Me: Hello, Carl speaking
Caller: (a little breathless) Yes, hello this is XXXXX XXXXXXXX and I need to have a lot staked out for set a new 16' x 76' mobile home on it. It's at #### XXXXXXXXXXX XX. (I look it up on the county GIS)
Me: okay, I can do that. So you just need the lot corners marked (witnessed)? ok, not a problem. What's your time frame?
Caller: Ohhh... 'bout a week or so.
Me: Yes, I can do that. Is that all you need?
Caller: Oh, I need to have the building setbacks marked also.
Me: Okay, again, not a problem.
Caller: And I don't need for you to go to the courthouse, I have a picture of it and a copy of the tax map I can just text you. (bit of a red flag) Just text me your email address and I'll send it to you.
Me: Well sir, I'll take anything you want to send to me, but I at least have to make a stop by the courthouse and see what the current status is of the lot and at a minimum pull the deed. It's my standard procedure.
Caller: Well shoot, ok... I guess. I don't see why they need this.... What do you think this is going to cost?
Me: Well, this is small, but it's still gonna be $### ~ $###.
Caller *big groan* OH MAN!! THAT'S LIKE THE COST OF ONE MONTH'S LOT RENT! I can't do that.
Me: Okay sir, I'll text you my email address and then you can decide what you want to do.
Call assessment: These are some tiny and thin lots, designed specifically for mobile homes. They are not perpendicular to the street line (skew of about 25°±)and the street runs along a bit of a ridge with the lots going downhill away from the street. The estimate that I quoted him was MORE than fair, but some people are just stuck in a mindset that everything should be $100. I have a feeling that I won't be getting a call back... and I'm okay with that.
To quote Lucy and the Peanuts Gang: It should be five cents.
It feels like all people around the world they do not appreciate or understand the work of land survey! I am thousands miles away from you and having same stories from time to time!
I've never lost a penny on a job I didn't get.
Amen
No offense Carl. But you have posted a couple of threads lately about your phone calls. All I can say is I'm glad these people are calling you for a while, I needed the break 😉
All kidding aside we have had several similar calls in the last few months. I usually feel like the small chance I had at getting the work wasn't worth the time I wasted on the phone with them.
> No offense Carl. But you have posted a couple of threads lately about your phone calls. All I can say is I'm glad these people are calling you for a while, I needed the break 😉
>
> All kidding aside we have had several similar calls in the last few months. I usually feel like the small chance I had at getting the work wasn't worth the time I wasted on the phone with them.
Yeah, but sometimes you don't know you wasted the time until the time is spent. o.O :-/
Oh well, at least the phone rang some today... that's better than some days too.
Carl
My ring-ring of the week was from a lady who had a neighbor moving railroad ties she had placed along part of the front of her property to keep that pesky neighbor from parking on her property. He told her it was his property, not hers, and, by golly, he was going to use it. She even said some city workers had shown up with some sort of papers for the neighbor who then claimed those papers proved he was right.
She wants me out there immediately, if not sooner. Then I mentioned my fee. Suddenly, she needs to check with her daughter, etc. etc. etc. Amazingly, no return phone call yet.
A hour or so after her call I got to thinking about her situation and where she said she lived. Suddenly, I remembered doing a survey terribly close to there about 18 months ago. I pulled up that survey to discover she was the neighbor across the alley from where I had done the previous survey. Alarm bells went off in my head. That survey had proven that the client's house was only about a foot from the property line and that it pretty well lined up with the one across the alley, which would be the one owned by this week's ring-ring.
This could be entertaining if she calls back. I think I'll demand to be paid in advance.
> I've never lost a penny on a job I didn't get.
Yeah, absolutely right, paden. One of the first assessments to make is whether a client is actually going to be a net loss or not. I think a surveyor should be elated to have a non-desirable client select themselves out of the running. It saves so much time wasted in explanations if they decide to call Joe Doak & Associates who can have their survey ready yesterday for $5.00.
Agreed. Yesterday was one of those "no ring at all" days for me. Those aren't any better.
Yes, 5 cents. 😀
