FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
An estimate can vary depending on a variety of factors such as accessibility, location, terrain, time of year, etc. These factors will influence a Land Surveyor being able to establish an exact estimate for the survey in advance. Below is a list of various factors that may affect the cost of a survey. Research/Records Search: Boundary Surveying requires a records search on the parcel of land. This step can sometimes become complicated by the way previous land transactions were handled. This will often result in incomplete, vague and in some cases inconsistent land records and legal descriptions and must be taken in account when surveying your property. Accessibility: The location of a parcel from the land surveyor’s office plays part in the amount of time that it takes to perform the survey work. This includes the distance to the site and any difficultly in reaching the property corners. If monuments called for in your deed are located in a busy street more care will be required locate them. The same goes for if the monuments in the street have been destroyed due to street improvements or repaving, which commonly occurs. Time of Year: In the winter, travel time may be effected because of road conditions, this may effect travel time to the site. Winter weather may also hide field evidence. Summer time foliage can also present challenges to the site. Vegetation: Brush, tree branches and small trees can impede the time it takes to survey your property. The removal of such vegetation allows the surveyor a clear line of sight when performing a survey. Residential landscaping and trees on home sites are normally undisturbed but may require additional time to survey around them. Terrain: Mountainous terrain is generally more difficult to survey than a level parcel of land. Public Land Survey System/ Sectionalized Land: Depending on where your parcel is located (ex. remote area), the surveyor may have to break down an entire one mile square section of where your parcel lies. In some cases where the parcel falls into multiple sections a survey of those sections will also be required. Existing Evidence on Property: Existing evidence such as iron monuments, fences and occupational lines, witness trees, etc. are beneficial to the surveyor. Absence of this evidence may make it difficult for the surveyor to replicate the initial survey or information called for in the deed. Record of Survey: If any corners are set which establish property lines, it is required by law that a corner record card or Record of Survey be filed with the Country Surveyor/ Recorder in the county where your property is located. When a Record of Survey is necessary, the cost of the survey will be increased to account for the time it takes to draw up the map after the field work is completed. A Record of Survey filing fee is also required by the county.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
Find out what their expectations are, obtain their address, research their property, provide them with a written estimate, if the estimate is accepted I provide them with my formal survey agreement, complete the work and provide them with the deliverable. Sometimes the deliverable is stakes in the ground and can be turned around in a couple days and sometime it is a Record of Survey and can take six months to complete.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
On the job training and then earning my Bachelors Degree in Geomatics/ Land Surveying while working full time and raising a family (well my wife raised our children, I assisted but couldn't have done it without her).