Draw Inspection opportunity

[Mark P]

I’ve never been too interested in doing draw inspections, seemed to be a lot of running around for not a lot of $. But biz has sure slowed down a lot this past 3 weeks, and every little bit helps. Also this would give me a good opportunity to spend time on a construction site. Anyway the job is for an apartment complex, 11 buildings; they did not know how many units in each building. The draws would be twice a month until the job is done. The last phase lasted 10 months. The complex is less than 5 miles from where I live.

I’ve been asked to bid on the job. The bank does not have their own forms, so I would have to come up with something, and they want pictures. No code or correct building practices involved just are the counter tops in, etc.

I know around here a typical draw inspection is $50 for say a house, but how should I bid on this type of job? The lady that called me from the title company said she had a bid from a national company for $50 a draw. I think that is nuts. With 11 building of apartments this is not a drive by type job, at least I don’t think so.

Has anyone done this type of draw inspection before that can offer advice/opinion on what a standard fee would be. I’m not walking from apartment to apartment in 11 building for $50.

Thanks

[Scottpat]

Originally posted by AHIS

I’ve never been too interested in doing draw inspections, seemed to be a lot of running around for not a lot of $. But biz has sure slowed down a lot this past 3 weeks, and every little bit helps. Also this would give me a good opportunity to spend time on a construction site. Anyway the job is for an apartment complex, 11 buildings; they did not know how many units in each building. The draws would be twice a month until the job is done. The last phase lasted 10 months. The complex is less than 5 miles from where I live.

I’ve been asked to bid on the job. The bank does not have their own forms, so I would have to come up with something, and they want pictures. No code or correct building practices involved just are the counter tops in, etc.

I know around here a typical draw inspection is $50 for say a house, but how should I bid on this type of job? The lady that called me from the title company said she had a bid from a national company for $50 a draw. I think that is nuts. With 11 building of apartments this is not a drive by type job, at least I don’t think so.

Has anyone done this type of draw inspection before that can offer advice/opinion on what a standard fee would be. I’m not walking from apartment to apartment in 11 building for $50.

Thanks

I have two commercial draws going on right now. One is a 90 room hotel and the other is a 4 story medical office building. Both are on a 14 month draw schedule. My travel time is less than 20 minutes to each with about 30 minutes on site and 15 minutes of paperwork. My fee for each draw is $250. This is pretty much my standard fee for commercial draws like this.

Residential draws range from $50 to $100 depending on the house and location.

My fees are pretty much based on an hourly rate, or just how much time it takes to do the job on site and back at the office.

[Jim Katen]

I get $200 per draw for multifamily buildings and it isn't really enough. $300 would be mo better but I'm not in a position to argue about it right now. Things are slow.

The national franchises will blow you out of the water on price every time.

On a job like that, you'll be losing money at $50 per draw.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[AHI in AR]

Let's see...11 buildings with, I'm assuming, an absolute minimum of 4 units per building??? If some idiot is willing to do all that for about a buck per unit, I say let him have it. He may be starving and have kids to feed...however possible. You'd hate to deprive them, wouldn't you?

Seriously, I would recommend leaving your name and quote with the company handling it since I would be pretty sure that the company doing it the first time for $50 won't do more than one -- at that price.

[randynavarro]

To be clear; draw inspections are not an "inspection" of the property as we understand it.

They're just for verifying the amount of work completed is actually complete, yes?

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by randynavarro

To be clear; draw inspections are not an "inspection" of the property as we understand it.

They're just for verifying the amount of work completed is actually complete, yes?

Yes. That's correct. But that involves:

• Driving to the site.

Walking the site -- usually through mud and usually with a large smelly dog jumping on you and licking your face.

Taking pictures and taking notes.

Spending time trying to figure out why the last inspector marked the roof as complete when there are shingles installed on only one side.

Driving back to the office.

Filling in an online form.

Uploading and annotating your pictures and trying to figure out why they want you to transmit a picture showing the line item marked "profit." (I asked the builder to let me take a picture of his wallet.)

Get your wrist slapped for writing on the form, "I have no way of figuring out what the builder's profit is to date -- you guys figure it out."

Wait 30 days to receive the princely sum of $50.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Mark P]

Thank You Scott and Jim that was usefull information.

