I have decided that I am not going to put up with others setting my fees anymore. I got a call from a realtor yesterday asking for a quote. It goes like every other call from a realtor " Hi,you did a survey for such and such on lot 12 lowball lane. My client needs a new survey, How much will that be? I gave my price and She said "Thats Too Much" hung up and I will never hear from her again. So from now on I wont quote fees to anyone other than the true client. The conversation will now be, Sure I can do that, what is your clients name? Can you give me their contact info so I can talk to them about it? When they object, I will just tell them I need this info for my records. It's high time we stop letting other so called professionals beat down our prices.
Agree
At my age I shouldn't get PO'd in the AM but just thinking about how we let those *&^%^ insert themselves in our business got me all worked up. I wish we could return the favor. What would happen if we told every realtor client we came in contact with that 6% (or whatever they get) is Highway Robbery? BTW, good thinking. If we all did that maybe we can wrest some control back.
> I have decided that I am not going to put up with others setting my fees anymore. I got a call from a realtor yesterday asking for a quote. It goes like every other call from a realtor " Hi,you did a survey for such and such on lot 12 lowball lane. My client needs a new survey, How much will that be? I gave my price and She said "Thats Too Much" hung up and I will never hear from her again. So from now on I wont quote fees to anyone other than the true client. The conversation will now be, Sure I can do that, what is your clients name? Can you give me their contact info so I can talk to them about it? When they object, I will just tell them I need this info for my records. It's high time we stop letting other so called professionals beat down our prices.
No need to tell the Real Estate Agent that you need the information for your files. Get straight to the real point. If the Agent orders the work then the Agent is ultimately responsible for paying for the work. We are not allowed by law to do surveys where our pay is contingent on the deal closing.
No agent wants to pull money out of their pocket to pay in invoice that will benefit someone else. That is the key to getting what you need to deal with the real client. Explain that you need the person who is responsible for paying for the work to actually order the work.
This works like a charm and will actually create a better more professional impression with the agents.
Larry P
One thing I've been doing is industry promotion of not bidding boundary work. Take a retainer. Boundary work is not something that should be bid. There are so many variables in the discovery and resolution that quoting lump sum prices involves financial risk, much the same as building contractors.
Instead I recommend telling a potential client what your hourly rate is and any up front retainer, along with a discussion on your estimate of effort for the investigative portion, while explaining the resolution process cannot be estimated until the investigative process is complete.
Doing this will let clients know what the value of your service is, instead of leading them to comparative bid shop.
Our experience with residential realtors has been mixed. While most are merely fee conscience, some are correctly value conscience. We lose residential boundary surveys over $20 and hear later of the problems that arose. We have chosen the “take time to educate” approach. This works when we are dealing directly with the buyer, yet varies with the realtor. Probably because the realtor has produced a good faith estimate and any overage comes out of their cut…
Commercial realtors on the other hand are nearly always are value conscience, they aren't as likely to haggle you on your fee and I must say that a lot of the residential boundary surveys are more time consuming than the commercial when dealing with fences, shrubbery (NI !) and what not…
> At my age I shouldn't get PO'd in the AM but just thinking about how we let those *&^%^ insert themselves in our business got me all worked up. I wish we could return the favor. What would happen if we told every realtor client we came in contact with that 6% (or whatever they get) is Highway Robbery? BTW, good thinking. If we all did that maybe we can wrest some control back.
Easy, dont work for realtors. We dont have surveyor involvement in land sales like many other states do. However, we do get the occassional call from a realtor looking to have an actual boundary survey done. Without fail there is dead silence once we research the project and get them an approximate price (never a bid and never a lump sum).
I stopped supplying realtors with costs and direct them to the lowest cost surveyors in the area. Works great for me and for those surveyors and for the realtor....we're all happy. 🙂
There are bound to be a few knowledgable realtors out there that understand what we do but I have yet to find one.
actually Larry I have tried that tact before with varying success. I don't get many of these calls anyways as I am not even in the yellow pages anymore, but no matter how you slice it, I am not quoting to anyone other than the actual client anymore. Realtors, attorneys and even engineers price shop our services constantly in an effort to make themselves more valuable to the client. They can only do this if WE let them. Aren't they truly just acting as unlicensed brokers of services? I think it is time we take back our profession.
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