In 2023, a home inspector was hired to perform a luxury, big home inspection at a nearly 8,000-square-foot property. The home sold for more than $10 million.
A year later, the client sued their inspector for breach of contract, negligence, and violating the Unfair Trade Practices Act. They cited 17 errors and omissions, all either reported, outside the inspector’s scope, or related to an inaccessible space.
The client didn’t care if the inspector could account for every defect he was accused of missing. Nor did they care that an inspection expert reviewed his report and found it to be very thorough and accurate. They’d had bad blood from working with a different inspection company, and they were taking it out on our insured.
Although they paid $350-400,000 to fix the alleged damages, their demand against the inspector was much steeper: $1 million.
Conflicts like this big home inspection claim, which is still pending, don’t happen often. But they reflect common anxieties about inspecting huge houses. With so much value on the table, how can inspectors make clients happy and protect themselves from potentially bigger claims?
Mansions, estates, manors, luxury residences, McMansions—Big homes fall under many categories and names. Some are mansions older than our own country, like New England’s 17th century “Pitkin Mansion” valued at more than $2 million. Meanwhile, with upscale amenities and stunning views, many newer builds take ultra-luxury homes to another level—like this $210 million home in Florida.
Are inspections for luxury homes and large properties really in demand?
Absolutely. The same factors that push families toward cottages, apartments, condos, and tiny homes have also ushered in an era of big builds among upper-echelon buyers. This affluent clientele is influenced by upscale builder marketing, years of low interest rates, and coronavirus pandemic quarantines, Lisa Smith wrote for Investopedia. They’re drawn to the extra space and privacy that comes with higher square footage.
How much square footage do big home inspections cover?
While a new single-family home was on average 2,164 square feet in the second quarter of 2024, McMansions are about 3,000 to 6,000 square feet, Smith wrote. By comparison, mansions start at approximately 8,000 square feet, wrote Forbes Global Properties author Randolf Santos.
These larger homes can be $1 million or hundreds of millions, depending on their location and extravagance. And they’re still in demand. Homes 3,000 square feet or larger made up 23.5 percent of new single-family homes in 2023, compared to 20.3 percent in 2004, the Pew Research Center reported.
Inspecting huge houses isn’t every inspector’s cup of tea. Before adding inspections for luxury homes to your 2025 bucket list, here are some challenges to prepare for.
The sheer magnitude of big home inspections can be overwhelming at first. There’s more ground to cover and more things to potentially miss.
Instead of one electrical panel and one HVAC unit, you could see six of each. There could be three kitchen ovens to test (and shut off before you leave) instead of one.
You’ll also see more complex, expensive, and upscale components and amenities in ultra-luxury homes that you won’t see in most standard homes. They may require research or a specialist to inspect. Additionally, they’re more costly to replace, meaning potentially more costly claims.
The inspectors we interviewed reported a number of unique luxury and big home inspection finds, such as:
Many inspectors shy away from estates and luxury or big home inspections. Others, like Peter Hopkins of InspecDoc Inspection Services, Inc. in California, see inspecting an estate or large home as an opportunity to focus on high-quality service instead of volume.
Providing high-end service helped Hopkins attract more of these inspections. Now, by combining one large home with multiple ancillary services, he can generate three to four inspections’ revenue at one time. In other words, big home inspections allow him to work smarter, not harder, he said.
“I would rather work one job and make the same money in less time. And the only way you capture more is going after that client where those large homes are,” Hopkins said.
Similarly, Philip Dancer of Dancer & Company Inspections of the D.C., Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area was always drawn to building relationships and offering turnkey, white-glove customer service experience. He doesn’t exclusively perform luxury or big home inspections. But he enjoys how bigger homes give him ample time to offer the kind of service he’s passionate about.
Replicating the quality that affluent and famous clientele expect, Dancer started to attract business from high-end, luxury real estate agencies. He also connected with other luxury property inspectors, like Randall Meadows of Focus Inspection Authority in California. The two have even collaborated on a big inspection in the past.
Nick Gromicko, founder of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), also enjoys the big home inspection market. In fact, he believes the luxury property market is easier to target.
His logic: Bigger, ultra-luxury homes are often a second or third home that needs monitoring while the owners live elsewhere. In theory, instead of inspecting for one client every five years, you could inspect five valuable homes a month on a regular basis. Meanwhile, you’d also work for and build trust with the same handful of clients.
“From a business perspective, it’s much better to go after expensive homes for so many reasons: targetability, profitability, the fact that you can get regular inspections over and over again from them, monitoring services,” he said. “The entire state of Florida is full of homes that are mostly vacant, owned by very wealthy people who would like to have it monitored, especially with all these storms and crime.”
This marketing approach isn’t as feasible with standard home inspections, he said. But if you’re willing to work for it, accessing this niche network opens up opportunities for repeat business.
