Many years ago, when I was a less experienced custom home builder, I learned a very valuable lesson: Don’t put your company in jeopardy just to save a few bucks.
I learned this lesson in 1985, a time when the driver of the local home building market was price, price, and price. Any contractor building spec houses had to be careful about costs. Efficient spending was the rule. As a consequence, very few builders ever paid a surveyor to mark property corners, setbacks and easements, or the house footprint on a residential lot in an established subdivision. It was deemed a waste of money.
Typically, a builder looked for the property corners, but seldom could find all the original property corners (usually marked with rebar stakes and a plastic cap). Triangulation from one or more lot corners was the rule of the day. Any builder worth his salt could position lot boundaries as long as he had some string and a 100-foot tape measure.
I was a relatively new builder and believed I was different—more professional, more logical. I reasoned that a $500 line item expense to survey, locate, and mark lot corners on any project, whether it was a spec or a pre-sold home, was money well invested. The impact on the overall construction budget was minimal.
Several months earlier I had purchased four lots in a residential subdivision. I was going to market each lot with a home plan in hopes of landing a pre-sold contract, but I was fully prepared to build a spec home on each lot. Life was good; I’d sold three of the four spec homes during various phases of completion. I took steps to begin construction on the fourth lot.
That lot, located on a curved street, sloped away from the road down to the golf course. It was a large lot (about 32,000 square feet) with views of the golf course and mountains that would help sell this house. I asked my surveyor to locate the property corners on Lot 505. He asked if I wanted the usual survey package. “No,” I responded. “Just locate the lot corners.” My reasoning was simple. I was generating some cost efficiency. I would lay out property lines, setbacks, and house placement with my own employees and save about $375. I have more experience now.
The surveyors quickly marked all four property corners. They knew which lot to survey because there was a Dixon Builders sign on the property. No other homes had been built on this street. We started construction, adjusting the footprint to minimize tree removal and maximize the view. No worries here. The lot dimensions and setbacks were large enough to accommodate ideal placement of the house. We had flexibility. The footing, stemwall, floor fill, and concrete slab floors were completed on a Wednesday and the framing package was slated for delivery on the following Tuesday. The excavation contractor appeared right on schedule to dig and install all of the utility connections.
Then I received a telephone call from the excavation sub. He informed me that he could not locate the city sewer and water taps at the street just inside the curb. They were either buried too deep or mismarked on the site plan. He asked that a city representative come out to the site to help us locate the taps.
I contacted the city building department and explained the situation. Could they help us locate the taps? “Sure,” the inspector said. “I’ll meet you out there in 30 minutes.” The head building inspector arrived at the site and was there for no more than 10 minutes when he pointed out to me that the sewer manhole cover in the street was slightly askew from where it was marked on the subdivision plot plan. “You’re building on the wrong lot!” he said.
My heart stopped. I immediately halted construction and called the surveyor. Forty-five minutes later the surveyor reached the same conclusion. This can’t be, I thought. I went above and beyond and hired a surveyor to locate the property corners. It turned out that the lot dimensions of the two adjacent lots were nearly identical! I’d been building on the neighboring lot.
I located the name and address of the property owner. I called him that evening and told him the situation. After an extended discussion about options and liabilities he said, “How about if we just swap lots? Your lot’s larger and has a better view!” We agreed. You can imagine my relief.
Six weeks later the property swap took place, and my expenses were $12,600 in fees, legal expenses, and closing costs. After some legal wrangling, the survey company agreed to reimburse me for half of my cash expenses. This could have cost my company $25,000 to $50,000, all because I thought I was being efficient and saving money!
Dennis A. Dixon is an author, contractor, and speaker with more than 20 years of experience in the building industry. He can be reached at dixven@aol.com.
