I’ve been approached to conduct yearly maintenance inspections, but I’m unsure about the appropriate fee. My usual rate is $350 plus $0.10 per square foot inspected. Does anyone have experience with this type of work and could share their pricing? I’ve done a few inspections and feel I’m not charging enough. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Charge your normal fee, do your normal thing. Now a maintenance service (not an inspection) that’s another ball of wax.
1 Like
So you would be at $550 for a 2000 sf home, and think you should charge more for this?
I have done a few maintenance inspections, and I typically charge less than normal, because it goes faster.
They already live there, so you don’t have to focus on certain things nearly as much… you’re not having to take hundreds of photos, run the plumbing as long, or even focus on appliances.
You’re just mainly looking for signs of settlement, moisture intrusion, electrical issues, etc. For me, they take about an hour less than a full buyers inspection.
2 Likes
maybe because i’m new and only have one maintenance inspection under my belt, but it took me the same time as any other inspection, but that may have been the time spent not running all of the appliances was spent talking to the homeowner. i knocked $100 off due to her having so many issues with the roof and not getting that fixed, but that wasn’t about the inpsection being shorter or less thorough. i ended up with about 50 fewer pictures than a normal inspection.
she ended up happy as hell with the few things i found they had no idea about, even though i couldn’t say definitively that the roof was not installed properly. but then again, i was under the impression i would be the one recommending a roof inspection, not the roof inspector recommending a home inspection. i just wish i could recommend a fix for her, but have been advised against recommending somone without a license, even though she can’t get a contractor to do it. i did tell her if it still needed done next year to call me, but i’ll probably call her in 11 months first.
I think it depends on what the difference is between a “home maintenance inspection” and a “home inspection”. To me they’re one in the same.
First you would need to define what a “yearly maintenance inspection” is and what it encompasses. Then you can create a pricing structure from that. Some feel it is nothing more than another name for a whole home inspection and others feel that many aspects of a “whole home inspection” are not needed.
So what do you consider it to be?
2 Likes
Agreed!
It’s like someone asking me how much I would charge to paint their house. We would need to agree on a few things first, such as interior? Exterior? Both?
1 Like
I agree. I did one last year for a 1500sqft and only charged 250. That was too low in my opinion.
What would you pay for an annual inspection to tell you what is wrong and needs to be fixed with your home?
Yearly Maintiance inspections are a difficult sell from what I have see and tried. We targeted the retirement age group for this and marketed it at $149 and could not get a nibble. We did that about ten years ago. It is not a home inspection by any means and we would spend about thirty minutes at a home and produce a letter style report with a few photos and bullet points of the issues that needed to be addressed. Think of a modified 4-Point. I think we sold about five of them in a the two years we offered this service!
I am encountering the same issue. A client requested this service, which is not something I typically offer. Off the cuff, I quoted him between $300 and $400. However, considering the home is 4500 sq ft, the inspection would pay me $800. I think half price is a fair. I let you know my thoughts after the inspection.
Be sure to let them know it is half price or the value you offered will go unrecognized.
1 Like