Anyone charge extra for foreclosures ?

[Gene South]

Anyone charge extra for foreclosures ? I never have but feel like I should most of the time they involve extra work.

Gene

[Dan Harris]

Anyone charge extra for foreclosures ? I never have but feel like I should most of the time they involve extra work.

Gene

I don't. After doing 4 wantta be contractor flips this week, I sure am thinking about charging extra for the flips that are all prettied up with new floor coverings, and paint :)

[Ted Menelly]

Anyone charge extra for foreclosures ? I never have but feel like I should most of the time they involve extra work.

Gene


I don't but always know it is worth much more than the standard home for sale. They are either poorly covered up or just simply nasty and take longer on the inspection and much longer in the report.

Sadly enough you cannot get more for most of them because most of the time the folks either price shop to death or they decide they won't get one if they believe it cost to much.

Some may say charge more and if you don't get them then it wasn't worth it anyway. I say a 1500 square foot slab is looked at by the buyer as a 1500 sf slab they will pretty much get the best price they can or the normal price hard sold.

It is definitely a tougher market out there. I pretty much take what I can get but used to be a bit picky. I still really do not let up on crawls because of the shear hate factor I have for them. If I do not get them then I say to myself that it just was not worth it to barter.

I did a 1967 home in Burleson the other day. I knew that if I tried to get extra I would not have gotten the inspection. Man........I should have charged a hundred more as every 1960s home in Burleson was always a mess like this was.

No matter what everone else says, my experience with lowering price was you get all the crap out there. I have not lowered much but hard sell and then slightly discount. Everytime I do I get the gems of the inspection world.

[Nick Ostrowski]

The market up here is heavy on 1st time buyers and bank foreclosures. Not exactly the demographic of buyer that has a lot of money to burn. Rarely do I make what I think I should after inspecting foreclosures. I've thought about bumping up the fee for them after looking at a dump but it's to hard to think about what I can say on the phone to a caller that will convince them they should pay me more to look at a house that may or may not be littered with defects.

[Ken Rowe]

We charge by the square foot, it doesn't matter if it's foreclosed or not.

I've often wondered about the inspectors who charge by the selling price. It seems in these times the cheaper the selling price, the longer and nastier the inspection.

Maybe we should all charge by the selling price. The lower the selling price the higher the inspection fee? ;)

[Ron Bibler]

85% of my inspection are trash home... I just about take my pick list 450 pages and post that as my report. L.O.L.

Best

Ron

[Tom Camp]

Gene
I don't charge any extra for foreclosures, it is hard to justify charging extra because some times the houses or condos have been kept in good repair. Not all people who loose their jobs and go into foreclosure are slobs or purposefully destroy a property. IMHO

Tom Camp
Colorado Springs - Home Inspections, Commercial Inspections, Radon Inspections, Mold Inspections (http://www.tomcampinspectionservices.com)
16295
Inspections Done Right

[Nick Ostrowski]

An option would be to charge more upfront in your quote but knock a few bucks off at the end come payment time if the house was not littered with problems and you don't have to write a report the length of War and Peace. I wouldn't advise anybody upfront that there could be the possibility of a discount if the house is in good shape for a foreclosure. They might expect it regardless of the condition of the house.

[tyronbm]

Most of the foreclosures I inspect have no power or water on. If I am only inspecting the structure, I knock $50 off. I usually still visually look at main electrical panel and HVAC equipment. If they want me to come back, additional $125. This is usually 30 - 45 minutes to test plumbing, electrical, and HVAC system. Most foreclosure buyers understand there are going to be repairs needed. They are wanting to know about the big ticket items, ie. structural damage, HVAC replacement, roof, etc.

[Rick Hurst]

It seems as though I'm the one who pays each time I do one of these foreclosures. :rolleyes:

Figure in the time and pay, I'd been better off picking up the cans on the road on the way.:D

Each one of them turns into a coffee table book type report.

rick