How many home inspections can you do in a day?

Count every part of the job, not only the hours inside the house. These are Russ Motyko's estimates for a typical single-family home, from more than 3,000 inspections in the Portland metro and Southwest Washington.

Add it up and one inspection takes about four to eight hours. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the same split: inspectors work in the house during the day and write reports in the evening. Its page on building and home inspectors also notes that some inspectors, often the self-employed, work evenings and weekends.

• Age. A 1920s house can have knob-and-tube wiring, galvanized pipe, and a century of repairs. Each one needs more looking and more writing.
• Size. A 4,000 square foot house with a finished basement, two furnaces, and a detached garage is more house than a 1,200 square foot condo.
• Condition. Problems cluster. Deferred maintenance in one place usually means more of it nearby, so a worn house gets a closer look.
• Add-ons. Setting a radon monitor, inspecting a pool, or checking a detached building adds time on site and pages to the report. See which add-on services pay.

One a day is the right pace for a new inspector. It leaves time to be thorough and write a complete report while speed and pattern recognition are still building. It also fits an inspector who takes on large or complex houses. For the rest of that first day, see what a new inspector can expect on the first paid inspection.

Two a day is a common target for a full-time solo inspector. The first job starts around 8 or 9 in the morning and wraps up near midday. The second runs in the afternoon, and both reports get written that evening.

Three a day can work for an experienced inspector when the houses are small, newer, in fair shape, and close together. With same-day reports, the day runs 12 to 14 hours from the first appointment to the last report. That works as an occasional push. As a standard week, it wears people down.

No one publishes a national count of inspections per inspector. An ASHI Reporter column from October 2024 gives figures that let you work one out. It put the average fee at $390 for new inspectors and $405 for everyone else. It put average gross revenue a little over $50,000 for new inspectors and near $123,000 for the rest.

The first two rows divide revenue by the average fee. Real fees vary by house and by add-on, so treat those counts as rough. Even so, about 300 a year is near six a week, which is less than two a day. Volume swings with the housing market and the season, and few inspectors hold two a day every week of the year.

Revenue is money in before insurance, software, the vehicle, and taxes come out. For what inspectors keep, see how much home inspectors make.

Every inspection is income, so the pull is always toward one more. But careful work runs on attention, and attention runs out. A tired inspector rushing a third house is more likely to miss a defect than a fresh one on a second.

A missed defect can turn into an errors and omissions claim, and one claim can cost more than months of extra inspections. For what that coverage pays for, see do home inspectors need E&O insurance.

Crawlspaces, roofs, and attics are hard on knees and backs. These habits are common among inspectors who stay in the work for ten or twenty years:

• Cap a normal day at a number you can hold every week.
• Take at least one weekday off.
• Stop writing reports at a set time each evening.
• Book a lighter day after a heavy one.
• Leave a buffer between appointments for traffic and long houses.

For more on pacing the work, see how home inspectors avoid burnout.