Ring Ring

I'd like to have a conversation with a Realtor some day.

OK, so you had this listing for 5 months, showed the WRONG lines 4 times, to 4 different individuals, and now have it sold. Your commission is 6%. This property sales price is 82,000 dollars.

I actually studied all side of every line, and every corner on this survey. I am going to spend 5 working days on this, and you think my fee is too much? Do you actually want a survey?

N

This is the beginning and end of any argument about price with realtors.

Look at the vehicles in our parking lot, and then look at the ones in your parking lot. Don't tell me we're the ones ripping people off.

Tommy,

I personally don't see how you can survey 34 acres for $2200. Now, I'm sure its the right price for you and you'll do the job right, but around here 34 acres would cost at least $5000.

This crap about realtors getting all freaked out and sucking the air out the room is getting old - even for me. One might get the impression they have never had anything surveyed before.

34 acres @ $2200 over, let's say, 5 days. And, that's a problem? If my math is correct, given an 8 hour day, that comes out to only $55/hr for one person - not counting mileage or materials. Sounds mighty cheap to me.
At the first gasp, I believe I would be biting a big whole in my lip not to reply with "Oh wait, did I say $2200? I meant $4200."

I often go through this when someone wants to buy something I have (which is not often). Generally I don't have things I want to sell because I don't buy things I don't really want or need to begin with so things I have aren't really for sale anyway. But let's say I have this widget that I'll take $50 for. They say "I'll give you $30". My reply is to go higher. "Nope, I'll take $60." Most get shocked that I went up instead of down and don't understand my logic. Some will counter with $40 and I'll counter back with $70. Some get really puzzled by this and some understand immediately and will either give me the $50 or get the idea my widget wasn't really for sale to begin with. If so, it would have had a for sale on it to start with.

[/Minor rant off]

> I'd like to have a conversation with a Realtor some day. ...... This equates into a gross commission of 4920.00.....
Not to get into defending realtors - but the fact is that most realtors don't make a lot of money and they owe the max on those fancy cars which they have to have to impress potential clients. The problem here isn't greed, it's ignorance.

At $2200 that's a one day job, even in Oklahoma.

$600 if it's simple
$1600 if semi-complicated
$3600 if pain in the rump

Before you all go nuts, the $600 almost never happens because it has to be a special client with a tract close to home nowhere near the edges of the parent tract along a baseline I have worked recently and is treeless and flat with no significant issues of any kind.

Meanwhile, Joe Lowballer quotes $495 day in and day out.

A very significant factor is the relative value of the land involved. I've done surveys where the survey costs more than the land is worth on the open market.

It works out about right with our regular rates.

Also, not that I let this affect the proposal, but we've previously surveyed all of the perimeter of this tract for adjoining parcels.

If this project takes the crew over 2 days, a serious butt chewing will be laid down.

:good:

The saddest thing about this is that the gasping and such actually works in many cases. The surveyor, afraid of losing a job, will give in and come down on the price. Another surveyor once admitted to me that he judged the value of his business by the number of jobs on the board, not the amount he charged or collected. The same guy ALWAYS had $20k-$30k past due in accounts receivable. I know he probably didn't collect on many of those past due accounts. The realtors aren't stupid, they learn what works just like my Jack Russell terrier. I didn't just compare realtors to dogs, did I? I'll apologize to Mario when I get home just in case. So does that make the surveyor that falls for the trick less smart than the realtor? Hmm

> > I'd like to have a conversation with a Realtor some day. ...... This equates into a gross commission of 4920.00.....
> Not to get into defending realtors - but the fact is that most realtors don't make a lot of money and they owe the max on those fancy cars which they have to have to impress potential clients. The problem here isn't greed, it's ignorance.
:good:

I'm on board with the realtor not "devaluing" the survey and the surveyor. It's insulting. Hopefully, as surveyors who get devalued all the time, we can recognize that we also don't necessarily know what goes in to someone else's job. Even at the face surface, that realtor that is advertising the property give out half the commission to the realtor that brings in the buyer, and more often than not, that's what happens. Also, the good Realtor does much more work than listing the property. Around here, they can have the legal authority to much of the work that would take a lawyer to complete in many other states.

I get upset with realtors but more for reasons such as them not respecting the value of a survey, them intentionally turning a blind eye to anything wrong with the property, and them chiseling every other professional involved with the sale.

Ring Ring (from yesterday)

A week ago I turned away a broker that needed an ALTA survey on a 12 ac. rural tract with hwy frontage nearby. His big "sale" hook was that the property was going to be rezoned and eventually require platting..yadda yadda...BUT all he needs right now is the survey. I despise people trying to get competitive prices by hinting about "blue sky" down the road. meh..Although he was really interested in a "ballpark" figure I told him we were too busy. I did tell him a figure though, just to get him to hang up.

He called back yesterday with his hat in his hand. He's really pressed and I was apparently the only one he talked to that was under 10k. I agreed to take the job on his time frame (before Memorial Day) but I bumped the price 2K.

He pulled on the reigns a little and wondered why my ballpark figure had gotten larger. I told him if he wanted it on his time frame I would have to reschedule some stuff. You want it quick, you pay. He wasn't thrilled but after he hung up the title company called me for an email address for where to send the commitment package.

I don't mind if they squeal a little. It let's me know I'm getting close to the bone. :snarky:

Ring Ring (from yesterday)

Quick, cheap, accurate...pick any two.

Ring Ring (from yesterday)

> I don't mind if they squeal a little. It let's me know I'm getting close to the bone. :snarky:

If you read Dan Beardslee's book; he says, "If your clients aren't complaining, you're not charging enough".

A quick search recovered THIS ARTICLE

I wonder if they will preserve these archives; once they get all coordinated....:-S

B-) :snarky:
Radar

Ring Ring (from yesterday)

> Quick, cheap, accurate...pick any two.

I tell people "You can have two of three things: Quick, cheap, or accurate. You pick one then I pick the other."

> This is the beginning and end of any argument about price with realtors.
>
> Look at the vehicles in our parking lot, and then look at the ones in your parking lot. Don't tell me we're the ones ripping people off.

Within 15 minutes the other day I saw a contract appraiser (working for the county on re-appraisals, I think) in a very high dollar Audi, and two realtors. One was in a brand new Hummer and the other in a BMW. It made me think of threads like this on here.

blah.

Carl

Raise your rates and go out and buy yourself a nice car. 😀

> Raise your rates and go out and buy yourself a nice car. 😀

:good: