Smarter timing

The years preceding our economic crash have given some people some very bad business habits. Consider this: A couple of weeks ago, I went to see a local architect to work estimate of how much an extension of an existing building would cost. Call this a feasibility study. The man said that this would be fine, told me how his consulting would cost – which amount was fine with me – but told me to get him a survey of the place before he could do anything. He gave me the name of three surveyors and I proceeded to call them yesterday to find out about their respective fees.

The fee required by these professionals was astounding and represented three times what the architect was asking, almost defeating the purpose of what all along was a getting a peek into the overall cost of the project. I then called back the architect and asked him if there was no way to conduct his estimate without a formal, updated land survey, understanding of course that it would somehow affect the precision of the numbers he'd come up with. He reluctantly accepted without any good reasons against the order of thing. Some folks, and particularly these self-proclaimed “professionals” don't have much logic in their understanding of sound business practices, proper sense of which comes when and still put their own interests and convenience first, well before that of their clients...