31 of 44 owners signed up for an annual condition walk at $185 a door

Numbers first. 44 doors under management, mostly single family rentals and a few duplexes. Last spring I put an annual condition walk in front of every owner at $185 per unit, billed once a year on the March statement. 31 said yes, 9 said no, 4 never answered and I stopped chasing them.

I don't inspect anything myself. I put a licensed inspector on a standing agreement at $110 per unit (inspector licensing rules differ by state, and mine requires one, so check yours before you build anything like this). He does 5 or 6 in a day, so the driving is efficient and he'll hold that price. Gross on 31 units is $5,735, cost is $3,410, so I cleared about $2,325 for maybe six hours of coordination.

The part that nearly killed it: unit 12's report flagged a water heater at 14 years with rust at the fitting, and the owner's first email asked why my maintenance tech hadn't told him that in three years of turnovers. Fair hit. I had to eat about $400 of the replacement to keep the account.

What I'd keep. Reports go from the inspector to the owner directly with me on copy, and I don't touch the wording. The second I start editing findings I'm the one on the hook for them, and the inspector loses the thing owners are actually paying for. Renewal season is March. I'll report the renewal rate then, because that number decides whether this was a business or a one-time bump.

3 replies

2nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

The direct-to-owner reporting is the part I'd have gotten wrong. But who's the client on the inspector's agreement, you or the owner? If it's you, I'd think an owner who's unhappy with a missed item comes at you first regardless of who the email was addressed to.

1tashaford30PB2APRO7

$110 a unit only works because he's doing six in a day off one route. What happens when the 31 aren't clustered, or when you add doors 20 minutes further out? Feels like the margin is really a routing margin and one scattered portfolio erases it.

Also curious what the 9 nos said. Were they cheap or did they think it was a made-up fee?

3Rena Expert

The renewal rate is the right thing to watch, and it's the assumption the whole model rests on. A maintenance inspection product only pays for the client-relationship work if owners re-up without a sales conversation each year. If year two runs 60 percent, you have a recurring line. If it runs 30 percent, you have an annual sales campaign priced at $75 of margin per door.

On plumb's question, the answer is in your paperwork rather than in the email routing. Whoever signs the inspection agreement is the client, and most inspection agreements limit remedies sharply. If you're the signer and you re-bill the owner, you sit between the two of them on any dispute. If the owner signs directly and you're the coordinator, the inspector's obligation runs to the owner. Which of those you have is a question for an attorney in your state, and it's worth the hour.

On quill's point, the routing sensitivity is real and it's the main constraint on scaling this. Inspectors quote maintenance walks off drive time because there's no transaction clock forcing a same-day appointment. That flexibility is exactly what makes maintenance inspections attractive on the inspector's side too, since they fill days that purchase volume doesn't. It also means the price holds only while you can hand him a cluster.

One more thing to track: how many of the 31 walks generated work orders that owners approved. That number is what turns this from a fee into evidence the owners can see.

31 of 44 owners signed up for an annual condition walk at $185 a door

3 replies