I was pleased to receive a call to perform inspections on fast food restaurants and some small convenience stores.
The lady said “it’s easy, just take a few pictures and fill out the form”. She mentioned another company in a different state charged $350. I told her my inspections start at $400.
After looking at the form, I was surprised, it was not exactly simple. She started the email saying “I need a thorough inspection”. That’s a different tone than just take a few photos and fill out the form.
The form is 6 pages and is laid out decently. I won’t have to build a template or reinvent the wheel. But, there is a fair amount to look at. My thoughts were $600 right after reviewing it, $100/page 
. I will revisit the form, maybe even the premise to estimate how long it will take. I kinda don’t want them to call other inspectors price shopping, it could be competitive.
Any feedback is welcome. @gromicko I plan for this to pay for my CCPIA renewal, I have a feeling the management company will give me more inspections.
I’ve had companies offer me anywhere from $175.00 to $850.00 for these. The high end typically means they are in a bind and need a pretty quick turnaround. The scope of work they originally tell you on the phone never matches the form & number of photos that you have to submit. This is typically followed up by, “oh yeah. I just need you to take photos of each piece of kitchen equipment’s model & serial number.” This is a pain in the ass.
From the forms you show, this is for a chicken restaurant. If you have ever been in the kitchen of a chicken restaurant, you will know that whatever they are offering you is not enough. They are absolutely disgusting. If you have to find model & serial numbers on everything, you are going to miserable.
Never count on a management company giving you more inspections. They are always looking for someone that can do it cheaper. After a couple, they tend to act like you became best buddies. “I’m in a bind on this one so I really can’t pay you a ton. Take care of me on this one, and I will get you on the next one.” They never seem to get out of that bind because they never pay more.
Understand the nuance of restaurants. Totally deferent beast in the commercial inspections.
I do something similar for a national company but for hotels that are 3-6 floors on average, small food service area/resturant/breakfast area, lobby, laundry, pool with some indoor pools. This is the national company and they are checking on the conditon of their franchised properties as they must be updated every five years in order to maintain their franchise. I’m usually on site for about two hours. For properties that are within a two hour drive our fee is $1450. Over two hours we add $225 per hour or if needed and the site is over five hours we book a flight, rent a car and visit the site! That is not often maybe twice a year we fly to a site. Expenses are passed on to the client with a receipt. Reports are written in Word and Excel with a photo log.
Apparently your “Observations” are limited to 10 words or less.
After reviewing the absurdly long list of items most of us don’t have any in-depth knowledge of, I’d pass…not all money is good money, as they say.
So true. Anytime I hear this statement or a similar one, I know my time is about to be wasted and the compensation won’t be worth it.
Give a call to your insurance company. Some insurance company’s don’t want you do any restaurants. My ins. company is vague about it but says something like food service properties have to be less than x% of your revenue. They tell me that the reason is is that restaurants and convenience stores have a TON of trip and fall claims and the lawyers sue everyone who touched the place.
Just a quick phone call to get a “compass bearing” from your insurance company.
Morning, Jamie. Hope to find you well and in good spirits today.
To state your inspections start at $400.00 can be deceiving, and you are showing your hand.
Best to say nothing upfront and ask relevant questions seeing they are shopping.
1: How old is the building and its civic location would be my first questions.
During that time I engage with friendly conversation like, "our building inspections are professionally organized, very thorough as your require, and the turn around inspection report is done in a timely fashion.
2: Are there any maintenance records you can provide or an onsite staff you wish for us to contact ahead of time or on that day?"
3: Will the vendors agent be there or are there Spera keys?
4: Does the inspection need to be preformed at specific times?
While doing so I would look up the properties civic address on Google. I want to see what I am quoting for.
You say, fast food restaurants and some small convenience stores.
This falls under Commercial inspection prerequisite.
I have done a few as you described. Roughly 10 - 15. Only the inspections I did had rental apartments, restaurant and some small convenience stores below.
I started at >< $1,200.00 seeing these types of inspections are commercial and the structures plumbing and electrical systems may not be typical depending on age. We could always negotiate a price once I see what I am about to inspect.
Sell your service accordingly. Don’t expect anything in return. A job is a job period unless the contract states otherwise.
That’s my wag.
Good luck with al your endeavors.
Robert
WAFI !!
You obviously have zero clue what you are talking about, especially when it comes to Commercial properties!
You have been warned, Jonas.
Dale Duffy helped me understand developing commercial inspections and sales techniques.
Talk to the OP about the subject at hand, but leave me alone.
Perhaps you should STOP offering bad/false information to those seeking advice, and I’ll stop pointing out the err of your ways!!
EDITED:
(Wow… you sure are ‘hung up’ on DEAD members!!).
Robert, thank you for this advice, it is appreciated.
Much appreciated, James.
Wishing you all the best with your endeavors.
Don’t sell yourself short and leave money on the table.
Disregard the poster for the above string please James.
Dale Duffy originated and was the founder the first notable North American Commercial Inspection Institute and was highly regarded throughout North American home inspection community.
The name of the association: National Association *of Commercial Building Inspectors - NACBI.
I too was a member. Dale Duffy.
Dale and several members helped increase the understanding of Infrared thermal imaging throughout the North American home inspection industry.
Dale would reach out to me by phone when I started but I was biased by certain members on their message board and the calls became less frequent. That was over a decade ago.
Times certainly have changed for the better here but a few unprofessional still remain here.
That’s a checklist inspection. They will low ball you.. Charge what you think you can get. Focus on terms, they love to pay slow.
In my area, I’d be lucky to get $750 because they will take the lowest bidder. I know this because they never ask good qualifying questions.
I would have asked $850.00 knowing that Brian was going to lowball me.
Looking at the checklist, I would have been at $1950, and praying someone undercut me. What the heck is a butter warmer? 
You ask about the butter warmer, but not about the Chubb warmer?
Oh, that was an old girlfriend.
Absolutely, I was electrician in Navy, all Navy electricians are Norma required to work in the galley. Another time in life I got to work maintenance for casino resort. 3 restaurants, 2 hotels, river boats 22 ice machines kept me busy with all sorts of stuff. You never quit learning, I’m still studying supermarkets with parallel refrigeration systems.