← Home Inspection Fee Calculator
This calculator vs. a flat per-square-foot rate
A flat per-square-foot rate is easy to quote and easy to compare against another inspector's number — and it prices a 2,000 sqft one-story slab home built five years ago the same as a 2,000 sqft three-story crawlspace home built 60 years ago. This free calculator prices from stories, foundation type, and home age too, not square footage alone.
What each one actually captures
A flat per-square-foot rate multiplies one number by the home's floor area and stops there. It is fast, and floor area does set a real floor on how much there is to document — but it treats every home of the same size as the same job, whatever its stories, foundation, or age.
This calculator starts from square footage and adds the three specifics that actually drive on-site time at the same floor area: extra hours for each additional story climbed and inspected, extra hours for a crawlspace or basement foundation over a slab, and extra hours for an older home's likely deferred maintenance. Radon, sewer scope, termite/WDO, and mold add-ons are then priced at their own flat fee rather than folded into that time estimate, and a same-day rush premium applies to labor time only.
Run the same 2,000 square feet through both jobs this calculator's own defaults describe: a one-story slab home built five years ago estimates at 2.5 on-site hours and a $398.67 fee. A three-story crawlspace home built 60 years ago — same 2,000 square feet — estimates at 4.5 on-site hours and a $665.33 fee. A flat per-square-foot rate charges both the same; the actual on-site time differs by 80%. See a full worked example for how the numbers move line by line.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| What's a fast, comparable number to quote off the bat? | A flat per-square-foot rate — and this calculator's suggested fee is just as fast to get to. |
| Does the price account for stories, foundation type, and age at the same square footage? | This calculator does. A flat per-square-foot rate cannot, by construction. |
| Two homes are the same size but one has a crawlspace and three stories — should they cost the same? | Not on this calculator's model — see the 2.5 vs. 4.5-hour example above. |
| How do I price radon, sewer scope, termite/WDO, or mold add-ons? | This calculator's add-on fields — priced as flat fees, not folded into the per-square-foot number. |
| Am I booking enough jobs to hit a weekly income target? | This calculator's weekly income check, from your own profit-per-job and booking count. |
| Is my data uploaded anywhere? | No, either way — a flat rate needs no tool at all, and this calculator keeps every number on your own device. |
This tool needs no account and no sign-in: it is a static page, the arithmetic runs in your browser, and nothing you type is uploaded anywhere.
Common questions
Isn't square footage the simplest way to price an inspection?
It's the simplest number to start from, and it does set a real floor on inspection time — more floor area is more area to document either way. The problem is stopping there. Two homes of identical square footage can take very different amounts of on-site time depending on stories, foundation type, and age, and a single per-square-foot rate has no way to tell them apart.
What does a flat per-square-foot rate miss?
Three specifics that actually drive on-site time at the same floor area: stories (climbing and inspecting an additional level), foundation type (a crawlspace means suiting up and physically moving through a tight space a slab does not require), and home age (an older home usually has more deferred maintenance to document). A flat rate folds all three into one number, which quietly underprices the harder combination and overprices the easier one.
How much can two same-size homes actually differ in on-site time?
Using this calculator's own default hourly rate and job costs: a 2,000 square foot one-story home on a slab, built five years ago, runs an estimated 2.5 on-site hours and prices at $398.67. A 2,000 square foot three-story home on a crawlspace, built 60 years ago — same floor area — runs an estimated 4.5 hours and prices at $665.33. A flat per-square-foot rate charges both the same; the actual on-site time differs by 80%.
Is this calculator affiliated with any pricing guide, rate service, or franchise?
No. This page compares against pricing purely by a flat per-square-foot rate — a generic estimating shortcut, not any specific guide, rate service, or franchise brand — so it names none. It is a separate question from this venture's own comparison against a franchise's internal fee schedule, which is about the business decision of joining a franchise, not about which pricing method to use.
Open the Home Inspection Fee Calculator to price your own job, read a full worked example, or see how this compares to a franchise's fee schedule if you're weighing that decision too.