Small apartment building

[Tim C. Howell]

Hello everyone,
I just got a call to inspect a 10 unit apartment building. Listed as residential. Open to some general input, never done one. Basically just a bunch of little houses, but want to be fair on the price and not get myself into some possible unforseen obsticals (liabilities).
Thanks in advance.
Tim

[Harry E. McClard]

Don't know about you but I'd handle it as a commercial inspection, break it down by common stuff and individual residential units. The common stuff would be the utilities and such, residential would be the insides of each unit. Then, use the best guess as to common cost and residential cost; probably use the bedrooms & baths in each as a guideline for pricing. In other words, try to make it a bunch of modules to keep it simple. Pricing would be whatever it came out to be less whatever discount could be justified by doing a bunch of them at once without travel and such... BUT then, if they are occupied, the chance of getting to all at once is rather slim... scheduling with occupied units can be a bear. Good luck with it!

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Agree. A 10 unit apartment building is a commercial property. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. It is a ploy used to secure better downpayment terms (commercial = 30% down) and cheaper inspections, etc. No lender will fall for it though. They are only fooling themselves. Charge accordingly.

[Mark C. Ferro]

You may want to charge $500 for structure and main components like the heating system, electrical, plumbing etc. Then charge $50 to $75 per unit. I did a 14 unit apt back in Jan and billed $1200. From start (drive there) to finish (completed report) it took me 14 hours = $85 per hour gross, not bad.