What do you think should be the cost and time allotted for a pre-closing inspection?
Is it another full inspection, or is it an abbreviated inspection just covering areas that were not inspected due to restrictions or possibly changing conditions? For example when the initial inspection was done, it hadn’t rained in a month, but now it rained the day before.
I guess I’m looking in relation to the cost of the actual inspection since inspection costs differ by location.
i.e. Like 50% of the initial inspection cost and 50% of the time; 30% of the initial inspection cost and 25% of the time.
Martin, I took the OP’s questions more in line with a re-inspection prior to closing. Maybe I read it wrong, but I thought it was reinspecting from a previous one, like doing a punch list inspection.
If I am re-inspecting a home for repairs or corrections made as a result of my previous inspection I charge less. But, I charge enough to make money. It is typically half the original inspection fee but it depends on the number of defects and complexity of what I am re-inspecting.
Also, your scope of work better be well defined…is this a full home inspection or just evaluation of repairs? Because you are right, conditions will change and new defects may arise. You do not want to be responsible for those. For the record, I do not like doing re-inspects because the liability increases in my opinion.
This is how it plays out. Example: You observe engineered roof trusses which have been damaged. You recommend an engineer to evaluate and prescribed repairs performed by a qualified contractor or builder. Now, how are you going to evaluate that repair? Are you an engineer? I am not. In this case, all you can report is that a repair attempt was observed. I dare not speculate if the repair is sufficient. You see, we elevate problems but we dare not prescribe a cure and now we are to evaluate the cure? It is a set-up if you are not really careful in your reporting.
