Lowballing

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> This guy is a builder though, and I'm sure is experienced with the bidding game.
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builder = get your money up front

The other guy was probably just going to flag up the fence for $300.

VH, nice to see your name around again. You still in Northboro?

a property just sold for a few million. in order to sell it, they needed architectural plans and a permit. the architect charged ballpark $130k for the conceptual plans and permit.

the same architect will negotiate our prices down. i'm in the wrong profession...

good luck with the staking. it's exciting when somebody understands the value of our work.

The kicker to the whole thing is

The $300 surveyor that did not get the job is convinced that he lost it because his price was too high

There's another surveyor in my county who would probably charge about $300 to survey 100 acres. I realize that this is a public forum so I won't go into detail on what I think about him. Anyway, just yesterday I was working on a project and my client's father-in-law started harassing me about charging too much. He said that he told his son-in-law to get the other surveyor, because he was more fair with his prices. He stood flat-footed, looked me in the eye and told me that I was "mistreating" people by charging so much. I defended myself as calmly as I could and resisted all the urges that were rising up in my right fist. About ten minutes later, the guy started talking about how the county wanted to buy 4 acres of his property to make a road in 1987. He said they offered him $3500. The property where the road went through is basically gullies and scrub. He said he held out on them and got them to pay him $7500. He paid $2200 for 50 acres in 1962 that has a "bounded by" description. My survey discovered 4 more acres in his tract than what he thought he had. He never apologized or admitted that my survey was worth the money. Selfish and stupid are a dangerous combination. I try to focus on the ones that appreciate us. If I thought too much about the others, I'd quit and look for a teaching job.

I recently priced a rural tract about 8 miles from my office. All wooded, no survey of record within the past 40 years and very little road frontage. I had some knowledge of a couple of the adjoining tracts and priced the job at $6900. I was a little afraid I had priced it too cheap. A friend of mine was involved in the real estate company selling it. He told me the buyers went with a surveying company 50+ miles away that quoted $4400! I don't see how they did it for that and paid for the gas to get here and back multiple days and had any money left to buy lunch! I haven't followed them much, but from the ones I have followed, they do fair work. A little sloppy, but still passes as surveying. I wonder if they realize how much they left on the table... If I'm not going to make a profit, I'd just as soon stay home with my lovely bride.

“If I'm not going to make a profit, I'd just as soon stay home with my lovely bride.”

There is a poster on this Board whose name I won’t mention. But anyway, I’m sure NATE can give you some valuable pointers as how to occupy your time with your “lovely bride”:-D

Have a great weekend.

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> He calls me back.

I hear this all of the time on here, usually not with as good as results as you got. It amazes me that people that accept the lowballers actually call ya'll back to tell you.

Yup, still here.

-V

Probably 75% of the time when I do not get a job where I felt I provided a fair & competitive price I will call them back. I try and appeal to their sense of markets and how a little guy like me really needs to keep close track of things to stay competitive within the profession.

Most of the time they'll tell me something I can sort through. Sometimes even the other guy and his price. Then I wish them well and thank them for the opportunity.

Only takes 5 minutes and you can learn a lot. And on a few occassions I've gotten the job anyway just because of that follow up call.

You should have told the client if he didn't stop that fellow from bothering you, you were going to tack on an ahole tax.

I am constantly amazed that when we have a project that bids for $1M+, we get hammered to lower our price, when it is roughly 1% (or even 0.5%) the total contract price...

What are these guys thinking? We've gotten about half our jobs recently because we're taking over for some lowballer who has really messed things up, costing far more than the original survey contract in errors. And in most of these cases, the contractor chose the one bid that was less-than-half the average bid of everyone else. How many of these people have to be bitten in the ass to discover they shouldn't go for bids that are so low? When will they discover that you get what you pay for?

And of course, in most of these cases, they hired someone with no E/O insurance... Again, you get what you pay for...

With our economy I've noticed even a few of the good surveyors are bidding low. In many cases trying to break even and keep their staff employed. In the past we've been called to Survey a property after a low baller (corner cutter) has messed things up. When we do the survey right, and change the line, the neighbor will typically disagree because of their survey. After proving we are right, and they spend thousands on attorney's I think the learn the "get what you pay for" philosophy. Personally I'd rather pay a few k for a good survey, then 10x's the amount on lawyers, just to loose.

Another thing I noticed back in the NW was unlicensed surveyors doing $500 surveys in wooded acres. The locals were loyal to them, and felt the licensed guys (finding all controlling monuments, researching deeds, etc. ) were just starting trouble. For many years the board in Wa., had no real teeth in what they could do. Most often their punishment was making sure the violator was never able to get licensed. Not much of a punishment for a scam artist. I believe that changed a few years ago, and wonder if it's helped. In rural area's the property owners protected these guy's. Anyway probably just ranting at this point. lol