I had a boundary and physical survey scheduled for this past Friday, after being given approval I had finished my research and prepared a working drawing on the property and the surrounding lots in a subdivision that was recorded in 2000. The landowners had purchased the property without having a survey done and were being required to have a current by the HOA for the construction of a detached double garage in the back yard.
The lot is a corner lot containing 0.83 acre in an upper scale neighborhood with values around å? million with pool, pool house, fencing and a lot of hard surfaces. Counting the curves the lot has six corners of which five will probably need to be set. I had several conversations with the owners over the past week giving them advice own things to check on before committing to a survey and offering a list of other reputable surveyors in the area to get a quote from if they so desired. They had also asked that I show them where their lines were because a tree fallen on the neighborÛªs house and they had to pay to have it removed and were not sure if it was their tree. The lot is like a tropical jungle with heavy landscaping making it difficult to get a very long traverse shot, even the streetscape had trees and shrubbery planted almost to the back of curb (which the owner thought was his property line) which would require several traverse points to see any reference irons that would be need to establish the street line.
I arrived at 8:00 A.M. sharp and began walking the property and talking to the husband confirming what they were expecting from my survey and offered to include a site plan showing the proposed location of the garage that they could submit to the HOA for approval without having to have anyone else prepare one. He was showing me the trees that he was interested in when the wife comes out and starts asking why I am so expensive and commences to tell me that she had called another surveyor and ÛÏaccording to the measurements he would do the survey for $400Û.
I told them to have a good day (and would have kissed the wife, if the husband had not been standing there, for bailing me out) as I was going to be taking a lost to provide all that they wanted. I normally donÛªt do this type work, but sort of let myself get talked into it because they were leaving Saturday on vacation and wanted to get it done, so I agreed to do it even though I was already booked for the next several weeks.
This is why my business model does not normally include this type of service, these prices are from 20-30 years ago. In North Carolina our surveys have to be full boundary surveys replacing any missing property corners and preparing a map or report of survey listing all the references that the survey was based on.
Less than 1/10% of the value of the house and still complain.
ekillo, post: 376864, member: 773 wrote: I had a boundary and physical survey scheduled for this past Friday, after being given approval I had finished my research and prepared a working drawing on the property and the surrounding lots in a subdivision that was recorded in 2000. The landowners had purchased the property without having a survey done and were being required to have a current by the HOA for the construction of a detached double garage in the back yard.
The lot is a corner lot containing 0.83 acre in an upper scale neighborhood with values around å? million with pool, pool house, fencing and a lot of hard surfaces. Counting the curves the lot has six corners of which five will probably need to be set. I had several conversations with the owners over the past week giving them advice own things to check on before committing to a survey and offering a list of other reputable surveyors in the area to get a quote from if they so desired. They had also asked that I show them where their lines were because a tree fallen on the neighborÛªs house and they had to pay to have it removed and were not sure if it was their tree. The lot is like a tropical jungle with heavy landscaping making it difficult to get a very long traverse shot, even the streetscape had trees and shrubbery planted almost to the back of curb (which the owner thought was his property line) which would require several traverse points to see any reference irons that would be need to establish the street line.
I arrived at 8:00 A.M. sharp and began walking the property and talking to the husband confirming what they were expecting from my survey and offered to include a site plan showing the proposed location of the garage that they could submit to the HOA for approval without having to have anyone else prepare one. He was showing me the trees that he was interested in when the wife comes out and starts asking why I am so expensive and commences to tell me that she had called another surveyor and ÛÏaccording to the measurements he would do the survey for $400Û.
I told them to have a good day (and would have kissed the wife, if the husband had not been standing there, for bailing me out) as I was going to be taking a lost to provide all that they wanted. I normally donÛªt do this type work, but sort of let myself get talked into it because they were leaving Saturday on vacation and wanted to get it done, so I agreed to do it even though I was already booked for the next several weeks.
