Thread: New Inspector Here

Hello all,
My name is Larry. I am new to the inspection business. I have done some training and schooling and I am always looking for some good advice. One question I have for anyone...How does one decide on what to charge for an inspection? Do you go by the square footage of the home?

Thanks,
Larry Martin
Mother Lode Home Inspections

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Hi Larry.... welcome to the board.

I am relatively new to the biz as well, and have been a member of this site for about a month or so now.
I can tell you that (my opinion here) there are a great number of guys here who impart a tremendous amount of property inspection wisdom. I have learned a great deal about most areas of home inspection from these people..... wish I could personally thank each and everyone of them !!

For pricing, visit as many home inspector websites as you can, or phone/email them to ask what their pricing is, bearing in mind what part of the country you live in! You'll get plenty of ideas !

Hope this helps !
Again, welcome !
Bob

Thanks Bob,
There are only a couple of inspectors here and they are pretty tight mouthed. I'll have to have my wife call them to see if she can get a quote.
Larry

There ya go !!

Good luck, Mrs. Martin !!!!

Larry,
Welcome to the board. As you'll soon find out, the reasons there are codes is because there are as many opinions as there are professionals. This carries over to pricing, th opinions part, that is.

Bottom line is, you don't want to use any of our models because it might not be the right on for you. Whether you realize it or not, you have two things to worry about now; your inspection skills and your business. May I suggest that you familiarize yourself with https://www.nppa.org/professional_de...db/cdbcalc.cfm
You will be substituting things relevant to our business, as this was designed for photographers. Be sure to click on the little circles next to the categories so that you understand what they are considering for the categories. That's all you'll get for free.

Once you've done that, spring for the $99 and buy Brian's Cost of Business package. To do so, go to the top of this page, click on the IN logo. Go down to the balloon with the title Cost of Business. Buy it.

DO NOT BASE YOUR PRICING ON THAT OF YOUR COMPETITORS. If you do, you will be assured of seeking the lowest level. Doing as I have suggested may give you answers that you don't want to hear, but it will give you honest answers for pricing correctly. Correctly means "pricing so that you are running a succssful business as well as being a good Inspector.

Welcome!

1. Decide how many inspection you can do a month based on your ability and work load...
2. Cover your cost (advertising, paper, ink, etc) and taxes.
3. Pull some out to pay your monthly personal bills.
4. Save some...
5. Pray the phone continues to ring!

Add all that together and multiply by the # of inspections you believe you can perform without burning yourself out by the end of the month. At the end of the month take a couple days off and start over the next month. Before you know it...you will have enough data to prove that you should raise or lower the price based on the above.

If you follow your team mates you might get yourself into trouble by either not charging enough to cover all your cost (based on your personal idea of how you think your business ought to be run) or you will begin to get the idea that the home inspection business doens't pay enough and is just not right for you.

Misguaging it the other way (you charge more than your cost) won't happen. Cause you can never charge too much. You will only charge more than those who are not charging enough to begin with.

Anyway...good question...and one that most inspectors ask themselves at this stage.

thanks everyone,
I did check out the web page for cost of business.

Hi Larry and welcome to the forum.

I think this topic is being covered in another thread, but I will give it a shot here.

I ask a few questions and base my fee on the answers. First the square footage, then the age, followed by where it is. If your service area is not that large, the last item may not apply. I may get inspections an hour and a half or more away. Unlike some parts of the country, that means 50 - 75 miles away here.

I have a minimum fee I like to get to go out the door. So any house up to a certain square footage falls under that fee, such as 1500SF. Then the prices go up in 500/100 SF blocks.

If the house is over 40 - 75 years old, I usually add a bit. If it is over 75 I may add a lot.

While I don't charge more for crawlspaces, some inspectors do. We have such a mix here, I feel it just evens out.

I think most inspectors charge by the size of the house, with add ons like I outlined. There are some that charge by the price of the house.

You should probably find out what most of the inspectors in your area are doing and follow that. The reason I say that is that if everyone is asking buyers how much they are paying for the house and you ask the size, it may confuse some, and vice versa.

Hope this helps
JF

I started out with a base sf price, and increased the base price $25 per additional 400 SF. Used to be that the crawl space was included as part of the pricing structure, but, I did a lot of homes that were slab construction and felt guilty charging them the same as a home with a crawl.
That's when I "lowered" my pricing and started charging extra for getting down with the "spiders and snakes".