Scoping a Specialty Pre-Purchase Inspection

Why this matters

Home inspectors recommend specialists all the time: "recommend sewer scope," "recommend evaluation by a qualified roofer," "recommend Level 2 chimney inspection." The shop that answers those calls with a defined product (a fixed scope, a fixed price, a known time on site and a report delivered by a stated hour) gets the referral again. The shop that answers with "we'll come take a look" ends up arguing about a trip charge for a buried cleanout, delivering a report a day after the buyer's deadline, and writing findings nobody agreed it would cover. This article turns one specialty inspection into a product you can quote over the phone.

The examples use a sewer scope, because it is the most common. The same steps work for a roof, chimney, electrical panel or HVAC pre-purchase evaluation.

Before you start: is it an inspection your state lets you sell?

Some states license anyone who performs a pre-purchase inspection for a fee, and define it broadly enough to catch a trade evaluation sold to a buyer; most of those exempt a licensed trade working within its own trade, and some do not. Read your state's home inspector licensing statute or ask its board before you put the product on your website. This is the one step with no workaround.

Which inspection to turn into a product first

Start with the one that passes three tests. It is recommended often in your area: read twenty recent inspection reports from local agents, or ask two inspectors which "recommend further evaluation" lines they write most. Older housing stock with clay or cast-iron laterals produces sewer scope recommendations weekly; a newer suburb produces few. Its time on site does not vary much: a scope runs within a narrow band, while a whole-house electrical evaluation can take one hour or four depending on what is behind the panel cover, which makes flat pricing a gamble. It uses equipment you already own and a tech who already reads the results: a camera you bought for drain work is a sunk cost, and a product that needs new gear and new training has to pay for both before it pays you.

A shop that productizes the wrong one first usually finds out within a month, because the jobs either never come or every one runs over.

The steps

1. Pick the boundary of what you look at, in physical terms. For a sewer scope: "from the accessible cleanout or a removed toilet to the public main, or to the point the camera cannot pass." For a roof: "roof surface, flashings, penetrations and visible decking from the attic; no tear-off." The reason is that every later dispute is about where your look stopped. Skip it and a buyer's agent will treat silence about the part you did not see as a clean bill.

2. Name the access prerequisites, and what happens when they are missing. A scope needs an accessible cleanout or a toilet you may pull, water service on, and no one running water during the run. A roof needs safe access and dry conditions. Write each one down, plus the fallback: if the cleanout is buried, you offer the toilet pull at a stated add-on or a reduced trip charge. Skip this and the first buried cleanout becomes a free visit and an argument.

3. Fix the time on site and the report turnaround. Time a few runs before you publish anything. A common starting point for a residential scope is about 1.25 hours on site and a report by end of the next business day; tune it to your own runs. The turnaround matters more than the price, because the buyer is working against an inspection contingency, the window in the purchase contract to inspect and ask for repairs. See related: How a Home Sale Timeline Works for the Trades. If you cannot hit the deadline, say so at booking.

4. Define the report before you do the first one. Decide its sections and its vocabulary now: each defect named (belly, offset joint, root intrusion, crack, fracture, collapse), located by distance from the access point, given a severity, and backed by a photo or a time-stamp in the video. Separate findings from recommendations. Skip this and each tech writes a different report, and the one that says "line in poor condition" is the one a lawyer reads later.

5. Settle who the client is and who receives the report. The buyer usually orders and pays; the seller owns the house; the agents arrange access. Your agreement is with whoever pays, and your report goes to them and to anyone they name in writing. Access permission comes through the listing agent, because you have no relationship with the seller. See related: Who Is Your Customer in a Real Estate Deal.

6. Price it flat, with named add-ons. One base price for the standard scope, and each likely extra priced as a fraction of the base: the toilet pull, a second access point, a lateral longer than your standard length. Flat pricing is what lets an agent quote you to a buyer without calling you.

7. Put it in a pre-inspection agreement, signed before you arrive. The agreement carries the boundary, the prerequisites, the time, the turnaround, who receives the report, and a statement that the inspection is limited to what is described. Some shops add a limit on liability; whether a limit holds is a question of your state's law and its wording, so have your attorney draft that clause rather than copying one. Then ask your insurance agent whether selling written evaluations needs errors and omissions cover. See related: Liability When a Buyer Relies on Your Estimate.

