Charging by sq ft....

I charge, as many do, by square footage. I am now at a point where Heated Square footage vs. Actual Inspection Area Square Footage comes up too often. MLS will list the homes heated square footage and total square footage. Balconies, decks, patios, pool enclosures, parking areas, external laundry areas etc. take time as well.

Is this a *suck it up *scenario or what have I been waiting for scenario?

I go by the property appraiser’s records and use actual sf not condition space.
Take the attached record for example. Look at the difference.Big money difference.

I had to get the magnifying glass out to read that.

Attached garage is perfect example, it gets inspected, and should be included in square footage.IMO;-)

Here ya go Frankie
Better now Huh?

Yes. Thank you.
As for the garage comment. What about flat rate for garage, plus so much for each door?

Total is good enough for me. If you start nit pickin it freaks clients out.
The example I gave was nothing more than a bunch of pan roof area.

If I charged for actual v heated I probably would do 1 inspection per month…

Give it a try and see what happens.

I normally charge every 500ft. I had one last week the customer said why are you charging for over 1500sf? This house is 1280? I said I include the garage in this measurement. Which in this house included the attic access, the service panel, and of course the doors. Then it made sense to him.

in my area up to the first 2000 square foot is $250.and then up to each additional 500 square foot is an additional $50.crawl spaces add another 50.this is going by actual square footage. Makes it easy to figure out without doing a lot of thinking.

Thanks Roy

All you guys are doing with your prices is Pissin* people off adding this and adding that to basically hide your price until you spring the price on them. If your price starts with a 2 like Larson you are too low to begin with.

I start at $425.00 and that is good for the first 3K and then goes up $50.00 for every 500 additional SQ FT

you need to look at the bottom line and adjust your pricing strategy based on your total time for the job vs your total gross/ net pay. what else could possibly matter?

I agree. I never understood the living space thing as we inspect the unfinished basement also and it takes time as checking under insulation at the rim joists and among other things. I would much rather go though a finished basement and get paid more than some dimly lit basement with crap stacked to the joists and crap all over the floor as you can’t move with out tripping and get paid less.

Charlie, I with you on this one. Many HI’s start pricing way too low. My fees are basically on number of bedrooms. More bedrooms, larger home. Quote accordingly. Square footage quotes by the client or MLS are rarely correct.

Because you charge by the square footage it is. Majority of the time when your phone rings you are in the field and don’t have time or direct access to the net to re-search the home you are quoting so you are depending on what you are told when you give your basic SF price.

Try this scenario and in this order. Don’t let the SF pricing run your livelihood.

Ask where the home is first always. (you should know your entire service area and the value of the homes in each area)
Ask if the home is occupied or vacant, if vacant ask if the utilities are on and if this home is a fixer upper or ask if they feel the home is in good condition. (this always leads to constructive conversation which helps you close the deal)
Ask if there is a pool or outbuilding they want included. (Don’t go into your other services yet)
Ask what type of foundation there is.
Ask the age of home.
Ask how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are.

By now you should know what you are inspecting and who you are doing this inspection for. Common sense from there will set your price and I will assure everyone else they called only said “what’s the SF oh yea that’s $250.00 bucks”.

Now if you have too, ask what the Total SF is.

In other words you don’t want to inspect a 1500 SF run down home with utilities off for a year at your basic SF price. Nor do you want to inspect a 1500 SF home with ocean front property at your again basic SF price.