Pricing... Total SqFt vs Heated Portion Only

It’s primarily a Florida thing, Dan.

Try one here:
http://www.snco.us/ap/r_prop/Search.asp

Dom.

Yeah … Have not found one with the house sf info on the site

AND again in most areas, inspectors do NOT add the patio, etc into sf on fees

Not sure why anybody would include a patio, as they are not covered with a roof. Built-in porches and garage space can significantly add to the inspected square footage.

Here is an example of what a property appraiser site can provide. This is a recent inspection I did. Notice the difference between the living space SF and the total SF.

I guess I just don’t get it. The customer calls and asks for a price. You ask how many sq ft. After they tell you, you still go to an appraiser’s site and get the “real” sq ft. So do you wait and give your price after visiting the appraiser site? I would imagine by the time that happens, they found another inspector.

I pretty much just give them a price while I’m on the phone. If they don’t know, I ask how many stories, bedrooms, and baths, and can just about guess from there. I do ask if crawl space or basement, I do charge extra for crawl space.

Eric’s response was best–a spinning dart board with prices on it!

To each his own I guess. I prefer to know what I am getting into before I spout out a price. And it only takes a few seconds to look up this information, usually while on the first call.

What is a dirt drone (make , model, tethered, etc.)? If reliable , I could sure use one for tight crawlspaces?

I built my own. It’s just a rock crawler with a POV camera. Someday I will outfit it with a controllable gimble.

I can access the appraisers site on my phone while talking with the potential client. On some of the appraisal sites, it takes you right to a building departments site where you can do a permit search.

Also, on the appraisal site, it has a sketch of the structure. Several homes I have inspected have more on the pictures of the building than on the appraisal site…which means usually, an addition without a permit.

In some instances, you can find open permits or unpermitted work before you even book the inspection.

I have had several clients that never got to the inspection on the original house they were looking at…but guess who they called when they found a home that “checked out”? :wink:

Your area … Not typically seen here

And…from the appraisal site in Kansas City, just picked a random address…

The second one took 30 seconds to find…

clay.jpg

I just the heard a mic drop…

That wasn’t my intent.
I happen to respect Dan.
What I would say to him and others is, what may not be the norm now in your area, may become the norm. And, if that is the case, make is something that differentiates you from your competition now. Be ahead of the curve…not behind it.

As do I…just joking around. When I started doing these, I was amazed that inspectors were only quoting living space. I guess this is an old school policy because that was the only numbers that the Realtors and MLS dealt with. I saw no sense in it at all.

Eric …

Couple of questions. Of the 6-7 counties that make up KC metro, the most populous is Johnson County, KS, Cass County and Jackson County, MO.

When we try to promote 11th month warrantys, we discovered that ONLY 2 counties (Platte & Clay) had records on new house sold a year ago THAT were NEW houses NOT just houses sold a year ago … SO the 11th month warranty inspections never really hit it off here. AND a lot of things you all in AZ, TX or FL discuss are either NOT found or NOT used here.

I’ve NEVER seen the pic you showed … Give me a link to go there.
Also since you seem to know how to do this would you show where we would find this for say JOHNSON COUNTY, KS

But I also have another question. Up here inspectors normally charge by the conditioned space when they discuss SF fees.

Like if someone tells me the house is 6500sf THEY are not including the garage, deck and covered patio SO what exactly would the info about the size of the patio, garage, etc do for us … NOBODY charges for that.

Next … When someone calls the schedulers to book a job do you really think they are gonna put the people on hold and go chase the county clerk OR county appraisers site down. If the customer does NOT know sf the scheduler will typically look at Google, Zwillo, Twila, the listing agents site or whatever. So not sure how the info you all got would help us.

An awful lot of the time the house was a raised ranch with 1300sf 34 yrs ago, BUT now the basement has been finished out and added another 800sf of heated areas down there so now we got 2100sf NOT the 1300sf the appraiser shows ???

**

Dan,

Zillow, in most instances, will have a link to take you to the appraisers office.
To your questions, you get to find the info yourself, but the pictures attached are just 2 of the areas you requested.

The last paragraph is why I go to the appraisers site as well as a few other sites before I give out pricing. If the site says 1300 sq ft and the listing says 2400 sq ft, we already have a problem of non-permitted work.

And, if whoever is working at your call center can’t perform these tasks, which I can do on my phone…or on a separate phone if needed, I probably would hire someone who can.

I perform a permit search on every home I inspect, as well as other searches. Sure, the title company does this as well, but, if I find issues, and I have, three weeks before they even look for them, do you think a client would consider that value?

Like I said…being ahead of the curve…:wink: