Your inspector finds the problems. I tell you what they cost to fix. Send me the reports and you get a registered contractor's written, itemized repair estimate, in the form your attorney needs, inside attorney review. Flat fee. Days, not weeks. Not a home inspection.
Send every report you have: inspection, engineer's, termite. Written estimate within three business days of payment, sooner when your deadline needs it.
| Activity | Amount |
|---|---|
| Roof, rear slope: two layers of shingle, soft decking at the valley. Tear-off, replace rotted sheathing, ice and water shield at eaves and valleys, architectural shingle | 11,800.00 |
| Provide and install new code-compliant guardrails (2) on second floor. Existing guardrails do not meet code height or spindle spacing | 8,200.00 |
| Provide and install attic insulation to meet 2021 IRC minimum of R-49. Existing cellulose at ~5" is ~R-16. Includes soffit baffling and air sealing around recessed cans | 3,800.00 |
| Electrical: install 3 junction boxes where exposed wiring and tape splices observed. Provide and install exterior GFCI outlets | 980.00 |
| Provide and install kick-out flashing both sides of chimney to stop water penetration and gutter overflow, as evidenced by staining on both sides of chimney | 600.00 |
| Remove and replace rotted pressure-treated 6x6s on driveway retaining wall | 600.00 |
Sample items and figures.
Your inspector tells you the roof is old. I tell you whether that's a $9,000 job or a $14,000 job. I don't inspect the house. I price the work, and I've been doing that in Monmouth County since 2004. I wrote the book on it: Home Buying & Renovating.
Accept the one-page agreement and pay the fee by card or bank through the invoice. Then send me every report you have, the inspection and the engineer's report if there is one, and your attorney-review deadline. The clock starts once the fee is paid.
I read the reports and their photographs the way a contractor reads them and price each fix. If something needs a closer look than the photographs give, I'll say so and we can add a site visit. If a report hints at something it doesn't cover, I'll tell you who should look at it, and price it in case they confirm it.
Within three business days of payment: the itemized written estimate with a total, ready to forward to your attorney or agent.
If your attorney or agent hasn't seen this kind of estimate before, send them this page. It explains what the estimate is and isn't, and how it fits in the three-day attorney-review window. It's a general overview, not a summary of your estimate.
Download the overview (PDF)A real number, in writing, from someone who prices this work for a living. Whether the seller moves is between the attorneys. Whether you know what you're buying is settled.
Flat fee, either way. $497 covers the inspection report and any termite or electrical report that came with it. A structural engineer's report is a $300 option, $797 with both: the engineer's fix has to be read item by item and priced to the specification, in its own section of the estimate. An on-site visit is a $300 add-on; most estimates don't need one.
Pricing is based on a typical single-family home up to 3,000 square feet. Larger homes, multifamily properties, estates, and properties requiring extensive analysis may require an additional fee.
I've done this for friends for twenty years, and they've saved tens of thousands. Sometimes I got the job. I never charged for the estimate. This is the same estimate, open to anyone buying a house in Monmouth County.
No, and that's the point. It's an estimate, not a construction contract, and I'm not bidding your job, so the numbers aren't a sales pitch. I'm not hired to do the work unless you decide to hire me later, under a separate proposal.
No. New Jersey licenses home inspectors, and I'm not one. Keep your inspector. An inspection tells you what's wrong. This tells you what it costs to make right, and which items actually move the deal. I work from your inspection report and price the fixes.
It changes the price, not the product. The engineer says what has to be done to the framing or the foundation; the report doesn't carry a cost. I price it item by item in its own section of the estimate. $497 for the inspection report, $797 with an engineer's report. Send both when you book. Termite and electrical reports are read at no extra charge.
Every item gets read. Not every item gets its own line. Most of a 70-item list is $40 cover plates and a can of caulk. The items that cost real money are priced one by one. The small stuff is grouped as a block, so the seller argues about the roof instead of the cover plates.
If the report or its photographs point at something the write-up doesn't cover, I'll tell you, and I'll tell you to get your inspector or the right licensed trade to look at it. Then I'll price it. What I won't do is write up the condition of the house. That's their job, and the law says so.
Call me. Nearby parts of Ocean and Middlesex are sometimes possible. Travel is extra and I'll tell you the number up front.
Most estimates are written from the inspection report and its photographs. Your inspector and your engineer have already been through the house; what you're missing is the price, not another look. If seeing the house would change the numbers, I'll say so, and an on-site visit is available as a $300 add-on. If you want me there regardless, ask when you book.
The estimate prices the repairs your inspection report found. It doesn't cover a layout change. After closing, moving or removing a wall is an ordinary remodeling job with me. If it needs drawings, I bring in an independent designer or licensed architect I work with and coordinate them with the build. A bearing wall needs an engineer's letter first.
Within three business days of payment, usually sooner. If attorney review ends before that, call instead of using the form and I'll tell you honestly whether I can make it.
Address, your attorney-review deadline, what the inspection flagged, and whether there's an engineer's report. I reply within one business day, sooner if your deadline is close.