Topographic & Aerial Exhibits for Realtor - ??? Concerns

Chad, welcome to the board. Prepare to wear your flak jacket. Don't get to discouraged if the thread gets ugly. Be nice everyone, but put your opinions in. I am going to stay on the sidelines on this one. Going fishing and going to be off the grid anyway.

I find plain English is best for any situation:

The topography is based upon (whatever), is for general information only, and has not been field verified. The boundary information is based upon (whatever), is for general information only, and has not been field verified.

> Well here is a readers digest version of what I have been asked to do.
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> A realtor (my personal realtor) needs some exhibits for a seller of a 150 ac. +/- acre piece of property. I was told they are for the realtor to show to perspective buyers. In general the realtor likes to have topography for large tract properties as well as aerial photography without having to pay for a full blown survey. My question isn't can I or should I do this (the thread might run for days debating that question) but more to the point how much do you generally charge for this type of work and what disclaimers as to accuracy should the exhibit have if you show platted boundaries or tax parcels?
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> Here are some of my other thoughts on why I want to tread lightly. I have a USGS quad map that shows 10 foot contours (general topo) that is available and can be projected from WGS 84 UTM to State plane. I also have access to the tax parcels and aerial photography that can be created with world files to do the exhibits. I might also have access to some 2' lidar to use/validate the USGS topo or the other way around to show the general "TOPO" for this tract of land. The realtor is going to give me a copy of the plat tomorrow. What difference do you charge for the topographic exhibit if you use the USGS topography or the LIDAR topography?
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> Footnote: This might lead to doing an up to date boundary survey possibly and a topographic survey as well. This also is my first chance to do anything with the realtor and it could lead to a lot of potential work if you know what I mean?
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> Any and all opinions comments or things I should keep in mind would be greatly appreciated.
> Chad Carpenter, RLS
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> P.S. My first posting ... love this blog!!!!

You've been asked to provide a service. Granted, it's all public information and anyone with enough time and patience could create their own exhibit, but ask yourself how large of a learning curve is that? How many years did it take you to develop the skills to work with that data? What is the value of those skills?

I would charge my hourly rate for CAD; at that point the negotiations will hinge on how much time the Realtor is willing to pay for. Perhaps the LIDAR would take longer to import than the USGS? Give them the USGS, especially on a 150 acre parcel.

As for disclaimers, I would simply state on the exhibit the source of each piece of data.

I would NOT overlay the plat from the realtor on the exhibit- that's travelling down the road of expressing an opinion as to the location of the boundary; something you are not prepared to do since you haven't surveyed it yet.

I had a similar situation with a client; the client was the one who requested the information, but a Realtor was present for the meeting. I used ArcGIS explorer and imported the parcel mapping, contours, and aerials. We held a meeting at the Realtor's office, where I "flew" them around the site by plugging my laptop into a projector. Both of them were sufficiently wowed, it took me all of 2 hours to do including the meeting, and we were retained to survey the boundary.

If the plat provided by the realtor closes, throw it into the mix BUT use your metadata - that is what it is there for. Call it CYA disclaimers.

We do similar plans all the time. We have aerial topos and orthos for every town we work in. I often will make a topo plan for projects before I head out. We always have clients in a damned rush; the quick creation of an aerial for planning purposes keeps them quiet while we get their work done.

Disclaimers

I haven't provided such maps to outside clients, but in my current position, regularly do for our in-house legal staff to get a general impression of site conditions and a rough approximation of boundary locations, and have in past positions created similar maps for in-house use for general project planning decisions. In each of those cases, the map is being provided to professionals who understand (or at least should understand) the limitations of the information given. Even so, I am careful to depict any information in a way that it's reliability is clearly expressed.

I can see where such a map would be useful to someone purchasing acreage and, at least in principle do not think that a surveyor should refuse to provide a map that fits the need. However, in providing such a map, the surveyor should present the information in such a way that assumes that a landowner who comes into possession of it, if at all conceivably possible, will rely upon it for a purpose for which it was not intended and for which it is entirely inadequate. Keeping that in mind, find ways to depict the information so that while still being useful for it's intended purpose, is clearly inadequate for applications requiring more precision.

If, in preparing the map, you assume that the "reasonably intelligent person" that will be the standard that the actions of a landowner relying on your map for an unintended purpose to determine your culpability to any damage the landowner suffers, will actually be a lot less intelligent than you may feel is reasonable, you should have little trouble creating a map that fits the use while not exposing you to undue liability.

Be aware that the various notes on the drawing may or may not be read by the RE agent or by the prospective buyers of the property. They will be looking at your drawing for the information of interest to them, which is the graphic, mapped information it provides. They will generally have no interest in the notes elsewhere on the drawing.

If you show a boundary, and it is not made very clear at the place the RE agent or prospective buyer will be looking (the body of the map itself) that the boundaries cannot be relied upon, then they will consider it to be a reliable rather than merely an informational product. Think of that as you produce the map.

Are you using a shape file from your local agency GIS for the parcel boundaries or calculating them from a presumably reliable record and placing them on the aerial per identifiable features?

Some GIS parcel bases are built and maintained under the direction of a knowledgeable LS, but most are not. Many that I have seen were created by junior CAD operators by snapping lines over scanned images of the hand drafted Assessor's Parcel Maps. In many areas I've sought to utilize GIS parcel base shape files for approximate reference in preliminary or planning/project assessment type maps, I've found parcel lines in rural areas to be over 200' off in some places. Even in areas where the GIS administrators have sought to create an accurate parcel base, the lines are often several feet off. Obviously, use the most reliable info available to you, and nothing that is clearly wrong.

In providing this map for the purpose stated to you, I suggest you consider depicting the boundary with a line which plots about 40' or 50' wide so that no one can get the impression that it is accurate to the plotted line width you would normally use to depict a boundary. Otherwise, the likelihood of someone looking at your map and inferring that "the boundary runs just a couple feet north of this tree", "the corner is almost right on that power pole", or applying just enough knowledge to be really dangerous "the boundary scales about 23' off the side of the barn, that's enough room to add a 13' wide carport and still meet setback requirements", is just too great.

With that wide boundary line, present it as a shaded line so that a reasonable amount of detail of the underlying aerial can be seen through it, and in a color that stands out a bit. I've found that if the aerial is predominately green, a shaded yellow line usually fits the bill well. While you don't want someone to be able to mistakenly rely on an inferred precise location of the boundary, you don't want that line to significantly impede the usefulness of the map for its intended purpose.

Rather than dimensions labeled along the boundaries, place your brief disclaimer where you would otherwise show dimensions "Boundary Not Surveyed", "Shown for Approximate Reference Only". If it's right there where they are going to be looking as well as spelled out in more detail in your general notes elsewhere on the sheet, then they can't help but see it.

The fat line width greatly minimizes the otherwise likely occurrence that the prospective buyer, later being the landowner, will forego having a survey performed when putting up a fence or other improvement intended to be on or close to the boundary. If the landowner does build a fence or other improvement in reliance on the boundary shown, in the instance where the line is shown and dimensioned similar to how it would be on survey drawings where the boundary is located with appropriate care, regardless of notes to the contrary elsewhere on the drawing, the question of whether the landowner should have reasonably believed he could rely on the boundary representation is an open one that could go either way. If the line is depicted in a way that the landowner would have to go to some extra effort (like determine where the middle of that big fat line is) and actually work around the disclaimer in doing so, the likelihood of the surveyor being held negligent or responsible for the landowner's reliance is reduced to just about none at all.

As to your fee, I would estimate it based on foreseen time & materials. Personally, if there is a high likelihood of subsequent work, such as an actual boundary survey, maybe a detailed topo, and possibly a subdivision or other development related work, I would not adjust the fee up based upon the value of the land transaction from the T&M estimate. If it seems that this is a one time deal leading to no additional work or profitable business relationships, base your fee on value rather than time & materials. If it appears that the only business relationship that may come out of it is with a RE agent who would try to get you to produce maps that appear to be something more than they are, make your fee double the T&M estimate justified by the foreseeable occurrence that you will spend a lot of needless time fending off the RE agent's requests for info you can't provide.