The Background
In 2019, we decided to start publishing our pricing details right on our website. It started just written out in a paragraph and has since evolved into a fancier quote feature that allows prospective customers to enter in the information of the property and get the actual price we’d charge for that inspection service on that house. We did this for a couple reasons:
The first is completely self-serving; we wanted to help streamline our business, spend less time providing quotes and more time performing quality inspection services.
Second, we truly believe in transparent pricing and you shouldn’t have to work to get a quote.
Before we published our prices to the world, we decided to do a market survey to see how our pricing stacked up against the local competition. It was a worthwhile exercise and we actually ended up tweaking some of our pricing as a result. Now, we do the same price survey every year to make sure we stay in tune with the market and keep our pricing competitive. We don’t try to offer the cheapest inspections, but we do strive to provide the best overall value to our clients. To us, that means you get exceptional inspection services from an experienced professional at prices in line with other companies.
The Method
If you search for average home inspection costs, you’ll find a number of different sources with a range of prices that often aren’t reflective of the vast majority of inspection companies. That’s because this data relies on a small subset of home inspectors that are using specific platform like HomeAdvisor.
We could spend days going through every single licensed home inspector in the greater Raleigh NC area, but that’s just not feasible. For our market surveys, we start by gathering a list of home inspection companies that appear in the first 5 pages of Google search results for home inspections in Raleigh NC, Wake Forest NC, Durham NC, and Cary NC separately. This gave us a list of about 75 home inspection companies. From there, we took pricing from their company website when available and when not, we reached out by phone/email to try and get a price quote. Some home inspection companies responded, but a large portion did not. This left us with pricing for 27 different companies in the greater triangle area.
Most home inspection companies have pricing dependent on a few criteria: heated square feet, age, and type of foundation. For simplicity, we considered a home built in 2005 with a slab on grade foundation which typically falls into the cheapest range for age and foundation type. We then considered two different size homes at 1700 sq ft and 3200 sq ft since home size is the #1 factor that determines how much you pay. Also, keep in mind this doesn’t include add-ons like radon testing, termite inspections, septic inspection, etc. Those would all be an additional cost to a standard home inspection.
The Results - Home Inspection Costs in Raleigh NC (2022)
In general, the average home inspection cost ranges from $300 - $600 depending on the size of the home. In our survey, the average home inspection cost for a 1700 sq ft house was $406 and the average cost went up to $490 for a 3200 sq ft house. You can see more detailed results in the graphs below, with each point representing a different inspection company in no particular order. The orange point indicates the price that we charge at Wake Forest Home Inspections.
1700 sq ft house
Average $406
Max $485, Min $350
Wake Forest Home Inspections Price - $400
3200 sq ft house
Average $490
Max $560, Min $425
Wake Forest Home Inspections Price - $475
You’ll notice there’s a range of prices but they typically fall within a $150 window. You’ll also notice that Wake Forest Home Inspections prices falls right in line with the average – that’s on purpose!
Since we had the data, we’ve also summarized typical prices for pre-drywall inspections (new construction before drywall is installed) and add-on services like Radon Testing and Termite Inspections below.
Pre-Drywall Inspection: $200 - $410, Average $293
Radon Test: $125 - $195, Average $154
Termite Inspection: $75 - $150, Average $97
Why do some inspectors charge more?
In general, newer and less experienced home inspectors fall at the low end of the spectrum. Inspectors with more experience and more business charge more. More expensive home inspectors also typically take more time to fully evaluate the home and provide a thorough, detailed report. This trend makes sense because the quality and detail of your home inspection is entirely dependent on how good your home inspector is. Home inspections is one of those industries that can’t just be learned in the classroom. It takes inspecting thousands of different houses to truly become an expert in recognizing costly defects that aren’t always obvious. An experienced inspector will also be able to give you better insight into the severity of the issue and potential repairs.
As your price shopping, ask yourself what sort of home inspector you want. Odds are the cheapest home inspectors aren’t the ones that provide the best service. And that doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive home inspector is the best, but it does mean you should take the time to fully vet your home inspector and their credentials before hiring. Don’t pick a home inspector based solely on price, but get to know your prospective inspector and make sure they’re the right person to help protect what is likely the largest investment you will ever make. At the end of the day, the right home inspector could save you thousands of dollars and is easily worth the extra $50 - $100.
If you're looking for a quote for a home inspection in Raleigh NC, Wake Forest NC, Durham NC, Cary NC or the surrounding areas, check out our pricing page.