“Once you develop a trust with someone who owns a home like that, they feed you other clients in their class level,” Gromicko said.
To help you make the most of your big home inspections, we interviewed inspectors who are passionate about this market. We share their advice and our risk management tips below.
When inspecting huge houses, give yourself plenty of time. Otherwise, you run the risk of rushing. This not only looks unprofessional, but also increases your risk of errors, Meadows and Dancer agreed.
“You’ll be mentally tired,” Dancer said. “That’s the reason why you cannot get caught shorthanded at these homes. Because when you get mentally tired, you will start missing things.”
Not to mention, it can be easier to take your time with big home inspections, since luxury real estate often has fewer time contingencies, Gromicko said.
“When you’re buying a $50 million property, there’s no time contingency on your inspection,” Gromicko said. “The seller’s giving [buyers] all the time you want to do your due diligence.”
To optimize your time, ask for help.
Consult your team or hire someone. You’ll work faster and more efficiently without compromising thoroughness. Agents will be impressed, too, said Chuck Lambert of Sunrise Inspection Services in California.
“With two people, it makes you look a lot more professional. With three people, again, more professional. But I know inspectors that would do a 14,000-square-foot house by themselves. And you can’t do that,” Lambert said.
“ Sometimes it’s even better to do it as a team-type effort. If you’re a multi-inspector firm, utilizing more than one inspector to do a job like that is a great idea. And if you’re a single operator, team up with a fellow inspector in your area to help you do that and share some of that revenue,” Emmanuel “Manny” Stratakis of Summit Property Inspectors in New York said. “ It’s always better to have more eyes on the job than not, especially that size.”
Additionally, if you’ve never inspected a big or luxury property before, find an experienced inspector to teach you the ropes first, Lambert said. You might reduce your profit a little. But it teaches you to do the job right from the get-go, he said.
Lean on your network or other inspectors on your team, Meadows agreed. Who knows? Those who help you may need your help with big home inspections later.
“ Don’t be afraid to say, ‘Hey, I don’t know about this.’ Because the only way you can really get yourself into trouble is to pretend like you know something when you don’t,” Meadows said.
Most importantly, work with inspectors you trust and whose values align with yours. If you’re passionate about providing a high-end service, you don’t want a sloppy end product because you partnered with someone who’s rushing through.
With big home inspections, your time is precious. You can’t show up day-of like you can with a standard home inspection, Dancer said. You need to prepare ahead of time.
“ When you walk into a 14,000-square-foot house, you have to have a game plan in line,” Lambert said.
For example, you don’t want to waste time trying to locate major systems, rooms, or components while inspecting an estate, Dancer said. To prevent this, you’ll want to research the layout beforehand, Meadows and Dancer agreed.
If the estate or mansion has a regular maintenance expert or caretaker, you might ask them about inaccessible spaces or components. You might even research the architect or do a walkthrough and meet the builder beforehand, as both Meadows and Dancer have done. This will familiarize you with any hidden or unique features you need to identify or disclaim.
“ That sometimes will help, as well, just knowing who the architect is. Many of these older mansions … have these little, special compartments. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, it can be a little mind bender,” Meadows said.
Additionally, take time beforehand to stage where every inspector is going and delegate what they’re inspecting, Dancer said. He and Meadows also suggest using walkie-talkies during big home inspections to verify that everyone’s on target.
High-end clients will expect you to produce a turnkey experience from start to finish.
If you want to make this target demographic happy, you must understand and mimic the kind of experience they’re accustomed to, Dancer said. Because, at the end of the day, it isn’t your technical competency they’ll remember. It’s your ability to connect with them, he explained in our guide to inspection marketing.
“ The families that we help, they go to places like the Four Seasons and like the Ritz Carlton. These types of organizations are also providing and striving to create an experience that’s second to none,” Dancer said. “The best way to be put in front of these types of clients is to literally provide the best experience for the families that you’re helping every single day, consistently.”
One way to cater to ultra-luxury home clients is through your inspection report, Dancer said. The teams who work with ultra-luxury homes and clients are used to instant gratification. Providing seamless, easy-to-follow reports shows you understand their needs, Dancer said.
Alternatively, neglecting to cater leaves a bad impression. It may also risk future referrals.
“ If they have to really struggle to try to find or understand what you’re communicating to them, it’s not a good look,” Dancer said. “ It shows that you don’t really have a lot of experience catering to that type of client, and you most likely are not going to get a call back.”
Home inspectors are general practitioners. While inspecting a luxury property with higher square footage, you’ll encounter a few components that are better left to a specialist.
“ We know a little bit about a lot of things. When we need to break it down, that’s when we will look for the help from the professional in that field, the specialist,” Stratakis said.
But your client doesn’t always anticipate these limitations.
