Good afternoon. I’m looking at further building my business and want to get into auxiliary inspections. The big ones in my area are sewer scope, pools, and mold. I enjoy providing good basic home inspections that include use of a thermal imaging camera for no extra cost but would like to be a one stop shop for clients looking for those auxiliary services. My question is do I:
Simply refer out/schedule those auxiliary services to contractors I know and have them provide a report to the client for no up charge?
Sub up those auxiliary services and report on their findings myself for a fee?
Do the inspections myself.
I would like to be hands off on the auxiliary services because I feel like I would be better focusing on the home inspections but also want to be able help possible clients with those auxiliary services so I’m not missing out on the home inspection. Trying to see what the industry standard is.
The 3 things you mentioned are very basic and not very time consuming. You need to do these yourself, they are great ways to make money and the reports will have your business logo on them. Why pay someone for something you can easily do yourself.
My top services are Termite and sewer scope.
Are you in an area where you can do the termite inspection yourself? I’m in Missouri and had to get state licensed to do termite, but well worth it. And without it,I would loose the whole inspection, as most all inspectors are licensed as well. And we mostly provide the service and report at no additional fees. That’s just how it is here.
Sewer scope are done on 50% of inspections, and that makes a lot each year, just spend extra and don’t buy a junk Amazon scope, they are junk and break easy. I have had my scope for 4 years now with no issues.
I’m licensed to do WDI inspections because I’m there inspecting the property already.
I don’t do Radon tests because I don’t want to drive to the property twice, although that could change because my Radon tech has raised his prices.
I don’t do sewer scopes because the Plumber I hire to do them has had to cut off caps to gain access, I don’t carry a torch, they’ve had to pull toilets to do the scope, I don’t carry wax rings, and they’ve had to access the lateral through the plumbing vent, I’m not carrying the equipment onto a roof by myself to do that either. He also is well versed in septic systems and does those for me as well.
Today’s scope took 45 minutes for them to complete.
If you sub out work, the key is finding good subs that you can rely on and who are professional.
Thanks for the insight Kevin. We have to be licensed to do WDI in VA and the licensing process is a full time commitment so I’m going to pass on that one. I am leaning towards how you handle the auxiliary inspections though. Do you find much conflict in getting your plumber out to scope the sewer if they don’t have the same days available that you do? Any kickback from the sellers or listing agents?
Thanks Ian. I was asking more so if industry standard for how other handle auxiliary inspections and not so much on which ones they do. I’m located in south east Virginia and radon is not much of a hazard here and we don’t get any request for them.
Thanks William. In Virginia you have to be licensed to do termite and moisture which takes a lot of time to do. I’m not sure if it’s like this most places but in my area the sellers and required to get a clean termite and moisture inspection before they can sell their home. If see any signs of WDI i will mention in my report but word it carefully such as. “Signs of possible WDI were noted in the crawlspace. Recommend further evaluation and correction by a licensed pest control company.”
No, although they sometimes run a little late, but they have never left me stranded. This is why it’s important to find good and reliable people to work with.
We now do everything ourselves, but we have multiple inspectors and can send several guys if needed to keep the inspection time reasonable. We subbed things out to start with, then got additional training and equipment so we could do it ourselves.
At $200 for a radon test, they are usually worth my fee. I don’t do sewer scopes. Multiple reasons for that like lugging extra equipment, makes my already long day longer, and then the tough sewer lines, like only access is roof vent, pulling toilets, cutting out brass clean-outs…and we have a lot of those around here. So, I charge a $30 concierge fee for the 20 seconds it takes me to schedule a sewer scope for the job.
My most common “auxiliary” is for wells. Just got a call for nothing but the well, since they already got a home inspector. I’ll make $760 just on the well.
Not many pools around here, so I don’t inspect pools. Few termites, (I saw my first active colony in 25 years a month ago), and rarely have a major mold issue, plus the hurdles in getting a WDO inspector license here are enormous.
When I contract out a job like a sewer scope, in the inspection agreement I disclose that I am just contracting a service provider as a convenience to the client for a small fee and have no liability. And then I contract companies that stand behind their work.
Thanks for your input Lon. I like the idea of subcontracting out the sewer scopes. I talked to a plumbing company today and they were all about the partnership. We have a meeting setup next week. I’m planning to refer the pool inspections out, sub out the sewer scope, and do the indoor air/mold testing myself.
I used to worry about the difficult sewer scopes too before I started offering them. I made the business decision to only do the “easy” ones (which is 95% of them). If the cap doesnt easily come off, if there is no cleanout even present, if the cleanout is under the home in the crawlspace etc.. I simply do not do them. I let everyone know up front that access to the drain must be readily accessible.
Have you had any issues with “creating a panic situation.” By that I mean, client has 5 days for the inspection, client wants sewer scope, you do inspection on day 4 of their contingency and find out cleanout is not easily accessible. Now they are in a “panic” because a plumber has to be called in on very, very short notice, and it may not even be possible to do it before the end of the contingency period. I think that is my biggest hang up on why I don’t offer them and refer it out to a plumber. The next biggest hang up is dealing with poop, lol.
If I could only scope just the easy ones, I’d be happy to do those, problem is you never know until you get there if it’s going to be an easy one or not.
I’ve have found in recent years that the majority of my clients want this service or septic inspections performed, and like @ruecker stated above, some clients, especially those that have had, or have had friends that had a bad past experience with a basement flooding, are expecting the scope to be done.
The repairs for a damaged lateral can cost thousands to repair or replace.