Cheaper Isn’t Always Better – Wind Mitigation & 4 Point Inspections
The industry standard in the state of Florida for Wind Mitigation Inspections ranges between $100 to $150. Most reputable, experienced inspectors charge right around $125+/-.
A Wind Mitigation inspection is not the type of inspection you want to skimp on. Paying a bargain basement price for an inspection that could have a major impact on being accepted by insurance companies or that could potentially lower your homeowners insurance premium by hundreds or even thousands of dollars may not be a wise decision.
Inspectors have overhead, between travel expense, tools, insurance, licensing, continuing education costs, computer equipment, phone service, accounting, scheduling, and report software, etc. Those things, like any business, dictate the rates a company must charge to remain profitable. When a company charges below an industry standard, corners often need to be cut somewhere to make it possible.
Here’s a personal experience I had with a discount inspector.
Before I became a home inspector, my wife and I were shopping around for a house. I knew about the “third nail” and how important it was not only for insurance discount credits, but also to secure my roof during a storm. So that was one of the conditions on our checklist for purchasing our home. I’ve always been a penny pincher and hired the least expensive home inspector I could find. I figured it was a pretty simple job, they all check the same things, so it’s no big deal and the price didn’t matter.
Fast forward over a decade later. I had been a home inspector for about 5 years at that point but had never checked my own home as I didn’t think there was a need. I had a new roof installed after Hurricane Ian and hired a home inspector I knew to perform my wind mitigation inspection. To my surprise I found out my home did not have the “third nail”. On top of that, I had been getting a hip roof discount credit that I did not qualify for. For over a decade I thought my home’s roof was secured safely. However, I never really looked at the wind mitigation inspection report I received from the “discount” home inspector after I had the inspection done. He said I had the “third nail” and that was what I was worried about. I “thought” I was all set.
When I dug up the report and looked at the images in the report. I was dumbfounded. I could not believe that my insurance company even accepted the inspection report. Post-Hurricane Ian, the report certainly would have been immediately kicked back. The following 2 images were the only attic images the report included. Note on the right side the roof-to-wall connection. You can see a metal strap but you cannot see any nails. And there is no image of the opposing side. The inspector rated this as a “Single Wrap” which means the strap wraps over the rafter/truss and has at least 2 nails on the front side and one nail on the opposing side. But in fact, the metal straps did not wrap over, they were only on one side and only had 2 nails total. Given this was a decade ago, before insurance companies began getting stricter. However I was still shocked they accepted this.
I think he is using his finger to show an 8D nail in the image on the left. Most inspectors know to use a measuring tape or ruler against the nail for that to prove it’s size as required by insurance companies. As far as the roof-to-wall image on the right: Even when you zoom in, you cannot make out whether there are any nails at all in the roof-to-wall connection.
He somehow rated this as a “Single Wrap” without showing any nails on the front side and not including an image of the opposing side, let alone any other required attic images that the report calls for.
Here is just one of the several photo pages from one of MY reports, from a random clients home showing some of the attic images included in a typical report.
Here is an image of what the single wrap above looks like. (In my actual reports, the images are in high resolution and can be magnified up to 800%. The quality has been reduced for the internet)
I ended up having to pay someone to have the “Third nail” installed in order to secure my roof from hurricanes and to receive the discount. Here is a page from the inspector who did the follow-up AFTER the third nail was installed. It turned out even after I paid for the third nail installation the best I could get rated for was “clips”. This was because the straps did not wrap over the rafter/truss like the “discount” home inspector had told me over a decade earlier:
And here is his proper rating on the report:
The discount inspector had also shown my roof as a hip roof. However, it did not qualify for that due to my home having a flat roof over my lanai that is structurally connected to the main roof.
That inspection was about 15+ years ago. Back then the going rate was about $100, I think I paid $70. So the old adage, “You get what you pay for” applied in this case.
The frustrating thing is that now that I am a home inspector, I often run into situations like this. So much so that I include a brief mention the issue above happening to me on the cover letter of my reports. I include it because I feel bad that I am the one to deliver the bad news. I end up being the bad guy when I discover someone else’s error. The bulk of the errors I run into are not just from discount inspectors, but also when the inspection is performed by someone who does not regularly perform wind mitigation inspections, such as a general contractor performing the inspection or an inspector who only does them occasionally as an add-on. I’m absolutely not “bad mouthing” general contractors or full home inspectors, as they would most certainly be better at things such as full home inspections than I would, as that is what they specialize in.
And that’s not to say I am infallible. I’ve missed a check box or two in my time. But every effort is made to produce a high quality professional report with clear images to avoid any issues with insurance companies rejecting my reports.
On the flip side, I’m often the hero and am able to find additional discount credits a previous inspector could not because they did not have the experience, tools, or knowledge to find them.
For example, take a look at this image below:
This customer had an attic with less than 12″ of headroom. The exterior wall was 10 feet away from the attic access. The roof-to-wall connection area was covered in blown-in insulation (Image #1).
Using a 10ft boat hook I moved the insulation away, which revealed a metal connector that a previous inspector had missed (Image #2).
But no nails could be seen from that angle and it was too tight of an attic to crawl to that area. So I then used a 10ft selfie stick to get the required image necessary to show she had at least 3 nails in her roof-to-wall connection (Image #3).
She called me a week later ecstatic that it saved her $950/year on her insurance.
Now, while what I’ve written has focused on not skimping on a wind mitigation inspection, it goes the other way too. There really should be no need to pay anything over $150 for a wind mitigation inspection on most homes in the Southwest Florida area.
The bottom line: Most inspectors tend to hover right around $125+/-. Just use common sense. If there are 200 home inspectors in Southwest Florida charging $125+/-, but 2 inspectors are charging $60 and 2 are charging $250, it should raise an eyebrow as to why that is.
If you are looking for an experienced Certified and Licensed Home Inspector in the Cape Coral / Fort Myers area to perform your Wind Mitigation inspection. Please consider using SWFL Home Inspector LLC
