"On a survey of my boat, they surveyor mistook the TV antenna half way up the mast for an EPIRB!
"
Sean, I have to thank you for inspiring the first good belly laugh I've had today. I thought about what you said, and an image popped up in my mind, of the same surveyor, mistaking the SAR response team for the Cable Guy and reaming them out for taking so long to fix the cable service.<VBG>
Surveyors are like any other "professional". You're paying for expertise, but doctors, mechanics, lawyers, any of 'em, you've really got to find one that comes highly recommended or else you are just shooting craps. Of course, if your insurer or finance *demands* a survey from a surveyor...you do the dance.
Otherwise, the value of a survey is in direct proportion to how much or how little you know about boats, and the ways folks may be concealing damage.