What to put in a home inspection business package

What to take away

This article covers general home-inspection business operations. Licensing, scope of practice and standards of care vary by state and by municipality, so confirm current requirements with your state licensing board and with a licensed attorney before you change what you sell.

Build packages around the question the buyer is asking

A pre-purchase inspection answers "what am I buying." A pre-listing inspection answers "what will the buyer's inspector find." A maintenance inspection answers "what is about to fail." Those are three different products. They carry different report lengths, different site time and different liability.

Most inspection firms sell a base tier plus add-ons. The base tier is the full visual inspection of the readily accessible systems:

The add-ons are where the package design actually happens. Radon testing, mold and moisture sampling, sewer scope, pool and spa, and septic are separate services. Thermal imaging and wind mitigation forms are also separate services. These services have separate equipment, separate training, and often separate insurance.

Group them by what the customer is trying to decide, not by what your equipment does. A buyer in a flood zone wants a flood and elevation answer. A seller in a hail market wants a roof answer before the listing goes live.

Name the roles, then name the handoffs

A small firm runs on four or five roles. Licensed inspectors perform the site work and write the findings. Report reviewers read the draft before it goes out.

Schedulers book the calendar and confirm access. Ancillary specialists handle radon, sewer scope or mold when you do not perform those in house.

The owner holds the license, the insurance and the pricing decision.

Write down where each job ends. The inspector's job ends when the field data is complete. The reviewer's job ends when the report meets your standard and the photos match the findings. The scheduler's job ends when the client has written confirmation of the time, the address and what must be accessible.

The handoff that fails most often is inspector to reviewer. A report that arrives at 9 p.m. for a 7 a.m. delivery gets a fast read, not a careful one. Set a submission deadline that leaves review time, and hold it.

Price the package against hours, not against the market

Start with the hours. A typical single-family pre-purchase inspection runs two to three hours on site for an experienced inspector, plus one to two hours of report writing and review. Radon sampling adds site time and lab turnaround. Sewer scope adds equipment setup and a second person in many cases.

Multiply the hours by your true labor cost, not the hourly wage. True labor cost includes payroll taxes, workers' compensation, paid time off, vehicle time and the non-billable hours an inspector spends on training and licensing.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Tables publish wage estimates by occupation, state and metropolitan area, which gives you a defensible starting figure for your market.

Then add the direct costs: radon lab fees, sewer camera wear, report software per-inspection fees, mileage, and the errors and omissions premium allocated per job. What is left after those is contribution, and that is the number to compare across packages.

Do not set a tier price from a competitor's website. Their hours, their travel radius and their E&O limits are not yours. A package priced below your own cost per hour does not get cheaper when volume rises.

Write the inclusions and exclusions in the client's words

Every package needs a one-page scope sheet the client reads before booking. State what the inspector will examine, what the report will contain, and when the client will receive it. State what the package does not cover, in the same font size.

Common exclusions that cause disputes: areas blocked by stored belongings, roof surfaces the inspector cannot safely walk, concealed wiring, buried plumbing, and anything requiring destructive testing. Say those up front and the conversation at delivery gets shorter.

Advertising for these packages falls under the Federal Trade Commission: Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business. Claims must be truthful and supported, and endorsements must reflect honest experience with material connections disclosed. "Best inspector in the county" is a claim you have to back up.

Radon and other ancillary services need their own scope

Radon is the ancillary service most likely to be sold badly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Home Buyer's and Seller's Guide to Radon explains why test conditions, device placement, timing and follow-up matter in a real estate transaction. A short test run under closed-house conditions is not the same product as a long-term test.

If you offer radon, decide who performs the test, which device you use, who reads the result and what you tell the client when the result is elevated. The EPA guide points buyers and sellers to qualified testing and mitigation resources. Your job is to hand off cleanly, not to interpret a health outcome.

Mold, asbestos and air quality questions belong with a certified industrial hygienist or your state health department. Do not put a health claim in a package description. Describe the sampling you perform and who interprets it.

Records, retention and the labor line

The Internal Revenue Service: What kind of records should I keep? accepts any recordkeeping system that clearly shows income and expenses, provided the documents behind purchases, sales, payroll and assets are kept. For an inspection firm that means a record per job: the agreement, the report, the invoice, the payment and the ancillary lab result.

Keep the package mix visible in your bookkeeping. If you cannot pull revenue and direct cost by package tier, you cannot tell whether the radon add-on pays for its own equipment. Ask a CPA which retention period applies to your entity and your state before you purge anything.

Worked example: three tiers, one calendar

Suppose a firm runs three tiers. Tier one is the base visual inspection. Tier two adds radon sampling. Tier three adds radon and a sewer scope.

Let H be inspector hours on site, R be report and review hours, W be true hourly labor cost, D be direct cost per job, and N be jobs per month. Monthly contribution for a tier is N multiplied by the price minus W times the sum of H and R, minus D.

The constraint is rarely demand. It is the calendar. If tier three takes two more site hours than tier one and you have one sewer camera, tier three caps at the number of camera slots you can run in a month. Model that cap before you promote the tier.

Common questions

How many packages should a small firm offer?

Three is usually enough: a base inspection, a base plus one high-demand ancillary, and a full tier. More tiers confuse the phone call and slow booking. If a client asks for something outside the menu, quote it as a custom scope in writing rather than adding a fourth tier.

Should the report standard be named in the package?

Yes. Name the standard your inspectors write to, such as the InterNACHI or ASHI standard of practice, and say which version. It tells the client what the report will and will not contain, and it gives your reviewer a fixed benchmark. Confirm which standard your state board recognizes.

Who reviews the report before it goes out?

A second qualified inspector, or the owner in a two-person firm. The reviewer checks that every finding has a photo, that the narrative matches the photo, and that recommendations point to the right trade. This is the step that catches missed defects before the client does.

What belongs in the client agreement?

Scope, fee, payment terms, and the inspection date. The properties and systems included, the known exclusions, and the limitation of liability your insurer requires. Have a licensed attorney draft or review it for your state. Do not copy another firm's agreement.

A package is a promise about time, scope and documentation. Build the home inspection business plan around those three, and the pricing follows. Then write the package structure down and keep it where the schedulers can find it.