Thread: Final walk through

What do you guys charge for final walkthrough. My basic charge is $150 per hr. Clients are pissing me off. They all think that once you inspect, they can call you out every time there is a question, for nothing.

Calling is not the problem, but revisiting can take time.
Don't be pissed; go harness the mule and take a ride.

Marketing idea for you.
Offer with first inspection in contract.
Offer Regular Gold Inspection, which is full home one trip. Cost = $X

Offer Supper Platinum Inspection, Which is Regular Gold Inspection with additional Final Walk Through Full Home Inspection. Cost= $X + ($X * 0.65)


If they decline purchasing (full payment original contract) the upgrade the 2nd trip will be at full price.

Not wanting to incorrectly interpret your "Final walk through" I will say this.
New home construction I charge $XX for a pre-sheet rock or "framing" inspection.
New home construction, house is built, they are ready to close, and they want a "Finished" home inspection done I charge $YY(normal rate).
New home construction I offer customer "framing" inspection, plus "finished" home inspection for fee of ($xx + $yy) minus a discount. All funds are collected at time of "framing" inspection.
If repairs are made to the house after any of the inspections and a customer wants me to come back out for a "final" inspection prior to closing, then the question for me becomes what are they wanting me to do. If it is just to check that the repairs were done correctly, then I charge them an hourly rate. Kind of like going to the doctor, you are going to pay for an office visit. If by a "final" walk through, they want me to walk the whole house and do a walk and talk with them taking the notes and me not writing anything, then that walk along consultation fee is $yy*.50. If by a "final" walk through, they want a new complete inspection, then the fee is $yy minus a discount for the repeat business.

I've never done one and have never been asked.... maybe it's a regional thing? Is this common in your market? I'd surely never be planting the idea if my clients' heads that this is an option.

This is basically just doing a re-inspection. Client's expectations and your liability are very high and pay is very low. Not exactly a good business model.

I appreciate your comments. A final walk through in this areas is typically on the day of the closing and gives the buyer a last chance to view the property before final purchase. Now the hosue is empty, now repairs have been made as per report, now they want my, your, opinion on the repairs, and any other defects that may be visible now that the home is empty. I know about the Gold silver blah blah balah of franchise companies and don't want to get involved with heavy metals. I ma just interested in what you, just you! charge for this service. and sorry but for some reason I cannot enter for a new paragraph so it's all in one BIG paragraph.

That sounds like what we refer to as a Reinspection of repaired defective items which I charge $125 flat fee for.

Reinspection is one half of the original fee and ONLY the items listed on their repair addendum are inspected. I must have the receipts of repairs and the repair addendum prior to the inspection. I hate doing them and try my best to talk folks out of it but if I do it I will be paid well enough to make it worthwhile. Hugh liability IMHO since people expect you to bless others work but that is another story.

I tell my Clients that I have a very simple business protocol: "If I can answer your questions via email or over the phone, there is no charge. If I have to take a shower, make myself all beautiful (which is difficult to do), and go out into the world, I charge for that."

I used to perform re-inspections/inspection of repairs for $200 first hr, $1 mile/r.t., & $100/hr after the first hour on site; verbal only- if they want my findings documented, + $50; only specifically listed items; only if performed by a "specialist/licensed contractor" with documentation of work performed onsite for my review.

Finally decided it was Too much hassle and liability "blessing" or "cursing" someone else s work and making everyone mad, when I could be at another full pay "normal" inspection. Client acknowledges in my contract that they understand I am not required to and do not perform re-inspections. They are referred to obtain, prior to closing, any warranty and documentation of such negotiated repair in detail from the firm performing the repair;
leave me out of it.
Set their expectations and your scope up front, and don't worry about being everything to everyone.
Blessings,
BWC

Originally Posted by Jim Luttrall

Reinspection is one half of the original fee and ONLY the items listed on their repair addendum are inspected. I must have the receipts of repairs and the repair addendum prior to the inspection. I hate doing them and try my best to talk folks out of it but if I do it I will be paid well enough to make it worthwhile. Hugh liability IMHO since people expect you to bless others work but that is another story.

But whenever you do an inspection, you are either blessing the work of other people or finding it defective. That's exactly what a home inspection is.

What do you do when you inspect a brand new home that has never been lived in? Yep. Blessing the work of others.

Originally Posted by Russel Ray

......If I have to take a shower, make myself all beautiful (which is difficult to do), and go out into the world, I charge for that."

Do you also charge by the hour for the beautification? Sounds like you are an "old timer"----it may take a while!!!!

I charge a re-inspection fee and only look at items in the repair list. Each item checked gets the below statement along with it.

Our company does not guarantee repairs from contractors. We only re-inspect to determine whether or not repairs were performed and they should provide warranty.

Originally Posted by Rich Goeken

Do you also charge by the hour for the beautification? Sounds like you are an "old timer"----it may take a while!!!!

Oh, yeah, but Clients don't know it. I don't nickel & dime them.

