We normally go by county records which will include the square footage of everything under the roof (minus an attached garage.)
I think most of us just accept the fact that if there is a crawl we are going in for no extra cost. Let me clarify before getting into a simantics discussion. I have inspected homes with both unfinished basements and crawls. Because I charge for total square footage, per county records, I am charging for the basement, but not the crawl. If there is a crawl but no basement I am still going in the crawl for the price of the house and if there is no crawl the price is still the same. I don’t know any who charge extra for a crawl, not that there aren’t any or that there is anything wrong with it, but i don’t.
The crawl is just one of those grey spaces.
Back to TJ you definately don’t charge enough, espescially with the 2 hour round trip. Well you guys don’t have speed limits up there, but then again it could be longer if you have bad weather.
I would never presume (:twisted: LOL :p) to try to influence you on your pricing because you know what your market will allow,but it does seem like you are lo-balling yourself. Just my opinion, please don’t shoot, I know you guys carry guns out there too.:twisted::twisted:
WITH ALL DUE RESPECT…
With these prices I am AMAZED that you are still in business. You are probably in the 32% income tax bracket, plus you have all of your business expenses, professional insurance, liability insurance, vehicle insurance, etc. to consider.
Once again, and with all due respect at these extremely low prices I do not see you lasting long in this business.
Some of the other inspectors have stated that you should not charge “extra” for basement and attics. I am in agreement.
You should not “break down” the inspection into components, electrical, mechanical, structural, etc.
You are REQUIRED to inspect the house according to the NACHI SOP. Do so and all of the questions about basements, attics, etc become a moot point.
Good luck….and PLEASE…raise your prices.
PS:
My absolute minimum us $329.00 and I make a damned good living.
Well Frank, you know that that is going to depend on your market area and what they can stand. What may be common and customary in one area may not hold true in another.
You need to base YOUR prices on what you feel you need to make a buck.
Crunch the numbers, overhead (underhead), advertising (what some people can do with imagination is quite effective and awesome)
Shop other inspectors (don’t listen to what others in the field tell you—like R.E. or someone who’s trying to get you to low ball), attend meetings
This place, for 289 you can’t beat it, read the BB it’s there, it’s in there somewhere…
TJ here again, Here in WY. the cost of living is low, as are wages, & I’ve tried to sneak my lowest rate up & split my sq. footage up into: up to 1500 sq. ft. then, 1500 to 2k & (instead of my initial first rate of up to 2k sq. ft.) It didn’t go over with the realtors, I know, I know, read on… Actually on my charges I use total sq. footage listed on the MLS sheet, (including basement finished or unfinished) & nothing for crawlspace. I think my biggest holdup is depending on the realtors for refferrals. I better watch myself, I am married to one, whew! I’m sure glad I looked over my shoulder after I typed that, LOL!!! I think my best bet (being in a small town) maybe to bypass them & work on the mortgage & title co’s, whatta ya think. Did forget the fact that WY. way back when, wanted to succeed from the Union. Last census was less than 1/2 million people in the whole 97k sq. mile state. The slow pace here is great but not beneficial to making a living, and they are not real hot on the idea of change. Gotta go here comes that pesky realtor again…
T.J…
You did the right thing. Your contract is with the purchaser. Stick to your guns. Crawl spaces usually have many potential problems (read court cases) if left uninspected and undocumented, so it makes sense to include this unconditioned space costed into your fees. I do.
I await the day when a realtor argues that an electrician, plumber, etc. is told that they charge too much.
T.Neyedli
I don’t charge for unfinished areas, but I can tell you that my travel price for the 120 miles would be an additional $100.00. With the size of this home and the travel involved…I would have been in the low 500’s for this inspection.
OK, you guys. How do you define unfinished? No sheetrock? Unheated? I’ve seen stud wall basements with unfinished ceilings that are heated. How do you handle that? What about finished walls and ceilings that are unventilated? David, do you charge for “finished” garages?
Garages (finished or unfinished) are included in all my inspections. I do not raise my prices due to a garage or a basement, whether it’s finished or not.
Although he does not specifically say so, it would appear that the original poster calculates his fee by computing the square footage of the area he plans to inspect. If this is correct, it would certainly require him to calculate and add the basement and garage.
I agree with you, David, that a simple fee for “up to XXX sq ft” would include garage and basement, but I don’t think that this is how Mr. Christopher sets his fee.
If you didn’t charge for unfinished basements around here…some of your inspection fees would be calculated on less than 1000 square feet.
There are tons of homes being built around here with 1000 square feet above grade and 1000 square feet below grade, oftentimes, the basement area is unfinished at the time of my inspection. However, I spend as much or more time in the basement.
I charge by the square foot, as do most inspectors, I use the county website to establish this square footage. If the county deems the basement area as livable square footage, so do I , finished or unfinished. Not because I’m greedy and want a higher fee…but because they may finish that basement at some point…
I charge one set price for a one family and another for two and three family. I never consider square footage. That shouldn’t matter anyway, unless you check every fiber of the carpeting.
Large homes take longer but the most common house that I see fairly often is the 25-35 yr old, 2000-3000 sf with a tough crawlspace, 3 or 4 electrical panels, 2 or 3 disconnect boxes and total of 60-80 writeups.
Even though I add on for the age, these are more time consuming inspections than the old homes.
In Oklahoma, almost all of them are: Nasty, smelly, really hard to get into, full of fungus, rot, mold, raw sewage, brown recluse spiders, crickets, daddy long legs, roaches, rabid possums, mushrooms, scorpions, skunks, snakes, dead cats, exposed live wires, mud, standing water, rusty nails, bones (I have found many bones in the crawlspaces here :shock: ), insecticides, pesticides, mice, rats, rocks, sticks, asbestos, glass, dead birds, sanitary napkins and toilet paper (around a leaking drain pipe)…etc…
There is NO WAY I do not charge extra for a crawlspace. I add $50.00, and I think that is cheap.
Attics and basements are part of my regular fee, however.
Wyoming Or Not , You Guys Need To Raise Your Bottom On Pricing. Its Hard Here In Florida Too,but There Are Over 100 Hi In My County (most Nachi). You And Your Buddy Need To Have A Beer And Set The Minimum Price, There’s Only 2 Fellas , Be Your Own Union Shop, You Set The Prices.
Expande your market to Scottsbluff/Gering. It’s only 30 miles away and the valley population is around 40,000.
Raise your rates.
I charge extra for crawl spaces. $50.00
Remember vehicle costs alone are $0.50 cents or more a mile. 120 miles is $60.00. And how much do you charge for the two hours you spend sitting in the car to get there?
Sell yourself on value, not cost.
Say the seller drops the price $2,000 based on the results of the inspection. What’s the real value in that. Beats the hell out of me. Too complicated to calculate $2,000 plus interst over 30 years, but I’ll bet it’s around $5,000 or so. Versus how much did you charge??? Around $195.00???
