After the Home Inspection report is delivered to the client, clients sometimes ask HI for cost estimates for repairs and repair costs maybe provided for additional fee to compensate the HI for their time invested to prepare the numbers, but most home inspectors do not provide this service for doing is outside the scope of a Home Inspection and prohibits state and inspectors association standards of practices. The main fact or problem with repair cost estimates offered by Home inspectors is that they are usually a very rough guesstimate rather than accurate computations. Home inspectors who provide these numbers usually give a broad range of potential repairs. For example:Water is observed leaking up through the floor concrete slab foundation at the kitchen floor; Estimate for repairs maybe betweeen $1000.00 to $5000.00. Rather than relying on vague cost projections, clients should take the inspector's list of conditional disclosures to contractors to obtain specific repair bids or have the contractors come to the site for their best guess estimates. Not only will you have an accurate idea of costs, but the client will have definiate commitments to those numbers. This is important because banks sell foreclosed properties as an "AS IS" only condition and "Short Sales" are also sold "AS IS" and after obtaining these repair bids from contractors then the client can make an informed decision on weather or not to proceed with the property purchase. All bids should be obtained before close of escrow.
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