Forclosed homes

My business is in an area that there are lot of forclosed homes. People are buying these home at a good price . I have inspected an average of three a month. All of these homes do not have the utility’s turned on. I even did one with no electric. The utility’s won’t be turned till the home is sold. I need to know what do other inspectors do in cases like this . You can’t check for water,drain,gas leaks or electric outlets and switches. Do you offer to go back and check when turned on for a fee or for free.

Tim, when had those, I simply made a note of what was not inspected due to utilities being off.
Often, but not always, there were issues in those areas anyway (HVAC not inspected in past 12 months, stains under sinks, etc) so you could phrase it as “recommend certified ____________ inspect the ___________ when utilities are turned on.”

At any rate, I would not return for free. They usually know that something is turned off. they can hire you like that, or pay to get it all turned on for the insp.
Or, pay you to return.

My 4 bits.

I would recommend building into your fee schedule a “return visit” fee. I charge $100. This is for any return to the home for follow-up reporting on repairs, items in the SOP that could not be inspected for some reason, etc.

James,

I’m not crystal clear on what you mean here.

Do you:

A - Quote the inspection for the home to be $XXX, price to include ONE return trip if needed.

or

B - Quote the client a price of $XXX, plus if needed to return for some reason there will be an additional charge of $100.

I would imagine you meant example A. The real benefit is that the client may never call you back and you are that much better paid for the job.:smiley:

My inspection fee covers one visit for the purpose of inspecting. I will return, if invited, after they actually move in to the home to review the report with them a second time at no charge. This is as much for my benefit as theirs, to ensure that the passage of time has not affected their recollection of what was noted to them months ago.

Those items I cannot inspect for whatever reasons may exist (furniture in place, no electricity, access due to storage boxes, water in place in basement or crawlspace, etc) will be noted in my report, accordingly, and any return visits will result in an additional charge.

Thank you I made a copy of your answer and will be taking it with me on my inspections. This is why I joined NACHI.Great back up

Speaking of Foreclosures.

The State of Massachusetts is shutting down a large amount of Mortgage companies here due to past improper lending practices. Once the State realized that the foreclosure rate was ridiculously high, they started an investigation as to why…They’re now finding evidence that Mortgage companies were inflating annual incomes in order to get home loans approved.

It’s a mess here in Massachusetts.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/09/09/7_mortgage_brokers_shut_down_by_state/

The investigations are on-going…

If there would be a reason that consisted of my having made a mistake on a item (window seal etc) then I would go back to investigate and settle the complaint etc. for free. To check anything turned off at the time of the inspection would require a FEE.

Here in this part of Ohio it is lost jobs Thanks for the info . I might start asking some questions myself about what your talking about. Give congressman something to do beside raise my taxes

Thank you for the input

It depends largely on the lcoation of the job, but assuming it is within my normal working radius - I know I will be around that area again in the near future and offer to do a swing specific item inspection when it is convenient of both me and the client.

I offer this for FREE.

I want to be a resource for clients, and I want to work as much as possible. If I am already nearby, I am incurring no additional travel fee so I don’t add to their fees. I have had 5 call backs for this service. Each time it took no more than a half hour and I was able to accomodate en route to another inspection or on my way home.

First, I am certain that this offer helped seal the deal at least 3 times (3 inspections I might not have had).

Next, every single client and Realtor involved in each case has referred me at least once - and I have recieved a total of 14 referral inspections from these jobs.

WAY more than paid for the half hour of my time…

Thank you for the input.The last one I did the agent called me the following week for another inspection. You are right about that Little bit of extra pays off in the long run