What’s The Cost of a Home Inspection?

The average price for a home inspection across the U.S is $315. In most cases, the home inspection price is based on the size of the house. Smaller homes may be less expensive while larger homes could cost $400 or more. In addition to the home inspection, most inspectors offer ancillary services for an additional fee. The most commonly used extra services are radon testing, termite inspections and mold testing, a few home inspectors may also offer sewer scopes. A small percentage of inspectors offer lead and asbestos testing. These ancillary services vary in cost throughout the country with termite inspections ranging from $25 to $80 and radon testing from $100 – $200. Ancillary services are often discounted when purchased with a home inspection or other services.

As with most professional services, the cheapest is not always the best option. Hiring the cheapest inspector in town may save you a little money up front but could cost you thousands of dollars down the road if defects are overlooked. Home inspectors are professional generalists; kind of like a primary care physician. Most of us in the profession spend hundreds of hours per year on continued education and studying industry standards. We keep up with the latest technology, trends and safety recalls in almost every aspect related to a home- from roofing to electrical, plumbing, HVAC, new building materials and ventilation. Like that primary care physician, we can tell you when you need further evaluation by a specialist such as an electrician, structural engineer or plumber.

It’s true, you could skip the home inspector and hire all the specialist independently: an electrician, plumber, mold specialist, radon monitor, termite inspector, general contractor and a structural engineer; which could easily cost you over $1000, but there would still be a great possibility that important things you should know would be missed because they likely will not communicate with each other; not to mention the amount of time you would spend scheduling all of them. Home inspectors may recommend that you hire a specialist for further evaluation of an item, but know that if they are recommending it, it’s only because you really need it and in most cases a repair or replacement is also recommended with it.

A home inspection by a qualified professional, with a radon test and termite inspection (which is typical for most transactions) may cost you $450, but the savings you will receive from a quality report and not having to hire unneeded specialists is well worth it.

Home inspections point out repairs needed and conditions of a home that give buyers great bargaining power at closing and, in the end, save home buyers millions of dollars each year.

Authored by,

Larry Cox
Owner, Certified Professional Inspector
Kansas REI