Career Change - Residential Property Surveying?

Smudger78

Hi,
Have worked in the a large corporate in the infrastructure sector for 20 years and the opportunity for a career change has come up due to a company restructure and voluntary redundancy. As a sideline over the last few years I have also been building a BTL property portfolio typically buying properties which need work and then doing this to add value (I’m a qualified plumber and can do other work too). This is something I’ve very much enjoyed so given I have a keen interest in property I was considering are training via  SAVA Diploma in residential surveying and valuation which comes with Associate RICS membership. This would would be a significant commitment though in terms of time and cost so I am keen to get an insight into the job and all that comes with it beyond those with an interest in promoting it (RICS, SAVA etc) but when I look around I can’t find any surveyor forums etc where I can read first hand experiences.

So before I go ahead and commit to this I thought I would ask on here if anyone has experience of the job and could share their views of pros/cons etc with me??

Thanks

ACG

Could you go on linkedin and see if there are any groups or just add some surveyors for a chat? 

I do not really speak to surveyors, but I have a customer who is one and he seems to enjoy his job in the main. In the main it should be relatively straight forward - if you are just doing basic valuations and do not understand something, you probably just recommend a more detailed report on the particular issue anyway(?), but you will have people who try to bend your ear and get to up value the property, dispute it when you down value it, there will be old dears who are unhappy you breathed in their house which resulted in the high damp meter readings and properties you will be shivering from when you get out of it because it was that filthy, but renovating properties I am sure you have seen worse. 

Smudger78

ACG said:

Could you go on linkedin and see if there are any groups or just add some surveyors for a chat? 

I do not really speak to surveyors, but I have a customer who is one and he seems to enjoy his job in the main. In the main it should be relatively straight forward - if you are just doing basic valuations and do not understand something, you probably just recommend a more detailed report on the particular issue anyway(?), but you will have people who try to bend your ear and get to up value the property, dispute it when you down value it, there will be old dears who are unhappy you breathed in their house which resulted in the high damp meter readings and properties you will be shivering from when you get out of it because it was that filthy, but renovating properties I am sure you have seen worse. 

Hi,

Thanks for the response and you’re right, I’m sure I’ll cope with the odd cold, grotty house given those are exactly the types of houses I have been renovating! Good idea on the linked in suggestion though, will try that now...

whirlyhead

I have an acquaintance who is a one-man band surveyor, and whilst he (mostly) likes his job, he is finding it very difficult to get personal indemnity insurance - it's at least £2,000 a month.  I believe there has been increased litigation against surveyors for over valuing properties in the last few years. If you have the opportunity to work within a firm, this would be better than striking out on your own.

Smudger78

whirlyhead said:

I have an acquaintance who is a one-man band surveyor, and whilst he (mostly) likes his job, he is finding it very difficult to get personal indemnity insurance - it's at least £2,000 a month.  I believe there has been increased litigation against surveyors for over valuing properties in the last few years. If you have the opportunity to work within a firm, this would be better than striking out on your own.

Thanks for the info, that’s useful information to know as I was considering striking out on my own but this would obviously put a different view on that option as the costs sound prohibitive. Your friend must to have to earn a lot of survey fees to make that viable?

lincroft1710

Another thing about surveyors' personal indemnity insurance, the premiums increase with length of time in the job as the more surveys done, the more chances of a claim