John spends 12 hours a day on the message board arguing with Joe and those other idiots… I really doubt anyone spends 8 hours at one inspection (including an IR scan) unless a 4 hour nap is included. You really don’t believe everything you read here do you???
I’ve been asked many times to perform an infrared scan on Buyers prospective homes. I charge an additional $175.00 to $200.00 with no report (a simple walk through looking at the IR images on my screen). If they want a professional report, I charge $300.00 if I’m performing their home inspection.
But…I still did not recoup my camera costs from these IR scans in a few months. It takes quite a while to recoup thousands of dollars.
I would love to see some actual numbers about cost recovery. Saying “I made $10,000 last month using my IR camera” isn’t convincing when I can make $10K without one. However, I’d be more willing to invest in the technology if someone could please convince me that it has increased their business/profit. Send me a PM or email. Curious minds want to know.
Regardless how you look at it if people hire you to perform the IR at an additional charge you’ll eventually fall out of red back into green once you recover your initial investment. How fast is the question and know one can truly answer that. It’s all about how well you market the product and how many times you sell the service. I bet it will take about 2 to 3 yrs to to start seeing green on this investment however once your paid off it’s all pure profit from there. If I was going to buy anything big for this business this would be it. I’ve been called to do large jobs before asking if I had IR.
I have personally done a job that would pay for just about any camera. We are going to be buying a short wave imager in the next few months. The cost on it is approx $60k, and no I do not get short waves at a discount.
There have been many of us commercial and industrial guys preaching on these boards for a long time that the money really isn’t in residential. There are ways to make money using IR in residential, it just takes longer as Bill stated. The mentality of “I am a home inspector and own an infrared camera” has to cease. You are now two businesses. An infrared business and a home inspection business.
How many of you guys do mold, IAQ, radon and whatever else? I doubt you throw those in to your normal home inspection, and I bet you market it somewhat different as well. Infrared is the same way, it is a seperate business.
If you guys look around at the home inspectors that use infrared to make a profit, they also do commercial electrical, equine, marine, scientific, flat roofs and the list goes on.
Technically John should throw his training revenue in to his infrared revenue. I am sure at one point a long time ago John decided to purchase a camera and get level I training to add more services to his home inspection business. Now he can probably buy a camera everytime he runs a large class, if he was motivated to do so.
JJ
Nice post JJ and a lot of truth to it IMO.
On the flip side that most don’t consider is that a residential application will have some aspect of almost every application you have mentioned from industrial to commercial to electrical to flat roof to scientific and more. Residential applications aren’t something to merely be approached lightly with an IR gun and a moisture meter. They are in a sense a conglomerate of everything that IR technology has been designed around. In my experience, understanding some aspect of most of the other applications is paramount to performing a residential inspection with IR.
Again my opinion but others will disagree. 
I bought mine to cater to an entirely different customer base. Not just home inspections. I use my IR camera on every inspection, it’s part of my tool arsenal and not just another “Add-on” for my client.
The customers that actually call me the most for IR are property managers (of commercial properties, i.e. condos, office buildings, apartments). It’s those customers that have made recuperating my $$ spent on tools/training easier. Their properties are bigger, and they also have bigger wallets.
I use the FLIR BCAM.
I am not on the message board 12 hours a day. You are indeed
the proof that people should not believe what they read (from you).
:mrgreen:
I started out making an extra $2000 to $2500 p/mth on IR alone.
My volume at that time was brisk and it did not take long to recover
my IR cost.
What was your gross profit??? You don’t have expenses?? Bottom line is : It takes time to recover the initial investment cost as other non vendors here will tell you.;)
If it takes 2 to 3 years, you will probably need a new camera by this time Billy. So, no, it wouldn’t be worth it, at least in your scenario. I think it is worth it, just not the way you have it outlined here.
A decent camera and a good 3 day certification course will cost about $6k-$8k for home inspection IR. Expect to spend more money for more specialized imagers and more specialized training to expand into other applications. You have to establish presence on the internet and that will take several months to get your ranking up. Most realtors never saw IR or don’t want to “see more issues” so forget about referrals from them. It takes time and hard work to recoup you initial investment. I’ve been doing it for several years. It is most profitable in cold and rainy climates.
Hope that helped.
Linus, good point there on the climate. It also makes a big difference where you are located. We are in a major metropolitan area (Phoenix). Having a vast amount of flat roofs here helps a ton as well. This city is built out, not up.
With the right marketing and the right climate/location you can easily recoup the cost in a few months, on even the highest end cameras.
JJ
People can take our IR class and buy our deals on IR cameras for
a package price of $3150 to $4350.
If you do 10-12 infrared inspections a month and charge $150-$200
for each one, it takes about 2 months to recover your cost. These
numbers are very common for some inspectors.
John,
You may have recouped your IR camera costs and training in as little as 3 months but… no average Thermographer is going to get 10-12 IR inspections a month when they’re just getting started in the IR field. It’s impossible. I’m sorry, but I can’t see anyone recouping their IR camera and training cost in as little as 3 months. I think that your claim is a bit exaggerated.
Dave, I guess you and I are both exaggerating.
I’m with ya Bud.
Not true. I market my services (inspections w/IR included) directly to Realtors/agents. The response is overwhelming. I am consistently booked out 7 to 12 days in advance.
I always thought the number of IR inspection that I got, along with
my home inspections, was on the low side, based on some of
the feedback from my students.