So, in addition to your inspection findings, take care to communicate your scope and exclusions with clients, agents, and subcontractors. Disclose inaccessible spaces and excluded systems, like elevators and security systems. And, if you subcontract something to a specialist, get a formal agreement with a hold harmless clause and an outline of their own scope.
The better you communicate and set expectations, the less likely you are to experience misunderstandings.
You spend hours preparing and performing the inspection. You’ve done the training. Perhaps you hired subcontractors, extra inspectors, or managed a full team. You produced a stellar inspection report and offered turnkey service. In all likelihood, you’re probably offering ancillary services like pool and spa inspections, too. Plus, you took on the risk of potentially more expensive claims.
Your time and expertise are valuable. So do yourself a favor: Get appropriate compensation.
“ You’re going to do a 10,000-square-foot house for one-third the price that you’re going to do a 1,500-square-foot house when you have 10 times the liability,” Lambert said. “And the person who’s buying the 10,000-square-foot house has much better lawyers.”
Furthermore, consider that a clientele who purchases luxury real estate knows the value they’re paying for.
“ Customer service is very high in the luxury world. They want to be treated with white gloves, and that’s what they’re paying for. They’re paying the higher price for their inspection,” Meadows said.
There are several ways to set your home inspection prices. For example, you might set a flat fee up until a certain square footage. Or, you might fluctuate prices by location, property age, and how long the inspection lasted. Whatever the case, know your worth, and charge accordingly.
“Don’t be off put by a large home or, ‘Wow, I could make $1,000 or $2,000 in a day.’ Well, you can, yes. You just have to know how to ask for it,” Hopkins said. “ When someone’s making the biggest investment of their life, they’re going to pay more for the guy that knows more and offers more services.”
Big homes likely contain expensive staging materials or the owner’s real furnishings. So be extra careful not to knock anything over during your big home inspections.
With this in mind, you might ask the agent to clear the garage of any luxury cars prior to the inspection. Lambert applies a similar rule to wine cellars.
“Don’t ever, ever, ever open up a wine cellar where there’s wine in the cellar. Because if for some reason it malfunctions or whatever, you just bought all that wine,” Lambert warned. “I’ve done five houses where the owners absolutely refused to let us in there because they had upwards of $30-40 million worth of wine in the cellar. I’m going, ‘I don’t want nothing to do with it.’”
“I will walk around a $3 or $4 million car. I will not open up the wine cellar door,” he said.
Speaking of your surroundings, be careful when posting photos on social media, too, Lambert said. If you’re nervous, it doesn’t hurt to get permission first. Even then, he’s cautious to exclude any details that could trace the house’s location.
Working with celebrities? Meadows and his team will sign a nondisclosure agreement to assure the client of their anonymity.
“The best way to be put in front of these types of clients is to literally provide the best experience for the families that you’re helping every single day, consistently.”
Philip Dancer
Dancer & Company Inspections
To succeed in the world of big home inspections, confidence is key. You must know what you’re doing and be confident that you’ve prepared. With experience in the field and ancillary service training, that confidence will naturally follow, Hopkins said.
“Confidence is the most important part. Once you have that, there’s no end and limit,” Hopkins said.
If you get overwhelmed while inspecting an estate, remember: It’s just a bigger box. A mansion’s appliances, construction, and building materials will be more expensive. But they’ll have the same defects you’ll see in any other price bracket.
“You have more heaters, more air conditioners, and more roof. But it’s just a bigger box,” Hopkins said. “Same thing, same components, except the high-end homes often will have some high-end electronics. But as inspectors we disclaim those, anyway.”
“You have to get the price of the property out of your mind because, otherwise, you’re just going to be worried,” Lambert agreed. “This is just a bigger box. Instead of taking 20 steps to get across the room, it’s going to take me 60 steps.”
“Once you take your eyes off the lipstick and the beautiful furnishings and whatnot and you start looking at the actual things you’re supposed to inspect, you find the plumbing leaks, you find the electrical double taps—all the issues that are standard with other inspections,” Meadows said. “Don’t look at the furnishings, look at the finishings.”
Still nervous? Take big home inspections one room, step, or “bite” at a time, Hopkins suggested.
“How do you eat an elephant?” he said. “One bite at a time.”
You might inspect a manufactured home one day and a behemoth mansion the next. For every day of the year, have adequate coverage for your risk exposure.
Think back to our story in the very beginning. The inspection client demanded $1 million. If the inspector went into that big home inspection with only $100,000 in insurance limits, the claim would’ve exceeded his allotted coverage.
Don’t risk having insufficient coverage for your services. Whether you need E&O coverage for allegedly missing a roof leak, general liability coverage for breaking the seller’s imported vase, or endorsements for ancillary services, your insurance shouldn’t hold you back. It should be your peace of mind.
To get a quote from the #1 home inspector insurance provider in the nation, fill out a free, no-obligation app.
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