Flagging the evidence on a job before bidding

visit to look at maybe, depending on job- flag up, no - thats asking for trouble

> [sarcasm] I guess we should have sent him a thank-you note.[/sarcasm]

Do send a thank you note. While you are at it, send a check. Treat your fellow professionals in this manner and you will be shocked at how the professional community will change. (Note I am not using the sarcasm font as I am very serious about this.)

The check wouldn't have to be all that much. Twenty five to fifty dollars will work wonders.

Larry P

PS: Cool photos.

A long time ago a builder client I did quite a bit of work for wanted me to meet him on site and give him a price for the survey. I met him, kicked around and found a few corners and told him what it would be & I'd be back the next day to survey it all in.

He called me the next morning and told me to hold off, because he no longer needed it, because he now could figure out his setbacks. Boy was I pissed. I sent him a bill for my time, and he paid it. I didn't do any other new projects for the guy because he thought I was unreasonable, but did finish up what was ongoing.

Lesson learned on that one.

> "Just got this job (he handed me a tax map). Just go in and locate all the pins that (another surveyor) flagged up when he recon-ed the job."

Any chance Perry that the surveyor that flagged the points up is under contract or believes he his?
Jim

if you did that here...

if you did that here the property owner would thank you and tell you he no longer needs a survey.... they are idiots for doing that.

>
>
> Any chance Perry that the surveyor that flagged the points up is under contract or believes he his?
> Jim

Don't think so. This happened several years ago. It was a common MO for this company to send out a crew to take a look at the property and report back to the office with a field-time estimate and a map with found monuments circled (at least on a smaller parcel). The bid would then be prepared by the office. Like any good field crew, they would instinctively flag up the pins.

if you did that here...

> if you did that here the property owner would thank you and tell you he no longer needs a survey.... they are idiots for doing that.

Yeah, I usually try to get there first, pull off the flagging from the pins and toss some brush and leaves over any exposed monuments.

In this particular case, there was topo and engineering required (commercial) so they would still need a survey.

if you did that here...

> Yeah, I usually try to get there first, pull off the flagging from the pins and toss some brush and leaves over any exposed monuments.
>

OMG

> > "Just got this job (he handed me a tax map). Just go in and locate all the pins that (another surveyor) flagged up when he recon-ed the job."
>
> Any chance Perry that the surveyor that flagged the points up is under contract or believes he his?
> Jim

You bet before I have any proposal ready to discuss with the client, I will attempt to contact anyone else I know has had dealings with the property. He may have no money left for me if you add up outstanding balances to others. Also, if he owes a few hundred to someone else, I can allow for that in my fees and see it gets taken care of whether the client likes it or not, even if he finds out.

Those are nice pics - my favorite is the cairn by far.

It looks like there are people on both sides of the aisle concerning flagging mons. I instinctively flag mons, but I can't yet think of a case where we lost a project because of our recon. Then again, Maine is usually behind the times anyway, so maybe only time can tell.

If I was really concerned about it, I'd probably not flag mons, but I would record a position and a picture of the mon with a handheld or even a smartphone, then generate L4 (look for) points for my crew to chase down once we get the job. This keeps the information I worked for internal to the company, and if I do have a colleague call up who happens to get the project instead of me, I can provide him the data file if I like him and I'm feeling nice. 🙂

I am always a little when I get to a job and everything is flagged. On several occasions, the job was already done. We were hired by the buyer of a property and later found out that the attorney already hired his own surveyor. If there is fresh flagging or traverse points in the vicinity, I will always get a call out to the client and / or attorney to confirm.

> I am always a little when I get to a job and everything is flagged. On several occasions, the job was already done. We were hired by the buyer of a property and later found out that the attorney already hired his own surveyor. If there is fresh flagging or traverse points in the vicinity, I will always get a call out to the client and / or attorney to confirm.

This is a small town so, in this case, everybody knew what was going on.

Now if there were traverse points, that's another story.

I never enter a bid for a job. I give them an neighborhood of the price and each project is on it's own for how much it will cost.

In the "been there, done that" category, I used to go out and actually look at some places before estimating a price. Rarely do I take time to meet anyone just to look a project unless it is sizable and I've got the job already.

The caller would say "tie some flagging so I know that you were there", ok

It was a trick to get me to locate the monuments for them and then have them say that they don't need the survey cause they are happy to just see the monuments.

Flagging a monument is worthy of a fee and is billable time.

Perry,

Nice to see a real pile of stones afiter all those pipsqueak "rock mounds" that Kent posted about.

For one, I would not visit the site unless I had the job and a down payment. Two, For a bid, I do not visit the site, unless it is a commercial bid with another company who I trust, but you would not find that I was there at all. I would not be digging up mons etc. just get a look and get out. I can tell you, if I flagged a place and did not get the bid, I would go back and rip down and flagging.
I do like the courteousness of surveyors seeing that someone else has been there to find out why they are not doing the job, did they get paid? what is the story? I have lost a lot of $ with other surveyors coming behind me and doing jobs that I did not get paid from and they either finished it or did other work so I could not get paid (try to exercise a judgement). I always check!

Flagging

Digging the Chevy grill & fenders... 😉

> if I flagged a place and did not get the bid, I would go back and rip down and flagging.

Why????

Anything wrong with making the job easier for someone else? It's not their fault you went out and spent time in advance of getting the job. I'd look at it as an unintended favor.

Around here, it's rare enough to find set monuments at all, much less having them flagged up.

I had a guy from out of province call me wanting a survey (resurvey) of a lot in a subdivision. 34 of the pins were there just had to fix a couple and stake out one or 2 more and do a plan (canadian for plat). He said he needed it done asap, was all good, gave me the go on the phone. When the time came to deliver his plat he said he called to just touch base and didint give the go ahead (I wrote this all down at the time)...I called him on it and he admitted to giving the go ahead and would pay the bill...next day he calls back and says his wife gave him a bunch of grief about it and that he could not pay, a-hole...never did get any $ from him.

Same thing happened to another client at around same time, he ended up getting cancer and could not do what he wanted with the land, called him on it too and he did come across for time we had into it. This one was one we kind of had the whole thing sorted out from a previous survey so only had to go and verify things and put in 2 pins...I should have know it was too good to be true.

Live and learn.

Q: What makes less sense than flagging evidence for free?
A: Returning to remove the flagging!