Pricing a home inspection: good, better, best, and the add-ons that carry the business
How to price and present a home inspection, why square-foot pricing loses money, ancillary attach rates, deposits, and what pricing does to your marketing.
Most home inspectors set their price by calling two competitors and landing between them. Then they hold it for four years while insurance, software, fuel and their own time all get more expensive, and they wonder why 40 inspections a month does not feel like a business.
Price is also a marketing decision, not just a margin decision. It sets which agents refer you, which buyers call, whether ads can pay, and how much of your day gets consumed quoting.
Start from the day, not from the competitor
A pre-purchase inspection on a 2,200 square foot home is three hours on site, an hour of report writing, and 45 minutes of driving and scheduling. Call it five hours of your day, and you can do two of those a day comfortably, three when they are close together.
At $450, two a day, four days a week, that is roughly $14,400 a month gross. Out of that comes insurance, licensing and continuing education, software, vehicle, tools, phone, marketing and your own taxes. If you are running a solo firm at $325 in a market where the day cost is the same, you are not underpricing slightly, you are working for wages while carrying the liability of a business.
The honest test: what is the lowest price at which you would be glad to take the job on a Saturday morning? Price there.
Square footage bands, not a per-foot formula
Per-square-foot pricing sounds fair and reads terribly. Buyers cannot compute it and agents cannot quote it.
Use bands, published:
- Under 1,500 sq ft: $375
- 1,500 to 2,499: $450
- 2,500 to 3,499: $550
- 3,500 to 4,499: $675
- 4,500 and up: quoted
Then a small number of named modifiers: homes built before 1950 add $50, detached structures add $50 each, crawlspace-only foundations add nothing, over 30 minutes drive adds $50. Five bands and four modifiers is a price list a scheduler can quote from and a website can publish.
Publishing them matters. A buyer comparing three names on a phone will call the two who state a price and skip the one who says "contact us for a quote." That is covered further in the website guide.
Good, better, best
Bundling ancillary services into named packages is the fastest revenue lift available to an inspection firm, because it moves the decision from "should I add radon" to "which package."
Standard. The inspection, same-evening report, repair request tool. $450.
Recommended. Inspection plus radon test plus wood-destroying organism inspection. $625, versus $700 bought separately.
Complete. Inspection, radon, WDO, sewer scope and a thermal scan of the electrical panel and exterior walls. $850, versus $975 separately.
Three things happen when you present this at booking. The middle option becomes the default, which is the point. The buyer feels like they chose rather than got sold. And your average ticket rises without a single extra marketing dollar.
Typical standalone prices to build packages from: radon $125 to $200, sewer scope $150 to $300, mold air sampling $200 to $400 for two samples, WDO or termite $75 to $150, pool and spa $75 to $150, irrigation $75, four-point $100 to $175, wind mitigation $75 to $150.
Attach rates, and what they are worth
A firm doing 40 inspections a month at $450 books $18,000. Now attach:
- Radon on 35% of jobs at $150: $2,100
- Sewer scope on 20% at $225: $1,800
- WDO on 25% at $100: $1,000
That is $4,900 a month, a 27% lift, from services performed during an appointment you were already driving to. No ad spend, no new lead.
Attach rates come from two things: being asked at booking rather than at the house, and having a one-sentence reason. "Your home is on a slab from 1968, so I would recommend the sewer scope. Roots in clay lines are the most expensive thing we find in that neighborhood, and it is $225 with the inspection."
If your sewer scope attach rate is under 10%, the problem is the script, not the market.
Deposits and cancellations
Home inspection has an unusual advantage: the appointment is tied to a contract deadline, so cancellation rates are low. That does not mean you should skip the terms.
Standard practice worth adopting: payment due before the report is released, a signed pre-inspection agreement at booking, and a cancellation policy of no charge with 24 hours notice, half the fee inside 24 hours. Most software collects card at booking and charges on completion, which is friction-free and puts you above the firms still taking checks at the door.
Do not discount for cash. It signals to an agent that your price is negotiable, and once one agent knows that, all of them do.
Discounting, and who to do it for
Almost never for buyers. Frequently for volume relationships that are legitimate:
- Repeat clients, 10% on a second inspection
- Investors buying multiple properties, a per-property rate
- Builders on phase inspections, bundled by unit
What not to do is discount to a referring agent's clients as an inducement for referrals. Beyond the RESPA and state real estate commission exposure, discussed in the agency guide, it selects for agents who leave the moment someone cuts deeper.
How pricing changes your marketing
At $325 you cannot afford paid search. Cost per booked job in the Google Ads guide runs $45 to $130, which is 14% to 40% of a $325 ticket before you have done any work.
At $450 with a 27% ancillary lift, an average booked job is worth roughly $570, and $90 to acquire one is a sane trade. Price is what makes the ad math work, not the other way around.
The same is true for hiring. A second inspector needs the firm to clear roughly $25,000 a month in bookings to be safe. That is 55 jobs at $450 or 77 at $325 for the identical amount of work and liability.
Raising prices
Raise once a year, by $25 to $50, effective on a date you announce to your referring agents two weeks ahead with a short note. Nobody leaves over $25. Inspectors imagine a revolt and get, in practice, three questions and no cancellations. If you have not raised in three years, raise twice this year.
Frequently asked
Should I match the cheapest inspector in town? No. The cheapest firm in most markets is either new or does 45-minute inspections. Agents who refer on price alone refer to whoever is cheaper next month.
Do agents care about my price? Less than you think. They care about report speed, report tone and whether you answer. Price ranks fourth in every conversation we have had with a working agent.
What if my market genuinely will not pay $450? Then the packages matter more, not less. Hold the base price, build the attach rate, and see the slow-season plan for filling the calendar.
If you want the pricing published, the packages built into your booking flow and the ads pointed at them, it is all inside the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.