Internationally acclaimed leadership guru, speaker and author, John C Maxwell, will soon be in town.

Somebody exclaimed in genuine surprise when I pointed out that it will cost each of those interested in his one day presentation a whopping Sh65, 000.

"But that's only about 500 Sterling pounds or about 800 US dollars, I pointed out. Just about the cost of bed and breakfast for two nights in middle level hotels in the US and Europe", I said. "Any serious corporate manager will attend without giving the cost a second thought for the value the presentation adds", I added. I meant it.

One must always invest time and money in things they value.

That's why I am perplexed at the laxity and presumptions I routinely encounter in the construction and estate agency industries.

Many developers and estate managers take the positioning of buildings and other permanent developments for granted only to lose big later. This can be avoided.

That's why I greatly admire and respect those architects who observe basic procedure on this one.

One of them denied us our Easter break last year. He had an emergency.

Without our support, he was going to have to pay heavily for idle construction equipment and machinery through the Easter break.

Having earlier assisted him to re-establish boundaries to a plot on which he had been commissioned to oversee construction; he had mobilised a contractor to the site.

On fencing out, an access road was blocked. Neighbours rose in protest, even knocking down some fencing materials.

It took our survey team, another from government, the local authority concerned and the provincial administration to point out that the access road had been deviated off its correct alignment into the plot.

The plot definition was fine and construction of the high rise building went ahead.

The incorrect positioning of construction works and buildings has happened severally and still does.

Remember the Thika Road demolitions?

Only earlier this month, a friend told me how he hired people to help him literally hack off an entire section of an encroaching building under construction.

Being a surveyor, he had pointed out this fact to the owner who wouldn't listen. Of course in his anger, he took fairly extreme measures.

But the matter illustrates ignorance at its extreme.

Having been forewarned, the developer should have halted construction to confirm his perimeter boundaries through a simple site survey. The price? Reconstruction.

Another senior colleague recounted how he was once called in to re-establish a common boundary at a different site only to find that a newly constructed maisonette stood flush across a common property boundary.

The maisonette had to be brought down.

While on routine assignments, our team has witnessed three property sale agreements collapse after precise measurements provided evidence of encroachment by the properties on offer.

The prospective buyers took flight to avoid future liability.

And hats off to a contractor who recently refused to break ground until a licensed surveyor was called in to re-establish plot boundaries in one of the up market neighbourhoods. That's as it should be.

Actors in the construction industry must spend time and money to confirm plot boundaries.

And managers in corporations, government institutions and investors should set budget lines to call in licensed surveyors to confirm perimeter boundaries before committing to property purchases. And get a written report.

Like with the Maxwell lecture, what this costs is barely the equivalent of the MD's tour for a few nights in some five star hotel in Mombasa. Yet it could save millions.