This is why my business model does not normally include this type of service, these prices are from 20-30 years ago. In North Carolina our surveys have to be full boundary surveys replacing any missing property corners and preparing a map or report of survey listing all the references that the survey was based on.
You should send them a bill for your time. I can't stand being jerked around like that. Time away from kids and family is pricey in my book.
We now know there is at least one dumb*$$ in North Carolina, but it's definitely not you, Ed. Dodged that bullet!
Adam, post: 376869, member: 8900 wrote: You should send them a bill for your time. I can't stand being jerked around like that. Time away from kids and family is pricey in my book.
Adam,
I had thought about that, I had about as much time in preparation as the other guy is charging for the total job. I think that I was just relieved that I was not going to loose anymore.
Ed
ekillo, post: 376864, member: 773 wrote: I had a boundary and physical survey scheduled for this past Friday, after being given approval I had finished my research and prepared a working drawing on the property and the surrounding lots in a subdivision that was recorded in 2000. The landowners had purchased the property without having a survey done and were being required to have a current by the HOA for the construction of a detached double garage in the back yard.
The lot is a corner lot containing 0.83 acre in an upper scale neighborhood with values around å? million with pool, pool house, fencing and a lot of hard surfaces. Counting the curves the lot has six corners of which five will probably need to be set. I had several conversations with the owners over the past week giving them advice own things to check on before committing to a survey and offering a list of other reputable surveyors in the area to get a quote from if they so desired. They had also asked that I show them where their lines were because a tree fallen on the neighborÛªs house and they had to pay to have it removed and were not sure if it was their tree. The lot is like a tropical jungle with heavy landscaping making it difficult to get a very long traverse shot, even the streetscape had trees and shrubbery planted almost to the back of curb (which the owner thought was his property line) which would require several traverse points to see any reference irons that would be need to establish the street line.
I arrived at 8:00 A.M. sharp and began walking the property and talking to the husband confirming what they were expecting from my survey and offered to include a site plan showing the proposed location of the garage that they could submit to the HOA for approval without having to have anyone else prepare one. He was showing me the trees that he was interested in when the wife comes out and starts asking why I am so expensive and commences to tell me that she had called another surveyor and ÛÏaccording to the measurements he would do the survey for $400Û.
Rule of Thumb: Get a retainer and a services agreement in writing before wasting time on anything like that. Once you have the retainer in hand and the services agreement signed, the answer to "why are you so expensive" is "because I'm worth it".
No contract = no work gets done at all. Always good words to conduct business by...especially with new clients.
ekillo, post: 376864, member: 773 wrote: I told them to have a good day (and would have kissed the wife, if the husband had not been standing there, for bailing me out) as I was going to be taking a lost to provide all that they wanted
Congratulations. Bullet dodged.
Sometimes it's best to just walk away, they will probably get some guy that uses GIS to plot up a photo and a garage location, send it to the HOA and nothing will ever happen until they go to sell it.
This doesn't happen very often, but all of us have had a similar situation (except for the kissing) in our career. I wouldn't send a bill, but I would leave them with my card and a pledge to answer any survey related questions that they may have along the way. Take the high road. And kiss your kids when you get home knowing well that you did the right thing.
I get that a lot.. But I wouldn't go to the field without an agreement in place. If they tell me over the phone that I'm too expensive, I wish them well. I make sure they are comparing apples to apples and to keep my number handy in case the project goes south! I get lots of projects that way.
I had a job recently where a client signed the contract, I sent the crew there for a half day Friday afternoon. He called on Sunday saying they had also signed a contract with another surveyor (who was $900 cheaper) and wanted to cancel the job. I told him we had already worked on the job and were a third of the way trough it, I then sent him a bill for this 1/3 of the total cost. He called back asking to settle for half of my billed amount. Though it would have been easier, I refused out of general principle, that is BS, and I'll be taking him to small claims court. My mistake was that I didn't collect our normal 1/3 deposit because it was a rush job and I was trying to help out the architect who I have an ongoing relationship with.