Hi All,
I just thought I would share an experience I had quoting commercial inspections.
I took the ITA course in 2005 because I had several requests to inspect large apartment buildings and turned them down because I felt I wasn’t ready to do them. Now, how many out there that have completed this course feels differently, I know I did and I thought about what a great opportunity these inspections are.
Here’s my story on these buildings and I hope it helps you guy’s with pricing and understanding the reality of these inspections.
I was asked to quote on these buildings for a client who had a partner. There are 6 buildings with 6 units each for a total of 36 units. There is a mix of 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms per building. All of the buildings where built in the 1800s. As you can see they are brick exterior with asphalt roofs, brick chimney’s ETC.
I estimated 6 buildings would take 6 day’s to inspect. That equals to one building per day or 3 days in the field and three days of report writing. I also told my client that this report would follow ASTM 2018 guidelines and I would give them a cost range to repair deferred maintenance, upgrade components due to change of use , meet with the local building/code enforcement officials and produce a report so they can optimize their strategies for the purchase and reuse of these buildings. OK here’s the quote
I priced this low because I wanted the job and also it was across the street from my office. The price was $3600.00 which came out to $600.00 per building. I thought it should be more like $800.00-$1000.00 per but I wanted the job.
Well I lost it to a national franchise company that came in and charged $2400.00 and completed it in less than 8 hours with four inspectors. The report was emailed first thing the next day.
The report, what a joke, it was a check list type of report that did not include anything close to what I had offered. I know this because one of the partners in this project came back to me for advise. I offered my time free of charge to see what had been inspected and why not, free education on the competition is priceless. The end result is I realize now more than ever what a growing market commercial inspections are and to be ahead of the curve with NACHI you can’t loose.
I know I’m not the only one that does commercial inspections and I have limited mine to mainly large apartment buildings, which are nothing more than big houses and I will post anything useful here that I can.
I know everyone who took the course in Denver is excited about this part of the business and you should be. It’s definitely our future!