I guess I’m the “lowballer” this time
A gent contacted me last week inquiring about my services. He owns two adjoining tracts, described by metes and bounds with a nice house just barely on one of the tracts. His desire is to whittle some off of the vacant tract to give the residential structure a larger buffer from the deed line. He also mentioned he had other quotes but thought they seemed high.
I’m in possession of my recent section boundary. Other tracts I’ve worked on in that quarter all fit well. Whomever it was (I can’t remember) that did the original surveying (2001) of these tracts did a good job. Most of time with the client was explaining to him I couldn’t be responsible for making sure the laterals would fall entirely within a new boundary, but it would be nice for him to attempt to indicate to me their location. There is no municipality involved (for any lot split requirements) and the parcels are all a good amount larger than the county’s minimums. The work should be a cake-walk.
Without even asking the amounts of other quotes, I gave him a good estimate for bounding both parcels and preparing a plat and descriptions to place the new property line to his liking. And trust me, I wasn’t anywhere near “low” with my quote and made it worth my time should he choose for me to perform the work.
He not only jumped at my price. He also had to verify the quote was for BOTH parcels, as opposed to a “per each” scenario. This was an indication to me my price was somewhere near half of other quote(s). I still haven’t asked him, but I’m thinking the other prices are near or exceeding 5K.
I did some digging on my own and my guess of “who is the other guy?” is a local surveyor that use to work for the highway department. Several clients have related to me some of his fee quotes and to me they seem lofty also. His work that I’ve followed seem adequate and he’s free to charge for every penny he can get. My client had tentatively agreed for this surveyor to perform the work but fell short of giving a notice to proceed. He said he would contact this “other surveyor” and tell him to stand down in my favor.
I’m wondering if this surveyor is going to contact me or accuse me of low-balling. I hope not. I figured my price on available records, my experience in that specific section and what it worth for me to do the job. I still don’t know the amount of his quote…but by the way the client jumped at my quote they weren’t even close. We’ll see how this pans out. 😉
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