Pricing question

[Jon A. Smith]

I just put a bid in to inspect a 68000 sq. ft. Property that is a hotel converted into apts. 2 buildings one 6 the other 3 stories connected with a enclosed walkway that goes over a 4 lane street, restaurant, bar and 4 other commersial suites, 75 apts. The buyer wants roof, structure, mechanical systems, 10-20% of the apts, and all the commercial. After visiting the message board, I quoted $6800 based on 2 inspectors for 3 days plus report writing. The buyer thinks this is way too high. I felt it was reasonable maybe even cheap. What do you guys think?

[Steven C. Waskewicz]

I do commercial properties as well, and something that large is probably best quoted around 10 cents a square foot (which is a bargain price, going rates are typically .10 - .24 psf)
so I'd say $6800 is about right on the money.

[dbucknavich]

Sounds good to me. Try asking him what he feels a fair price may be. But 6,800 is about the lowest I would do something like that for.

[Erol Kartal]

Originally Posted by jsmith21

The buyer wants roof, structure, mechanical systems, 10-20% of the apts, and all the commercial. After visiting the message board, I quoted $6800 based on 2 inspectors for 3 days plus report writing. The buyer thinks this is way too high. I felt it was reasonable maybe even cheap. What do you guys think?

If the seller only wants 10-20% of the apartments inspected the price is way too high IMO unless each unit has it's own furnace and HWH. You have quoted 48 man hours not including report time. This is a huge amount of inspection time.

[Gary Oleski]

I quoted $6800 based on 2 inspectors for 3 days plus report writing. The buyer thinks this is way too high. I felt it was reasonable maybe even cheap. What do you guys think?

48 hours + 10 for report = 58 hours times $100.00/hr = $5,800.00

[Erol Kartal]

Without knowing more it's really hard to say. Will 7 apartments be inspected or will it be 75? As far as the restaurant and bar are concerned, we don't inspect commercial cooking equipment or refrigeration systems so the bar and restaurant are not time consuming. Too many unknowns here..

[Jon A. Smith]

Thanks alot guys for your replys. Its probably going to be more like 15- 20 apts. They do have separate heating and cooling. How many electical panels do you think is in this place? Probably not one in every unit but I bet there are alot. The client was thinking $3500, I didn't want to automatically drop my price, I did let him know it was negotiable but I wouldn't be able to go that low. I've done several inspections for him before on multi-units, but nothing this big. He has never questioned my pricing before, and I want to be fair to both of us. The buildings were in disrepair a couple of years ago and has had some renovations done. I want to make sure I have plenty of time to look closely.