Property Preservation Inspections

**Rick Hurst** · 06-24-2010, 09:40 PM

Anybody doing these inspections on foreclosures?

If so, what is your opinion?

I have no interest in doing them, but I do know someone who was asking about them. Seems you go in and inspect the "general condition" of the home and then bid on what needs to be done to get the home in a "marketable" condition.

The inspection is not typical of what we do as a home inspector, but they look for safety issues that need immediate attention or something that pertains to the home protected against adverse weather.

rick

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**Matt Fellman** · 06-25-2010, 12:07 AM

I've run into a couple guys doing follow ups while I'm doing an inspection.... Basically, they look like about $10/hr guys... I don't know if that means the banks just don't pay much or they don't know where to look.

Basically, if there's a huge hole in the floor they'll tell someone to cover it.... other than that I don't think they pick up on much.

**Nick Ostrowski** · 06-25-2010, 05:03 AM

I'd have a hard time doing any minimum level inspection like that. Where does it begin and where does it end? There are so many potential safety or "preservation" issues in a home that are not able to be seen with a cursory walk-around. Wiring in the service panel and clearances to combustibles around flue pipes in utility spaces and attics are just a couple things that come to mind.

**Dom D'Agostino** · 06-25-2010, 06:03 AM

I have done hundreds of them for banks and other groups. They are low paying surveys, often with lots of photos, or just a simple check-list survey report. "Smoke Detector: Yes/No"; "Mold Present: Yes/No", etc.

They are really looking for quotes, or bids, not inspections. The bank wants a licensed tradesperson to oversee the process for the least amount of money. The clean-out process has almost always been completed first, thankfully, but they are everywhere down here.

The crews I have seen doing the work look like lawn service guys trying to repair houses during their route.

**John Kogel** · 06-25-2010, 05:01 PM

IMO, it's a good way for a guy starting out to make a few, very few, bucks and get a feel for real inspection work. Just learning to schedule time and find obscure addresses, stuff like that.

There's a couple of companies that send people out to do that up here.

You can't earn a living from it if you're buying your own gas.

**Nick Ostrowski** · 06-25-2010, 06:44 PM

I did some relo work when I first started inspecting. The pay sucked, I sometimes had to travel to bumble#%^$ Iowa (far from SE Pennsylvania), but it was work, good experience, and the meager pay helped pay some bills. At the time, our son was less than 1 year old and still on formula which is not cheap. If I got $75.00 for a stucco ID on a house that was 80 miles from my house, I said "well, that's 3 cans of formula".

Like John said, good experience for a guy just starting out.