The laughs of the day came in the form of a prospective client whose commercial entity owns probably about $20 million in real estate on a half block in downtown Austin, Texas. The property in question is in a district of the Original City of Austin laid out in 1839 where a minority of local surveyors are truly even qualified to make a proper survey in the first place.
Owners are trying to sell the property and evidently the buyer contracted with a surveying company in ...[wait for it] ... OKLAHOMA FREAKIN' CITY, OKLAHOMA to provide them with a survey of the property! After asking the caller what sort of an idiot buyer would hire someone in OKLAHOMA to survey some of the most expensive property in Austin, Texas, I just had to laugh at the utter lunacy of the whole idea.
I mean, as I get it, the Okies can barely keep the PK Nails in their own county road pavements to mark the section corners, much less go somewhere you have to know what you're doing to even make a dent in the work. I was tied up with other things, but fortunately was able to point him to a competent local surveyor who can unscramble the pending mess of things, but wow and double wow!
> The laughs of the day came in the form of a prospective client whose commercial entity owns probably about $20 million in real estate on a half block in downtown Austin, Texas. The property in question is in a district of the Original City of Austin laid out in 1839 where a minority of local surveyors are truly even qualified to make a proper survey in the first place.
>
> Owners are trying to sell the property and evidently the buyer contracted with a surveying company in ...[wait for it] ... OKLAHOMA FREAKIN' CITY, OKLAHOMA to provide them with a survey of the property! After asking the caller what sort of an idiot buyer would hire someone in OKLAHOMA to survey some of the most expensive property in Austin, Texas, I just had to laugh at the utter lunacy of the whole idea.
>
> I mean, as I get it, the Okies can barely keep the PK Nails in their own county road pavements to mark the section corners, much less go somewhere you have to know what you're doing to even make a dent in the work. I was tied up with other things, but fortunately was able to point him to a competent local surveyor who can unscramble the pending mess of things, but wow and double wow!
not too bad!
back "in the day" a few of my best long term clients would ask us to survey properties a bit farther from the home office than that. It is a matter of trust and familiarity.
"it makes you wonder how the fool and his money got together in the first place"
Harry Anderson
> back "in the day" a few of my best long term clients would ask us to survey properties a bit farther from the home office than that. It is a matter of trust and familiarity.
Yes, but I'm going to say that anyone who would "trust" an Okie surveying company to do more than slam PK nails in a county road is out of their freaking mind. This isn't a mobile home subdivision. It's something that actually matters. Would you hire a bunch of Okie surveyors to drive to Manhattan to make a "survey"? Same idea.
Perhaps the client wants the job done correctly on the first try. That would be my guess.;-)
> Perhaps the client wants the job done correctly on the first try. That would be my guess.
So, why in the world would they have hired anyone in Oklahoma unless the rest of the US all kind of runs together as seen from Manhattan? I may get a chance to see the map of the "survey" that was produced using those long-distance Okie methods. I'll get back to you for extra credit in the humor department, if so.
> > back "in the day" a few of my best long term clients would ask us to survey properties a bit farther from the home office than that. It is a matter of trust and familiarity.
>
> Yes, but I'm going to say that anyone who would "trust" an Okie surveying company to do more than slam PK nails in a county road is out of their freaking mind. This isn't a mobile home subdivision. It's something that actually matters. Would you hire a bunch of Okie surveyors to drive to Manhattan to make a "survey"? Same idea.
Absolutely spot on, why would anybody run the risk of mobilizing that far, into a big city, without any historical or local knowledge, take on that the type of liability and assume they won't get caught out there?
If they do the proper due diligence they should blow the budget on travel and research alone. Moreover, you have to wonder how the local heavy hitting Surveyors would view this, I bet they're standing in line waiting for the first opportunity to Survey the Adjoiners. 🙂
It'll be interesting to see how this saga plays out if the owner won't listen to reason and logic.
Keep us posted
Again- I'll refer back to the alta on the music hall. 900 bucks for a signature from Cleveland. 90s all the way around, one found monument. And a client indignant at having to spend 10 times that (still probably .0002% of purchase price) to make things right.
Hey! Almost everyone has some out of work relative somewhere that has a ticket but no train to ride. I'll bet that's what's happening here.
I enjoy the Practice of Surveying. The Business of Surveying, not so much. It may be good business to provide surveys to your best clients everywhere and anywhere; however, it may not be the best practice. This issue is is only going to get worst as the large geospatial firms obtain a larger market share. Personally, I believe that I could come to Austin and provide a good survey to the Client in about 3 to 4 times the time it would take Kent. The problem is that my experience indicates that the out of the area firms are less or close to my cost estimate. I am not arrogant enough to think that another surveyor may be 10 to even 20 percent more efficient than myself. 3 to 4? The quality of work has to suffer or the project is a loss leader to maintain a good client.
I went to a seminar a while back that stated that there are four types of Companies.
Practice centered Practice
Practice centered Business
Business centered Practice
Business centered Business
When a former company went from PCB to BCC, I left. I believe most of the Surveyors on this site like the Practice more than the Business.
Hold on just a minute.
While your initial outrage may be justified, please, let's get the facts before everyone castigates this OK firm. It could well be that they have a TX registrant on staff that has worked in Austin and knows what's up. Distance does not equate to incompetence just like closeness does not equate to competence.
An Okie's guess..
Lord knows there are plenty of my brethren up here that would survey anything for a sawbuck. And I'm sure Oklahoma doesn't have a corner on the market for the "quicky-dickey nine-ninety nine" survey.
And I have no idea who it could be, really. But there are a number of companies that are geared to "take care" of out-of-state work.
I have an ex-employee that went to work for one such outfit. Three crews were sent to Colorado, Nevada and maybe California. Their itinerary consisted of over 50 jobs that were to be completed within two weeks. Being familiar with this outfit and their work quality, the jobs will probably be finished with time to spare...:pinch:
I will say it's good they're down there instead of screwing thing up here locally...
My condolences.
Hold on just a minute.
Well said Dave.
That's hilarious. Gave me a good hearty laugh.
Kent, give the Okie the benefit of the doubt
I mean, you may get a call from the guy wanting to learn about Austin control. I got just that kind of call 2 weeks ago from an out-of-town surveyor wanting to know about Houston downtown control.
Hey, it could happen.
Jack
Hold on just a minute.
> It could well be that they have a TX registrant on staff that has worked in Austin and knows what's up.
The chances of that are effectively zero considering that there are probably fewer than four surveyors on the planet who have the knowledge required to make that particular survey.
