ME: Hello, Carl speaking
caller: Hey there, I have a lot in (nearby town) and the lady at the courthouse gave me a part of a copy of a plaque and I had one before but I lost it when my husband died but I can't find none of my stakes. The lady at the courthouse said it ain't been surveyed since 1972. How much would that be to put them back it (we've all heard this).
ME: Yes ma'am, where is the lot? Do you have an address?
caller: It's down here off (major road) on this side of (nearby town). It's in (subdivision name).
ME: okay ma'am, I'm not familiar with that subdivision. Is there house on the lot?
caller: Yes....
ME: okay, can I have that address?
caller: It's down here off (major road) on this side of (nearby town)
ME: okay, that's not an address. Is there a house on the lot?
caller: Yes, I live in it.
ME: okay ma'am, I really need an address to work with here.
caller: (a little grumpy) it's #### (street name)
ME: okay, good. let me find your lot (takes me a minute because the GIS for that area has an awful search function). ok ma'am this looks like a lot in a big subdivision, it shouldn't be too hard. I still have to go to the courthouse and do some research and calculations for the lot, but I think it will be between $### and $###.
caller: oh my. Well, I've got the plaque here (she said "part" earlier).
ME: Yes ma'am, I'm still required to do my own research though.
caller: well, the plaque says it's 100' in the back and in the front...
ME: Yes ma'am, that doesn't really tell me anything. Basically anything under an acre is going to be in that same estimate range. And really, I think a few of the irons are still there, they are probably just covered up a bit.
caller: well, my husband got one of those metal detector things one time and couldn't find any of them. Are you sure it's going to be that high?
ME: Well ma'am (I'm a little frustrated by this point), since you've told me that your husband wasn't able to find any of the corners of your lot, I may have to survey 5 or more lots to be able to reset your corners. So, the price is probably going to be on the upper side of that, and it's really only an estimate.
caller: well, I'm going to have to think on this.
Me: Yes ma'am, have a good day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And again, I'm not holding my breath that she calls back. I have a feeling that there are some irons in the ground, but he just couldn't find them. Happens often. I really wanted to ask her husbands surveyors license #, but I held my tongue. I'm not sure why she (or anyone) thinks that the price should drop if there's less irons to work with. Totally baffles me.
Carl
At least she finally gave you an address. I've gotten calls asking the cost of "a survey of a lot", a survey of 2 acres, or of "my house", where they would not give me an address and acted like it was an invasion of their privacy to reveal that information.
They have called while they are driving a car, on an airplane, or one lady called to discuss subdividing property while she was at a water park with her kids!
I talked to her twin sister last week. Bad news was that I did get the job.
That's something that has surprised me a lot since I've been in business. Someone will ask for a survey of a property that they don't live on and when I ask for their address they don't want to tell me. Makes me wonder if I should ask for payment up front.
I don't think she was trying to hide it, I just don't think she realized how important it was to find it. She indicated that it was "along" the major route in our area, but, in reality, she's at least a half mile from the major route along at least 3 different streets in a fairly dense subdivision.
As a variation on the theme of not giving you info to locate the parcel, I've gotten several calls over the years (as many of us have) that go something like this...
Me: Hello, [name of current employer] surveying.
Shopper: Yeah, I want to know how much to do a property survey.
Me: Well, that depends on a lot of things. Can you give me an address or an assessor's parcel number so I can look up your property.
Shopper: No, I just want to know how much so I can put a budget together.
Me: (inward sigh) OK. Let me get a few particulars about the property and I can give you an estimate.
Shopper: Why do you need that? I just want to know how much a property survey is.
Me: I understand that sir (or sometimes, ma'am), but the price can be very different depending upon how much property there is, how it's described, what area it's in, and several other factors.
Shopper: I really don't know why this is so difficult. I just want a property survey.
Me: I know, but I can't even begin to give you an accurate estimate if I don't know anything about the property.
Shopper: OK, it's 5 acres in Xxxxxxxx County.
Me: That's a start. Now, is it described as a parcel of a Parcel Map, kind of like Parcel A of such-n-such map, as an aliquot part like This half of that quarter of another quarter of Section such-n-such, or is it described as beginning at a point and then going through several bearings and distances to get arond the property.
Shopper: How the hell do I know!?! Look, if you can't give me a figure, can you just give me a range?
Me: Sure. It will be somewhere between $2000 and $50,000.
Complete silence for a few seconds. Sometimes this ends the conversation with a click, sometimes with expletives preceding the click. Occasionally, the shopper then cooperates with more details and the conversation continues to....
Shopper: OK, so you bid is $5500. Does that include the map?
Me: First, it not a bid, it's an informal ballpark estimate based upon the info you were able to give me over the phone. For a more detailed estimate, I'll need to do some research. It should be close enough for budgeting purposes though. And yes, that would include the record of survey map.
Shopper: Good. And will you then provide my engineer a copy so he can do a grading and site plan?
Me: Uhhhh.....
(Round 2)
yikes.
Her brother apparently lives in CT...because i talked with him last week.;-)
I can't see how you could charge any more than $50. All you are doing is pounding in a pipe at each corner of the lot! How hard can it be?;-)
Yep, after getting the "I don't know why you want all that info, I just want a cost" treatment from an elderly man, I finally got the address and that he wanted to split 2 ac from 5. I gave him the estimate of $1500 and he said "I don't know how you can justify that amount, didn't pay more than $700 when I bought the whole 5 ac. in '73". Having a bad day, I let my professionalism go and got sarcastic. I said you do know this is 2005 don't you. Gas is over $2 bucks a gallon, breads a buck and you can't buy a car for $3000 anymore. I asked if when he retired he was making the same as he was in 1973? I said if you sell the 2 ac for what you paid for it in 1973, I'll do the survey for $700. Not wanting the job because I knew this guy would be a major pain I told him if he wanted to wait I'm sure some whore would do it for $500-$600. Heard from him 3 months later, had called on of the local moon lighters who still hadn't showed up and had a closing in 2 weeks. Told him to cancel his closing because if I started on it today (which I wouldn't) it would take him that longer than that to get reginal planning approval. Reginal Planning? He hadn't been told about them by the moonlighter. I hadn't had time to tell him about it when he first called. I took the job, I was right he was a pain in the rear. I wish I hadn't pushed so hard for the info, should have told him $200-$20,000.
How much can I save if I supply the pipes myself? 😛
My standard answer to the "how much" question with no information is I ask "how much does a house or car cost".
I then explain there are generally four major factors that influence the cost of a survey.
1. The quality of the description.
2. The size of the parcel
3. If the property looks like a football field or an overgrown jungle.
4. If any adjacent parcels have been recently surveyed.
When I have information on all four then I can supply an estimate.
To be completely honest, I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to hear the whining anymore. Maybe I'm not the best at customer service (others can attest to that) but now I just tell the caller that I'll do a little research so I can get them a cost estimate, and I take their email and send it along.
I have a standard email I send out that gives a complete breakdown of the work involved for a boundary survey and have found that people are more receptive to a higher fee when they can actually see how many things go into the survey. I've had people tell me they appreciate seeing the breakdown of services, rather than just hearing a cost over the phone.
Better for them, better for me.
-V
> I have a standard email I send out that gives a complete breakdown of the work involved for a boundary survey and have found that people are more receptive to a higher fee when they can actually see how many things go into the survey. I've had people tell me they appreciate seeing the breakdown of services, rather than just hearing a cost over the phone.
>
> Better for them, better for me.
>
> -V
:good: :good:
Yeah, we get that all the time.
"....survey my house."
"Where is it?"
"Brooklyn."
