200 acre ALTA survey of an industrial site. Most of the industry is confined to about a 20 acre area. There are 8 tracts and 20 survey related exceptions in the title commitment.
This is were I give the client my, "The fair way to do this would be Time & Material" speech. Problem with that speech, is the next question is always, "Well how many hours do you think it will take?" 😀
Personally I much prefer lump sum to T&M, but....
Can you fly it?
Come on now Tommy. You know we do not price the product. We price the client.
What is the survey worth to the client?
What value can you create for the client?
What is your fair share of that value?
The key to those questions lie with the client, not the product.
Larry P
I planned on it. That's why I'm shocked I didn't get the job. I figure I'd have spent an addition 8 days of crew time locating all of the improvements.
All in all, I'm not too upset about it. I didn't need to get a South Carolina stamp anyway.
Thank you Larry, for the last few articles you've written; they were excellent....:-D
> What is the survey worth to the client?
Just another box to check off the list on a 100 million loan
> What value can you create for the client?
Let's see...it's a standardized product, delivery will be determined by the settlement date, so pretty much the only value you can create is by giving them a rock bottom price
> What is your fair share of that value?
That famed business writer, Billy Perston, once said "nothing from nothing leaves nothing"
Ten years ago, ALTA surveys were a great money maker around here; now they're just glorified mortgage surveys. Unless I think there is more money either behind the client or the project, I don't waste my time pricing them.
> > What is the survey worth to the client?
> Just another box to check off the list on a 100 million loan
I'm sure for some clients this statement is true. Equally sure that anyone who participates in more than one $100 million loan will quickly discover the consequenses of a deal gone bad. Deals go bad for all sorts of reasons a top quality survey(or) would have shown. I once had a client spend $5,000 for research on a property he was thinking of purchasing. There was no offer. When I questioned him about the wisdom of spending that sort of money without first having a tentative contract with the seller, he told me a good survey(or) was the best insurance he could buy.
> > What value can you create for the client?
> Let's see...it's a standardized product, delivery will be determined by the settlement date, so pretty much the only value you can create is by giving them a rock bottom price
Standard product? We both know NSPS and ALTA have been trying to standardize the product, but I seriously doubt anyone believes that every surveyor would produce exactly the same product on a project. The end result of every survey (NSPS-ALTA or not) is as varied as the surveyors who produce them. Sadly we both know that plenty of surveyors provide a service that isn't worth a cup of coffee. The good news is those people set the bar so low it doesn't take all that much to stand out from the crowd as someone who does superior work.
> > What is your fair share of that value?
> That famed business writer, Billy Perston, once said "nothing from nothing leaves nothing"
>
> Ten years ago, ALTA surveys were a great money maker around here; now they're just glorified mortgage surveys. Unless I think there is more money either behind the client or the project, I don't waste my time pricing them.
I totally agree you should not price ALTA surveys. You can and should price each client who calls wanting an ALTA survey. Those who do not see the value of your work are best someone else's problem. Those who do see the value will pay a premium price.
Larry P
> Thank you Larry, for the last few articles you've written; they were excellent....:-D
Thanks Radar. Hope things are well in your world.
Larry P
All that money for a piece of paper????
I agree with Larry, price the client.
I did one of 160+ acres a few years ago.
Was able to exempt the all wooded side of the project and split the drawing and did an ALTA on half with the processing plant and about 10 ponds that were fish tanks and a waste water pond system.
When I turned it into the Title Company, they said "What is this?" They had never seen an ALTA before.
Told them there is a first for everything.
I'd bet there has never been another one done in this county since.
B-)
Last one I did that was even close to this was 100acres with about 5 heavy industry. $45K and I already had flown maps (digital Form) from a previous ALTA.... Afew more than 20 exceptions in the deees, and more than 6 parcels. too. That was aobut 10 years ago.
