I am a brand new home inspector that has not performed any paid inspections yet and I was wandering if I should start offering sewer scope inspections right away? It seems like a lot of money to spend between buying the right sewer scope and getting the correct training. But it might be worth it for the extra money that I can make by offering it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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I really would like the offer the service because I feel that if I don’t then I will lose potential clients. I am just not sure how popular the service is. The return investment is good but only if the clients also want the sewer scope added to their inspection. Trying to see if I should start out doing them right away or if I should just stick with basic home inspections with no additional services and then add them later on?
You need to focus on mastering inspections!!
Most new inspectors fail due to spending their working capital on “stuff” they don’t need to succeed!!
Spend your money on an awesome website and quality marketing!!
Take your family on a short vacation, as they will be putting up with your stress just as much as you are. They don’t really have a choice in the matter, do they? Focus on what’s important. Everything else will happen, when it happens, if it’s supposed to happen!
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1st Rule: Don’t get your hands icky.
You’re welcome.
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2nd Rule: If you do sewer scope inspections, don’t bite your nails.
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That’s a great post! I’m living that last paragraph right now, freaking hilarious!
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IMO, a good machine is expensive. A crappy machine is cheap therefore your product will be cheap.
I personally would not go that route. As @jjonas clearly stated…focus on producing a great inspection, a great report and getting your name out there. Add services later.
A good machine will be crappy after you drag it out of the hole. I’m a prude, I just want the clean work. I’ve cleaned enough snakes after use to know its a last resort. Can’t imagine a sewer scope being any cleaner.
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Pretty simple. If I wanted to do sewer scopes, I would have gone to med school to become a proctologist. More money and you have others cleaning your equipment when your done. Think about it…
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Sub it out
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Don’t advertise.
Hi William,
It is indeed a lot of money to setup. When I started inspecting homes I subbed it out. Observed my sub in action. Made $50.00 on top of his fee. Same with radon. After I was confident about what I was getting in to I decided to do both myself. One thing about having to work with a subcontractor that I found to be a hassle was the scheduling coordination. If you want to offer sewer scope services I agree with others in this thread, start with subcontracting the service. Then see were you go from there. JMHO. 
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You had me at 50 bucks, cleanhandedly. 
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I’m also looking to sub out sewer scopes and radon. Inspectors that are experienced with subbing out this work, how did you approach the contractors? Is there typically a referral fee negotiated between the parties? Is that against the SOP? Who collects payment?
Begin with researching the requirements and regulations of the State you operate in.
If you don’t meet their requirements, nobody else’s opinions matter!
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I have subbed out radon testing for around 10 years. I called up a couple of different companies and asked if they were interested. The next step was interviewing them. Check to see what their background check is for their employees and to see if everyone setting and picking up the monitors were licensed. Do they have lockbox access? Can they schedule on short notice? 25% of the time, the buyer will tell you that they do not want a test when scheduling and then request it the night before or day of the inspection. Do they have enough monitors to take on more work?
I had to fire one sub after he was late on two appointments and left town on a Friday morning before sending out an inspection report. The test came back high, and the buyer missed out on the opportunity for trying to negotiate a system. I ended up eating $500.00 on that deal. All of these errors also make a huge difference with short inspection contingency windows. I have had zero problems with the company that I switched over to. I charge the buyer/client and they bill me once a month.
I have not found a sub for sewer scope that is flexible enough to be able to schedule with short notice.
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Do you really want to mess around in other people’s feces? Not for me. Better get your hepatitiis series vacinations if you choose to.
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