How on earth can you make a living charging rates like those listed. A lot of testimonials......maybe he has found the answer to inexpensive surveys...really?
This has to hurt area firms and solo operators alike.
I can never understand what size of parcel has to do with cost of survey. Some 1/4-acre parcels can take me 10 times longer than some 5-acre parcels. I don't know what kind of "survey" you get for those kind of prices, an actual boundary determination? Improvement locations and plat? I noticed it also includes an elevation certificate if necessary. That alone should cost at least what they're charging for the low, low flat rate. I guess if they can send a $15/hr. guy out and do one of these jobs in a couple of hours, they can make money at those rates.
Twelve crew chiefs = 1 dozen crews!!!.......wow!;-)
> How on earth can you make a living charging rates like those listed.
The whole thing looks like a 'bait and switch' tactic. Is Florida a recording state?
Big difference in field effort from surveying a lot and block versus an aliquot part of a section, if performed properly… 😉
From the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services:
ANDREW SNYDER
License Type License# Issued Expires Status
Surveyor and Mapper LS5639 07/05/96 02/28/11 Delinquent
Surveyor of Record For LB6799 08/18/97 02/28/11 Delinquent
Welcome to Florida:
http://www.knowitnow.com/ - $250 lot and block survey
http://www.allstatesurveyors.com/ $275 surveys, $95 el cert.
http://www.firstchoicesurveying.com/coverage.html $240, up to an acre, $85 el cert.
http://allcountysurveyors.net/index.html no standard price given, but they offer to undercut anyone by 10%.
I could go on and on ...
At $350, I think the company Ned posted is a "high-baller".
My intent was not really to criticize the price point, but the flat rate approach. I don't see how it's a tenable business model. We have all had one-acre surveys that are harder than five-acre surveys. Maybe they figure it will all even out. I will almost never quote a survey without looking at the subject deed, surrounding deeds, google earth, recorded plats, etc. I usually spend 20-30 minutes just getting a quote together, unless it is in a subdivision I know.
How can one LS "supervise" that many offices spread out across the state and have one day turnaround? Just saying.
Insanity
There is no way this would work in my neighborhood. When a section breakdown is required to establish one or more sides of a tract you are looking at an effort normally between $1500-$3000 and sometimes higher than that. It can be a fraction of an acre or nearly the entire section. Size does not matter very much.
Also Check Out His Employment Offer
"Experienced Crew Chief and Drafter positions are available on a contract basis as well with zero-down equipment leasing packages available to qualified Crew Chiefs."
Contract crew, providing their own equipment and probably transportation. That implies that each crew is also on a flat rate contract basis. I surmise the remote offices are the Senior Crew Chiefs' homes.
Appears to be a lot of incentive to take shortcuts, especially on the "bum" jobs when the crew chief has an equipment lease payment due tomorrow.
Paul in PA
Insanity
It is insane. Those of us who care about how the job is performed have to indirectly deal with these broker type outfits here in Florida. They downgrade our profession and put it into the minds of the attorneys and title companies that a survey will cost X amount but not more than $350. So when you tell someone requesting a survey that the price is going to be $3000, they throw a gosh darn hissy fit. And it is still slow in Florida, so in order to keep some type of money flow, we have to lower our prices enough that we may land some jobs. Sometimes you can reason with people about what is involved in their survey request, but there are those that say that is too much, or so-and-so can do it for $10 cheaper (I am not exaggerating about that price difference!). There are times where I just want to find a different profession or go to another country to work, so long as I am outdoors and don't have to put up with the stupid bullcrap from realtors, attorneys and stingy clients.
Wow! would deregulation really have been much different for Florida? Sorry, not sure how you guys managed to dodge that bullet...
Also Check Out His Employment Offer
Yeah ... from what I hear (and I've posted this before) these companies operate by offering $75-100 per job to the crew cheif, who has to have his own equipment, transportation, and pay his owner helper if he wants one. Then $8-15 per job for drafting.
And when the PSM that signs your work is 10 counties away, I'm sure there isn't much incentive to doing things right.
Agreed...
Well, I'm hopeful that some day the Florida BOR will wake up a decide that a surveyor in Orlando signing the work of independent contract crews and draftmen all over the state isn't exactly "direct supervision".
I guess I'm an optimist.
I think ALOT needs to come from your state society(ies?) in that regard. An active approach to unlicensed activity (etc) won't ever come from the govt, nor the general public; it has to come from your professional interest groups.
I don't think it has much to do with "unlicensed activity", as much as it has to do with direct supervision of field crews and drafting. I think the idea of having payed-per-job contract crews working areas 200 miles from the signing surveyor doesn't fit with the idea that the surveyor needs to know that proper proceedures and decisions are being made in the field.
Sooner or later, one of these guys is going to sign a bogus survey and get called before the board and have to explain how using his license in this way "protects the public". At least, I can dream.
> To each his own, but I think this is nuts.
1. Prices are listed as being "as low as..." Is this the price that is actually charged?
2. Nowhere does it state what will actually be done or what the finished product will be.