> I'm agreeing with those that say charge a significant fee and then give part of it back to the first buyer.
Better yet, why not just send a "rebate" as a certain fraction of all invoices paid during the year to all your clients at the end of the year. Include a little note saying that you think you overcharged them and want to make things right. They will love it and they'll tell their friends. Soon, you'll be completely covered up with new work. Sure, you'll lose at bit on each deal, but you'll make it up on the quantity. :>
I have to agree with Kent. You provided the service you were contracted to by you first client. They paid you...good. Then another client comes along wanting to buy the same property. They want/need the names changed on the drawing. I don't think there's any thing that implies that buyer two gets a big discount and clearly buyer 1 didn't think they were getting gouged so I'm not sure where you should be discounting you survey to anyone.
When I was younger I performed a boundary/topo for a developer. After getting my work and paying me he decided it was going to be too difficult to do what he wanted for one reason or another and decided to purchase another tract down the road. I kinda felt bad he'd spent all that money with us and told him I'd discount the next project. He laughed and said he appreciated that but said I'd go broke doing business like that, I'd charged a fair rate and he was going to make a lot of money off the project, it was just the cost of doing business. He followed me to two companies before he passed away and we never had any issues regarding cost. I treat everyone the same way. Some get bent and I send them down the road and have never lost sleep.
I like your point but do you charge the same fee for an update as for an original survey? Many charge 30% or so for an update..I thought giving a reduced price to the second guy just doesn't seem right, so if I charge a higher than normal update fee and give that extra back to the first client, they both pay the same, I get the same amount I would typically get for both and its a win-win....its never happened to me so I still am deciding how to handle.
First off, your example doesn't really relate to this story. It would if another developer called up and wanted the drawings with a name changed.
I personally have a problem with giving someone a service at a significantly discounted price because another party paid for it.
Now that I've thought about it, in this situation, I'd tell the new buyer to buy the survey off the old buyer. Once they had, I'd change the names for a revision fee.
> Now that I've thought about it, in this situation, I'd tell the new buyer to buy the survey off the old buyer. Once they had, I'd change the names for a revision fee.
Yes, an if you ever find yourself surveying a tract that is bounded by one or more tracts you've already surveyed, I trust you'll advise your client to contact the adjoining owners to buy the rights to your survey data from them. Otherwise, you'll have to survey it all completely from scratch, right? I mean, it's not as if *you* own any of the data, ehh?
You've exceeded your snark quota for one thread.
Your example isn't remotely related to taking a survey in which the monuments haven't had time to develop any rust and changing the name on the plat.
