Who is the Land Surveyor here?!

[SoCalMiniFan]

If my memory hasn't fully failed me don't we have a member here that's a land surveyor?

I'm trying to have my property surveyed for an upcoming build and there seems to be hardly any of these folks around and the one we made contact with has been back and forth and all over with answers which I understand if there are so few of you then you must be really busy but he threw a number out for a starting price and I almost feel like it was just a to get us to go away.  If it's in the ballpark of what surveyors charge then I'll just chalk it up to him being ridiculously busy with possible bad social skills and go ahead and book the work with him.  It's hard to even get multiple estimates form surveying companies to compare but we absolutely need a property survey before we can move forward with much else in the project.

I'll take into consideration I'm in California so the prices for EVERYTHING are on their own scale but a ballpark range for this service would be great.

[94touring]

It's Jim, and myself in a former life so I'm no good at quotes these days.  I'll forward this to him but he's been busy.  I usually bs back and forth with him but this week he's been mia.

[Jims5543]

Dan texted me to nudge me to get on here.

I had a hot water heater blow out on my house, every plumber I called was booked out for 3-6 days. I am too busy to install one myself so I just wanted it taken care of.

I had to take a cold shower last night, that lit a fire under my ass to go to Home Depot today, take a long lunch and install one myself. So I feel your pain, many people complain contractors are horrible at returning calls.

Try getting a fence installed, fence companies are the worst.

Sadly, you cannot survey your own land so you are at the mercy of the local surveyors.

Tell me more about what you are up to I may be able to help you.

Is it a vacant lot?

Are you building a new home?  Or an addition?

Are you doing owner / builder?  If not, speak to your GC, typically they have a surveyor on call. I work for a few and will not say no to them and give them fair prices.

If you call me off the street and you are not a day to day client, you are not going to like my prices, furthermore, if you have a difficult property (heavily wooded, wet, not platted etc) you REALLY are not going to like my pricing because I do not want to the job and I am only doing it if the price I charge makes me smile.

I just did a 30 acre job like that, I charged them through the ass and they happily paid.


Another crazy story, a lady purchased a McMansion cash, the seller gave them a copy of their survey for their records. They want to know where their property lines are so they contacted the surveyor..... 3 times... all three time blown off... They have now hired me and I charged them a LOT but they are willing to pay because they just want someone to show up. I even asked them why they were not using the original surveyor and they told me that story.

I really did not want that job, so it is priced high and they are happy just to have me show up.

[SoCalMiniFan]

Sadly, you cannot survey your own land so you are at the mercy of the local surveyors.

Tell me more about what you are up to I may be able to help you.

Is it a vacant lot?

Are you building a new home?  Or an addition?

Jim thanks so much for hopping on and responding. Our H2o heater crapped out on Christmas Eve last year, all my tools were still in storage as we were in between temporary housing and our new place so I couldn't fix it myself if I wanted to. So Christmas was spent kind of stinky with no hot water and none of our belongings. 

I just wrapped up an entire kitchen remodel that included gutting to the studs, extensive electrical including new service to the house, and converting galvanized plumbing to copper and new main shut-offs.  I'm FINALLY getting a break from house duties to do things I enjoy like work on my Mini but the wife already has the next house project lined up in the pipeline warming up!


Next project:
We are going to hopefully knock down an existing workshop that has a 2 room w/bath studio attached to it, though at some point someone capped the plumbing/gas.  It's about 35ft. X 12ft wide.  We would like to replace it with a garage and 1bedroom apartment. Our deed states we have a detached servants quarters on the property.

If we go off some plans I found in the shed the structure is a mere 16" from the property line, if that in fact is the property line. 

The lot is just shy of 1/4acre,  not heavily wood, not steep, on a locals only street. You can see the grade from the front.

We reached out on our own to the surveyor a contractor we talked to had recommended, the GC we are going with has a guy too but we were already talking with the one surveyor.  I'm thinking we will most likely have him help us line it up.

Thanks for the insight on how you guys operate!

[Jims5543]

I am a sucker.

The McMansion home above, once I got there, it went much smoother than anticipated, well, besides me gashing my thumb on a palmetto palm while cutting line with a machete. Otherwise, I found all the property corners in place and easily.

So I reduced to bill to $200 from $450 because I could not consciously charge the full price, even though they were filthy rich and would not have even flinched.

SoCsal, I hope your connection through your GC will work out.

[SoCalMiniFan]

Jim can I just fly you out here, you can stay in our guest shack, you survey the property and I'll fly you home. 

We were quoted $4200.00 from the one guy and $3800.00 from our GC's guy.  Our friend here though said that's about what they paid so I guess this is just how California rolls.

[Jims5543]

Damn, I am licensed in the wrong state.

I just quoted that much to survey a 5 acre trailer park, and won the bid.

I am really looking forward to mixing it up with trailer trash next week. Maybe some interesting pics will make it here.


Sorry man, I saw a thread on another car forum that was similar to yours, guy could not get a surveyor to even return his call then when he finally got one, they wanted thousands to survey a small property.

[Jims5543]

Jim can I just fly you out here, you can stay in our guest shack, you survey the property and I'll fly you home. 

We were quoted $4200.00 from the one guy and $3800.00 from our GC's guy.  Our friend here though said that's about what they paid so I guess this is just how California rolls.

Do you have a previous survey? Did I miss that?  Or did the previous owner leave you a survey they had done?  The reason I ask, I offer a 50% discount to update the OG survey and re-issue it.

I am still amazed by how much Cali surveyors are gouging people for surveys, they must be busy as hell!!  I may need to look into seeing what it takes to get licensed there. Maybe moving there part time and running a small operation.  What you described would be a $350 survey here unless California regulations are such that you have to do a lot in order to get it through permitting.


Example, the county I live in has really prohibitive regulations that make building and getting a permit almost impossible. I am working on one file that has been going on for over a year now and we still do not have a permit and have done a ton of work in hopes to get it thought permitting. The county to the north is very easy to deal with and permitting is a breeze.

Because of that, I charge 2-3X to do a survey in the county to the south.

Considering how intrusive the Cali government is, I suspect you are paying for the bureaucracy you are dealing with.

Damn, I wish I could survey there, I would take you up on your offer.

[SoCalMiniFan]

Well we signed the retainer form and put a 50% deposit down to have the survey done.  The guy said it might come in under the estimate.  Unfortunately very little records have been kept on the house by previous owners and the county.

We can't really move on with anything until the survey is done.  I can guarantee we are paying a lot due to insane amounts of California bureaucratic non-sense.  So many hoops and loops and tricks to do for everything here.