[charlieb]

I have been receiving 375 - 400 for like work. No quote that was the offer. I have 3 apt units, an 11 story renovation and a couple of small projects going right now. The 4 large ones will run about a year.

I receive a pdf document (100 -175 pages to sort), and an excel report to fill out. Site time is about 1.5 hours, report time is 1 hour and about 1 hour to sort the PDF.

[Terence McCann]

How does one go about securing this work? Do you market to banks?

[Scottpat]

Originally posted by Terence McCann

How does one go about securing this work? Do you market to banks?

Yes, your local banks are a good start. The trick is showing them that you can help them by being a third party doing the inspections. It is an easy sell if the bank or loan officer has had trouble in the past. I have obtained work and still get work from a bank that got into trouble by just giving the money to the builder without every checking on the job.

To be honest most of the work that I have received recently has been unsolicited. They found me either off the ASHI site or from my website.

[Mark P]

I have had a couple of Title companys contact me to do draw inspections on homes - they control the pot of money for the bank. They only offered me $25 a draw, so I passed. I did put in a bid on the appartment complex.

[PCoulter]

Originally posted by AHIS

I have had a couple of Title companys contact me to do draw inspections on homes - they control the pot of money for the bank. They only offered me $25 a draw, so I passed. I did put in a bid on the appartment complex.

Hi, I have been reading your messages and am also interested in Draw Inspections. My question is, who provided the report format? The banks, or do you have to have a software program? If so, which one is most commonly used? Thanks.

[Scottpat]

This is a sample of a very simple form that I have developed and use when my clients do not have one. I use a form like this for local banks. Keep in mind that this is a very simple form.

Many of the draws that I now do, I simply log into a website and type everything into their form.

Feel free to use and change whatever you want in this form.

Download Attachment: Percent_Complete_Bank_Form_TN1_SAMPLE.pdf

50.53 KB

[chicago]

Scott what are the 1-5 numbers representing?

[Scottpat]

Originally posted by chicago

Scott what are the 1-5 numbers representing?

It is a cumulative method of figuring the percent complete.

[Darren]

There's a company out west, Northwest Consulants (I think) that had me do a few draws. The pay was, well, let's just say pretty poor. However, the jobs were fairly close and I even though they wanted them right away, I did them when I was in the area.

As a superintendent for 18 years, I know a 'little' about schedule of values and payment process.

Every time I got a payment schedule, it didn't match what was on site. I had to re-do most of the line items; one time they had me go back a week later because the builder wanted to get paid for a concrete pool that wasn't in the first or second time.

I don't get anymore requests...I wonder why..

Darren

www.aboutthehouseinspections.com

[MMustola]

I did draw inspections for a couple of different company's when I first started out. The houses were always being built by the home owner acting as their own general contractor. Every time I went to one of these draw inspections the home owner/builder would complain to me about the draw not being paid, or asking me to mark something as complete when it was not, or having some excuse about why the material was not on-site. It got to be more of a hassle and the low fees were not worth the effort.

[Scottpat]

Draw inspections can help the bottom line.

This week I had no home inspections scheduled. Monday, I did 3 draw inspections. I drove about 50 miles and I billed $175. Tuesday, I did 2 draw inspections. I drove 10 miles and billed $130. Today, I have one draw inspection. It is 10 miles away and I will bill $250 (small commercial building). Friday I have 2 more draw inspections that I will only drive about 20 miles and I will bill $100.

So on a week that I would have billed a big ZERO in sales, I will make $655 by doing draw inspections. Next week I have normal home inspections on a few days, so any draws that I have will fill in the blank spots.

[Erby]

Like Scott, commercial jobs (4 apartment buildings) are about $250 per draw. Don't do a lot of draws for residential but $50-$75 per is about right for the minimal work I put into it. More if I have to drive very far.

Make it where you can. You're the one who has to put food on the table. But don't lose your butt doing it for nothing.

[moni67]

I've been doing draw inspections for several companies, all of which are for residential projects. I've been receiving anywhere from $55 to $150 per draw depending on the company. It's good extra money to fill in when things are quiet elsewhere. Some companies require pictures and others don't. Each of the companies I've been working with have supplied their own forms, sometimes I need to fax them directly to them and others I have to input online when I get back to the office. I stumbled upon the Draw Inspection work while trying to target companies for inspection work and have been working with 3 companies for a couple of years now.