Received a call from a professional middleman a few days ago asking about getting a survey on an industrial property. He was nice enough to send a scan of the only prior survey of record for that tract. A friend of mine made that survey 30 years ago. I told him I would need to do a little research before offering a ballpark estimate.
Today, he calls and wants a number. So, I asked a few questions, considering this is a property worth somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Was this to be an ALTA/ACSM with all the bells and whistles? No, just a boundary with a few recorded easements drawn in. So you don't care about the building that occupies about 70 percent of the total area with its many utilities and support structures. No, don't think so. All you want is to know where the four corner monuments are located or where they need to be re-established if obliterated in the past 30 years, even though you can't see from one to the next. Yup, that should be OK.
So, I gave him a number. OH, MY GOSH! I must be dreaming. He's been involved in over 20 deals like this in the past 12 months and none of them had a survey cost in excess of $1000. I tried not to burst out laughing, but, it was a challenge. I explained that we had just pulled away from one of the simplest little four-corner city lot surveys we had done in quite a spell and the bill for that would be fairly close to his $1000 figure. Meanwhile, he had an industrial property worth many times the value of the little house we had just left.
He immediately started mentioning how he would need to check with his partners to see if they thought they could afford to spend so much on a simple boundary survey.
His office is based in Tyler, TX. Are surveys really that incredibly cheap there?
what, you can't do an ALTA for 1K? you must actually work on the project to get a price higher than that!!!! All you have to do is drive over there, guess where the corners are and sign and seal your life away. Whats the problem? 😉
"So, I gave him a number. OH, MY GOSH! I must be dreaming. He's been involved in over 20 deals like this in the past 12 months and none of them had a survey cost in excess of $1000."
Cow, At that point, wouldn't you have just asked who it was that had given him your number?
Tyler is an hour and half from me and I've done many jobs there.
Apparently, I have never had a call from that guy. Others in his area of BS have.
We may not be able to control who calls our office or what their demands are.
At least we can laugh and say no.
0.02
When I was doing private work I got a call from a Lawyer in Texas. He was an arrogant...he didn't like that I told him the work requires a Record of Survey which he has to pay for.
Never heard from him again which didn't break my heart.
If you have to play every hand in poker, you surely will be broke.
There are some VERY reputable companies in Tyler. There are also some VERY non-reputable firms who charge a pittance and work on a Walmart business model instead of quality in Tyler and the surrounding areas. You can always tell who those clients are fond of within a few minutes of talking.
On those rare occasions where I speak with these people, I 99% of the time lose the job because I will charge what it's worth and they don't agree with my valuation.
FWIW, Tyler is in Smith County, Texas, and I do everything I can not to survey there.
My instructor at the Tyler Junior College surveying program always told the class you had to leave Tyler to make money. If you were happy at home eating momma's cooking, you could do fine. I think it has something to do with having a surveying school in town. If you throw a rock you have a good chance of hitting a surveyor there.
> My instructor at the Tyler Junior College surveying program always told the class you had to leave Tyler to make money. If you were happy at home eating momma's cooking, you could do fine. I think it has something to do with having a surveying school in town. If you throw a rock you have a good chance of hitting a surveyor there.
Pretty much the same in the Johnson City, TN/Bristol, TN/Bristol, VA area. ETSU is in Johnson City.
