“I am trying to get a sanity check on a price quote we received for surveying our property lines”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Paul Sirajuddin

“Dear PoPville,

I am trying to get a sanity check on a price quote we received for surveying our property lines and obtaining a fence permit. It took us forever to even get a surveyor to get back to us so we only got one quote. I was wondering if you might be willing to post this on POPville to see if anyone has any feedback on whether the quote is reasonable.

We were quoted $1,200 for a field run survey of our property (a row house in NW DC) and to mark our rear lot lines for construction of a fence.
We were quoted $1,000 for this same company to prepare and submit applications and packages to obtain permits from the city pertaining to construction of the fence.

I’ve got no frame of reference for the survey quote so have no idea whether it’s reasonable. But charging me $1,000 just to go through the fence permitting process sounds like I’m being fleeced and/or somebody’s palms are getting greased. Could it really cost that much to get this done? Appreciate any feedback on this.”