My inspection fee is half the cost of the original fee, and all of the nickel & dime stuff is built into the cost. Many of my competitors back when I started in 2001 were charging 50¢ per mile, $25 extra if raised foundation, $25 extra if home built before 1950, $50 if they didn't get any sex last night, etc. None of them are in business anymore.

People hate the nickel & dime stuff. Just look at the animosity towards the phone companies, the definition of nickel & diming people.

I'm an expert in using Excel, so when I started, I created an Excel spreadsheet that tracked everything. After the inspection, I enter inspection fee, discounts (police, military, teacher, GLBTQ, etc.), square feet, travel distance, gas price, and type of home and then created some formulas to have Excel automatically update my average inspection fee, average square feet, average mileage, average distance travel, and number of homes in each category (stick built, manufactured, condo, apartment, etc.).

With that knowledge, I adjust my prices after each inspection. Of course, no one knows that except me. A Client calls and I provide a price based on square footage, type of home, and zip code. I do the inspection and update Excel.

A Client calls the next day and I provide a price based on square footage, type of home, and zip code but it might be slightly different based on yesterday's inspection.

Long-time Realtors who refer me exclusively know of my system and really appreciate it because prices don't always go up. Sometimes they go down, like when gas prices plummet (they are plummeting here right now, down 40¢ a gallon during the past 30 days) or when my E&O premium comes in lower than last year (I've very proactive in working with my E&O provider to limit my liability and, by inference, their liability).

I thought that during the first year of business, prices would change drastically because of the small sample size, so I simply set prices based on what my competitors were charging. I had the third-best first year in the history of The Home Team Inspection Service (493 inspections), so after six months, I had a large enough sample size so that Excel was providing me with valuable information and I could adjust prices accordingly. At that point I started adjusting prices each month. I started adjusting prices on an ongoing basis beginning April 1 2003 after 18 months in business.

[QUOTE=Russel Ray;230689]Oh, yeah, but Clients don't know it. I don't nickel & dime them.

......./QUOTE]

Sounds like you have a very good handle on it using a spreadsheet. Do you use any macros? If you don't---read up on them. They will make your work so much easier.

One of my "positions" ( fancy way of saying--"Jobs") was doing the call routing for 2 privately owned telephone switching centers (same size as that used for a small town). I used Lotus (remember Lotus?) to do all the trunking information. I selected Lotus because Excel could not, at that time, go out too far past the decimal point. I would receive a call on my phone from the switch center, click on the program, and it would directly receive the data and place it into the program. Net result---a printout of what happened 15 minutes ago with projections for facilities needed for the next 5 years.

Took some work, but it paid off. So, what I am trying to convolutedly say, is to use the macros to do the heavy lifting and massage your data. It might/will make it easier.

Originally Posted by Rich Goeken

Sounds like you have a very good handle on it using a spreadsheet. Do you use any macros? If you don't---read up on them. They will make your work so much easier.

One of my "positions" ( fancy way of saying--"Jobs") was doing the call routing for 2 privately owned telephone switching centers (same size as that used for a small town). I used Lotus (remember Lotus?) to do all the trunking information. I selected Lotus because Excel could not, at that time, go out too far past the decimal point. I would receive a call on my phone from the switch center, click on the program, and it would directly receive the data and place it into the program. Net result---a printout of what happened 15 minutes ago with projections for facilities needed for the next 5 years.

Took some work, but it paid off. So, what I am trying to convolutedly say, is to use the macros to do the heavy lifting and massage your data. It might/will make it easier.

I've been using macros since they first appeared in Word and Excel a couple of decades ago. I used to teach macros for Word and Excel at a community college in Texas. When I moved to San Diego, that knowledge got me a job as project manager with a wireless telecommunications company that was building out cell sites in the mid-1990s to make cell phones work seamlessly everywhere, i.e., without dropped calls. Yep, I'm partially the reason why cell phones have invaded our lives.......lol

I could not do all that I do each day without my Word and Excel macros. I created my own home inspection report in Word back in 2001, and macros allowed me to create a template which allows me to create a report in just 45 minutes, regardless of the condition of the property. To the best of my knowledge, I had the first computer-generated report here in San Diego County, quite possibly one of the first in the nation since the first computer report programs were so expensive. All because of macros.

I have done something very similar as a "punch list" inspection, also for $150 (prices were low in my former market, Baton Rouge). I made it clear to the client that this is less exhaustive and less "technical" that a full inspection and the report is very simple; a list of defects, blue tape and some photos. I did quite a few of these, especially when the initial inspection turned up a long list of defects that were to be fixed before closing. The client wanted to know if they really did everything they were supposed to do based on my initial recommendations. If there wasn't much wrong on the first inspection sometimes I would do a quick double check for free (builds up goodwill). Also did a few punch-list "inspections" on new houses, even though I tried to get them to go for the full inspection. Just because a house is new doesn't mean they didn't screw up.