Have you ever bid a boundary recovery using only the available information .... Like,?ÿ metes and bounds deed, recorded survey map, GIS data, and aerial photography??ÿ If so, how'd that work out for ya?
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TIA
Every time someone asks me to "BID" a boundary survey, I tell them "one million dollars!"
So far so good, they haven't called back yet!
Loyal?ÿ
i used to give them my Hourly Fee Schedule and tell them "I don't bid"!
Our estimates are based on experience in a specific neighborhood, so many times we have even less than what you listed.?ÿ But, I would never shoot from the hip in a location where I have zero previous knowledge. NEVER.
I too give a lot of ESTIMATES based on experience and what is of record in the area. If someone is shopping prices, I tend to spend 5 minutes educating them on what they should be looking for, and why I won't be the cheapest price. If someone is looking for a formal proposal for a large scale survey, I'll give them a written quote, and if they want a fixed fee I'll provide one, but I always lay out what the price includes so they can evaluate the final product against other proposals. I often do those based on record info and Google Street view, and local knowledge of course. If there is any question in my mind I go look at it, or pass on it, or both.?ÿ
I tell my employees all the time that we're here to be the best in town, not the cheapest, and I stand by that.?ÿ
I use the term "a number to put into your budget" when callers want me to bid or give them a price or any mention about how much any survey will cost.
Never have understood why anyone gives so much attention by getting into a bidding war over gaining work to lose money.
0.02
Well since it is 4:30 am again and time for all good and decent people to be awake in will opine, I really like that word, opine.
Anyway, as to your question, yes many times, most times actually. I cannot possible go to every site to look at it in order to give an estimate for surveying the property. I would love to be able to charge a nominal fee for a site visit and see the property and discuss in detail the issues but unless and until my peers pull their heads out of their rectum it just won't happen.
So yes, I review the deeds, see if there is a prior survey and if it is recorded and available to me. I look at adoiners for the same. I ask a fair amount of questions as to the purpose of the survey because people just don't spend this kind of money on a whim. If their answers are evasive or otherwise odd that tells me they are involved in a dispute.?ÿ
Anyway, I look at Google Earth and street view, the local aerials from the tax departmemt and I would up a likely estimate. I don't spend a tremendous amount of time in it either. I have no interest in wasting my time on working up a proper estimate if all they are doing is fishing anyway.?ÿ ?ÿ
I get a lot of first time callers that don't want to wait for me to look in the files or county records, "just give me a ball park" with a time frame. I usually give them "I'd say $1,000 to $1,000,000. Never done one for under $1,000 and haven't billed out a $1,000,000 for one survey....yet. Need a time frame on that?" Either they laugh and give me the time to do it right or they hang up. I understand needing to know generally what you're paying but the first time I talk to you is the first I'm hearing about your job. Don't expect me to know anything about the project yet. I never take a job without giving an estimate. The guys who call all rev'ed up and just want you to get started as soon as possible, don't care what the cost is are always the ones who cried when they saw the invoice.
Yes, I don't travel to sites to give an estimate. There are enough resources to determine a number.
If you are talking bidding a boundary that is rare, I did one this year and "lost" out to a bid 1/4 of mine, so I really "won" that bid.?ÿ
Years ago, before Google Earth, a survey manager was asked for prices to ALTA 2 sites for a telecommunications firm. He visited the one nearest our office. It was an antenna surround by a chain link fence with some ancillary bits and pieces. He assumed the other site - 20 miles from the office - was the same and sent in prices.?ÿ
It turned out the other site was the corporate headquarters. We took a bath on that one.?ÿ Really, if he had examined the given legal descriptions he could have clued in that something was amiss.?ÿ
With Google Earth, if the street views are recent and good,?ÿ and if I have some knowledge of the area, I might be willing to price it without a physical visit. But I can't think of any examples where I have actually done that.?ÿ?ÿ
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Just last week a fellow called about a common residential survey in a small subdivision in a city of about 10,000.?ÿ That's half the county population, by the way.?ÿ Anyway, while chatting with him I was also pulling up the online Appraiser's Office information for his property.?ÿ As I panned around looking at his adjoiners I found the rare circumstance that I had feared.?ÿ His tract will be quite normal.?ÿ But, across the alley to the south of his tract and west a little is the start of three metes and bounds tracts that fall on Main Street.?ÿ As I recall, it was about 1875 when a fellow owned something like the SE4/SE4/SE4/NW4 of the section.?ÿ He assumed the dimensions and split it into three pieces that would front onto Main Street.?ÿ Everything else surrounding those M&B tracts is now a part of four standard subdivisions.?ÿ However, those little tracts have been added into what appears to be a common city block from a quick aerial view.?ÿ I surveyed one of those tracts about 30 years ago when a fellow called saying he needed a survey of his property at something like 611 West Main but had no idea of what his deed said.?ÿ Fortunately, we had not discussed the potential survey cost.?ÿ But, that experience alerted me to such potential issues.
Haven't visited a site before preparing a fee estimate in ages.?ÿ?ÿ
Haven't visited a site before preparing a fee estimate in ages.?ÿ?ÿ
There's a BIG difference between a "BID" and a "fee ESTIMATE."
Loyal
Most clients don't know the difference and expect whatever number you say is the number you will charge them.
We have to inform them that whatever the cost of the survey is there will be sales tax for them to pay.
My answer is "This is the amount you should budget for the survey and I will know if we are in the neighborhood after the 1st day on the property"
