It has been over four years since my last survey of home inspection prices in Minnesota, so Lisa and Mindy recently conducted another survey to find out what other home inspectors here in the Twin Cities charge for home inspections. Because there is no such thing as licensing for home inspectors here in Minnesota, there is no centralized list of inspectors to choose from. Nevertheless, most professional home inspectors belong to at least one of the two largest national associations for home inspectors, the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) and the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI).
To compile this data, we looked up Minnesota home inspectors listed on the ASHI website as well as the InterNACHI website to get our list of prices. If the home inspector had prices listed on their website, we used those prices. If the prices weren’t listed, we either called or emailed the inspector. Some answered, many didn’t. The three metrics that home inspectors typically use to determine the price of a home inspection are size, age, and sales prices. For my company, we use size and age. For this sample survey, we used a home size of 2,000 sf, an age of 1970, and a sales price of $300,000. We did the survey by company, so we only counted multi-inspector companies once.
ASHI:
Average Price: $383
Number of inspection companies included: 35
Lowest price: $300 / Highest price: $464
InterNACHI:
Average Price: $336
Number of inspection companies included: 48
Lowest price: $275 / Highest price: $460
A few thoughts:
One home inspector was concerned that this survey was price-fixing, which is illegal. This is not that. We did this survey because I like having this information, and I’m sure there are plenty of other people who like looking at it. I blog to provide useful information.
Another home inspector said this survey wasn’t completely fair, because it doesn’t take into account the experience of the inspector, the level of detail included in the inspection report, whether or not specialized tools like infrared cameras, combustion analyzers, and moisture meters were used during the inspection, and several other metrics that make it difficult to compare apples to apples. These are certainly valid concerns, but there are way too many qualifiers there for us to gather any useful data.
My company is the one who charges $464. This means we charge about $80 more than other ASHI home inspectors here in Minnesota. If this survey were unfair to anyone, I should think it would be my company. I’m clearly not sharing the results of this survey to gather the business of home buyers who are looking for the cheapest inspector in town. My company competes on value and service, not price.
Several inspectors asked us to send them the results of this survey. I’ll do that.
Did I miss anything?
Bruce Bednarek
December 20, 2016, 8:33 am
Reuben – it would be helpful if you defined what ASHI and InterNACHI stands for. Many decades ago I had an English teacher who mandated that the first time an acronym appeared it was to be immediately followed by the full name of what it stood for.
Other than that – a good read.
Reuben Saltzman
December 20, 2016, 9:15 am
Good suggestion. Done and done.
Paul Lesieur
December 20, 2016, 9:30 am
Its too bad you probably didn’t get prices from the lowest price inspectors because they don’t usually have much of a presence. I know a guy who charges $150.00
gromicko
December 20, 2016, 9:47 am
Excellent work.
Home inspectors should read: STACKS: A Home Inspector’s Guide to Increasing Gross Revenue: http://www.certifiedmasterinspector.org/stacks
Marc
December 20, 2016, 2:45 pm
Reuben and Structure Tech have saved me thousands of dollars and told me when I need to run away from a purchase! I will gladly pay the extra $$. They make me money!
Thanks Reuben!
Jeff Belrose
December 21, 2016, 9:59 am
I think that you would find that longevity in the business creates the greatest correlation with an increase in average rates among the membership of these 2 groups.