8. Write the hazard controls into the product, not just the job. Each specialty has a hazard the tech meets at the same point every time, so it belongs in the scope card:

• Sewer: a backed-up line holds sewage under head pressure behind the cleanout cap, so the tech stands to the side, loosens the cap slowly with eye protection and nitrile gloves on, and stops if it weeps; raw sewage carries pathogens, so gloves stay on until hands are washed, and the camera cable is cleaned on the way out, not in the customer's sink.
• Roof: a roof edge is a fall hazard under OSHA's fall protection rules (29 CFR 1926 Subpart M for construction work, 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D for general industry, depending on how your work is classified); the scope states that steep or wet roofs are inspected from a ladder at the eave or by drone, and the tech does not walk them.
• Chimney or venting: a running appliance on an obstructed flue spills carbon monoxide, so the tech checks draft and wears a CO meter while firing it.

Worked example: the scope card

A three-tech plumbing shop builds its sewer scope from the steps above. Over its first five timed runs, time on site ran between 1.0 and 1.5 hours, so it publishes 1.25 hours. The card the office reads from at booking:

SEWER SCOPE - PRE-PURCHASE           card v2, rev Mar
-----------------------------------------------------
LOOK:   accessible cleanout or pulled toilet -> main,
        or to point camera cannot pass
NEEDS:  water on, nobody using water, access set up
        by listing agent, clear path to cleanout
TIME:   about 1.25 hrs on site
REPORT: by 5 pm next business day, PDF + video link
        defects by name, distance in ft, severity
CLIENT: whoever pays; report to client + named agent
PRICE:  base. Toilet pull: +0.4 of base
        2nd access point: +0.25 of base
        No access, nothing pulled: 0.35 of base
NOT IN: city main, dye test, line locate, repair
        quote (offered separately on request)
SAFETY: cap off slowly, stand aside, eyes + gloves
LICENSE CHECK: state allows, trade exemption, Jan

Now one booking, carried through.

Day 3 of a 10-day inspection contingency. The buyer's agent calls on a Monday: the inspector recommended a scope. The office reads the card, quotes the base price, asks the access question, and is told there is a cleanout by the front walk. The agreement goes to the buyer by email and comes back signed that afternoon. The job is set for Wednesday, day 5.

Day 5. The cleanout is under 4 inches of mulch with the cap rusted on. The tech offers the toilet pull at plus 0.4 of base, the buyer's agent approves by text, and the tech records the approval in the job. The run takes 1.4 hours including the toilet. It finds a belly at 38 feet holding about an inch of water, and roots at a joint at 52 feet. The camera reaches the main at 71 feet.

Day 6, 2 pm. Report delivered, three hours before the card's deadline. The buyer has four days of the ten left to decide on a repair request, which is the point of committing to next-day.

What would change the call. If the scope had found a collapse, the report still states only the finding; whether the shop also quotes the repair is a separate request. The card's NOT IN line keeps the inspection from becoming a sales visit the buyer did not order. If the shop had promised same-day reports, it would have needed a second tech free to write them, and missing that promise twice costs more referrals than never making it. And if the house had been vacant with water shut off at the street, the NEEDS line would have caught it at booking instead of at the cleanout.

The failure version. Without the card, the office says "about an hour, we'll scope the line." The tech finds the buried cleanout, the buyer's agent objects to the toilet pull price, the tech leaves, the shop eats a trip, and the rescheduled scope lands on day 9 with a report on day 10. The buyer misses the window to ask for anything.

How to know the product is working

After the first ten jobs, check four numbers against the card: median time on site against the published 1.25 hours (if it drifts past about 1.5, re-time it or re-price it); the share of reports delivered by the stated hour (aim for all ten, and find the cause of any miss); how many jobs hit an add-on the customer had not heard about at booking (should be zero, because the office reads the card); and how many reports drew a question about what was or was not covered (each one is a missing line on the card). Then reread the license check line each January, because state rules on who may sell pre-purchase inspections do change.

References

• Your state's home inspector licensing statute and board guidance, for whether a trade may sell pre-purchase inspections and under what exemption.
• OSHA, 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M (construction) and 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D (general industry), fall protection.
• NASSCO Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP), for defect vocabulary.
• See related: Buyer Tests the Trades Get Pulled Into
• See related: How a Home Sale Timeline Works for the Trades