a cert that was laughable after the project was done. He just couldn't understand why I wouldn't sign the thing.
One thing they tend to do is say they will send all lot of business my way if I just come down on my estimate-you know like half price. lol
> One thing they tend to do is say they will send all lot of business my way if I just come down on my estimate-you know like half price. lol
I do half a dozen a year for an attorney at Reed Smith that almost always asks me to drop the price a little. It makes the client think their attorney is looking out for them. I just add 20% to my original proposal estimate then knock 10% off...everyone's a winner 😀
I know him;-)
Do a few a year, for great profit margins. Not many firms preparing ALTAs in the City of Philadelphia these days.
Have you ever completed an ALTA of a leasehold area? Just saw my first one and was surprised that they did not need to show the legal and / or the boundary of the entire property?
We've done a couple ALTA's for solar panel arrays where they only wanted the "leased area"....