You just got your home inspection report and your first question is the same one almost every buyer asks: “Okay, but what’s this going to cost me to fix?”
That’s a completely reasonable question. You’re making a huge financial decision, you’re probably under contract with a deadline, and you want to know what you’re looking at before you commit. The problem is that some inspection reports are now attempting to answer that question directly — with dollar figures attached to individual findings, generated by software and presented with the confidence of a contractor’s estimate.
They are not contractor estimates. And the gap between what those numbers say and what a contractor will actually quote you can be significant enough to affect your negotiating position, your budget, and your decision about whether to buy the house at all.
This post is about what a home inspection report actually is, what it should and shouldn’t tell you, and how to use it as the tool it’s designed to be.
What a Home Inspection Report Is Actually For
A home inspection is a visual assessment of a home’s condition at a specific point in time. The inspector walks the property, observes what’s accessible and visible, and documents findings — things that are deficient, things that are worn, things that warrant further evaluation, and things that are operating as intended. The report is a record of those observations.
What a home inspector is not is a contractor. Even if like me, they also do contracting work, that is not their role in the course of the inspection. Most inspectors have never held a general contractor’s license, managed a subcontractor, written a bid, or stood behind a completed job. They are trained to identify and describe conditions, not to scope and price the work required to correct them.
What does a home inspector look for? That distinction matters more than it might seem. Check out my inspections page for a clear breakdown of what I’m actually looking for to get a better understanding of what a home inspection does and (importantly) does not include.
The Repair Estimate Problem
Over the past several years, home inspection software platforms have started offering repair cost estimate features as a premium add-on. The pitch to inspectors is straightforward: give your clients more value, help them understand the financial weight of what they’re looking at, and differentiate yourself from the competition. Some of the largest names in inspection software have made this tool a prominent part of their platform.
The problem is that the underlying data doesn’t reflect how contractors actually price work — especially in New Hampshire and Vermont.
I’ve spent more than twenty years as a general contractor. I’ve bid work alongside other contractors on the exact same scope, and the spread between bids on identical jobs is often wide enough that you’d wonder if we were looking at the same building. That’s not incompetence. It’s the reality of how construction pricing works.
A company with a full office, middle management, company vehicles, workers comp premiums across multiple trades (roofing workers comp alone is a significant expense), and employee health benefits has a fixed overhead that has to be priced into every job before the first nail is driven. A two-person operation with low overhead can price the same work legitimately for a third less and still make money. Neither number is wrong. They’re just two different businesses with two different cost structures.
Beyond that, contractors rarely bid apples to apples. The method, the materials, the level of finish, the subcontractors used, the warranty offered — all of it varies. New Hampshire doesn’t license contractors at all. Vermont recently enacted a registration requirement that functions more as a fee collection mechanism than an oversight system. In a market like ours, there’s an enormous range of what “fixing the problem” actually means, and no algorithm accounts for that range.
A repair estimate generated by inspection software is not a contractor’s quote. It’s a number produced by a tool that has never seen your house, doesn’t know your market, and has no accountability for what the work actually costs when someone shows up to do it.
Why This Is More Than a Pricing Problem
Here’s where it gets more serious.
A home inspector identifying a defect is not the same as a qualified person scoping the repair — and those are two very different things. Identifying that there’s a problem and understanding what it takes to fix it require different knowledge, different experience, and different access to the structure.
I’ll give you a real example. If I see evidence of rot at a couple of points along a sill plate, I can document that finding accurately. What I can’t tell you — what nobody can tell you from a visual inspection — is what’s happening behind the vinyl siding covering the rest of that wall. When a contractor pulls the bottom two courses of siding to assess and address the work, the picture often changes completely. What looked like a localized repair becomes something else. A job that might have been a few thousand dollars can become substantially more, and that discovery happens after the inspection, after the negotiation, and sometimes after the closing.
Here’s another salient point: in almost every old house I’ve worked on in New Hampshire and Vermont, one issue begets another. Siding needs some repairs. We strip the affected section. Sheathing is rotten. Sheathing is not modern sheet goods, it’s rough sawn pine boards which are not the same thickness as any commercially available material, so we now realize we are custom shimming out to finished thickness before we can apply new siding. Uh oh, just realized the bottom 12″ of the studs are soft. Can’t ignore that, now can we? Okay we are sistering on some new studs, but wait a sec, this sill is rotten and there are insects swarming out. I think you get the picture.
As a builder, I would never give a client a confident fixed price on that kind of work from a visual look. I’d give them a range with clear caveats, explain what we’d know once we opened things up, and be transparent about time and materials rates for the unknowns. That’s the honest version of the answer.
When an inspector — without construction experience, without licensing, without any ability to open walls — attaches a dollar figure to that same finding and publishes it in a report, they’ve created a number that will travel through the transaction with the authority of a professional assessment. Buyers rely on it. Realtors reference it. It shapes negotiations. And when the contractor shows up and the real scope reveals itself, there’s no mechanism to walk it back.
The inspector has moved on. The buyer is left holding the gap between the report’s number and the actual invoice.
What My Reports Do Instead
When I find something that needs attention, I describe it clearly — what it is, where it is, why it matters, and what category of professional should evaluate or address it. If it’s a roofing issue, I’ll tell you to get a roofing contractor out there. If it’s an electrical concern, a licensed electrician. If it’s a foundation question that warrants more than a visual assessment, I’ll say that too.
I’m happy to explain what I see and what it infers in terms of a scope, but I’ll also probably tell you what complications might arise, what unknowns there are, and what can of worms that you are being offered.
What I won’t do is tell you it costs $4,200 to fix when I have no idea what the contractor is going to find once they’re actually doing the work.
That might feel like less information than a report with dollar signs next to every finding. I’d argue it’s more honest information, and more useful — because it doesn’t send you into a negotiation or a contractor conversation anchored to a number that was never real in the first place.
My background as a working general contractor does inform the report in other ways. I know what I’m looking at when I see how a roof was flashed, how a framing connection was made, or how a drainage situation is likely to behave over time. That context shows up in how findings are described and prioritized, not in fabricated repair pricing.
How to Use Your Report Effectively
When you receive a home inspection report, the most useful thing you can do with it is treat it as a list of items that need contractor eyes — not a repair budget.
Take the significant findings, get actual quotes from licensed or experienced tradespeople in the relevant field, and use those quotes to inform your negotiating position. A real contractor assessment of a real problem is actionable. You’ve now got someone who actually agreed to do specific work they have identified for an actual price they have agreed to. A software-generated estimate is a placeholder that may or may not survive contact with reality.
If your report includes repair cost estimates, read them with that in mind. They may give you a rough order of magnitude for very standard work in very predictable situations. That’s if the inspector was actually qualified to identify a scope in the first place. For anything structural, anything concealed, anything that involves opening walls or disturbing existing systems, treat those numbers as a starting point for a conversation with a contractor, not a final answer.
The inspection report is one of the most valuable tools in a real estate transaction when it’s used for what it’s actually good at: an honest picture of the home’s condition from someone who has looked at it carefully and knows what they’re seeing. That’s what it should be, and that’s what it is.
Austin Reida is a licensed home inspector and the owner of Resonant Homes LLC, serving buyers, sellers, and investors across New Hampshire and Vermont. He has operated an active general contracting firm for more than twenty years. Schedule your home inspection here.
FAQs
What does a home inspection report include?
A home inspection report documents the condition of a home’s major systems and components as observed during a visual assessment. This typically includes the roof, foundation, structure, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, insulation, windows, doors, and exterior. Findings are described along with their location, condition, and recommended next steps.
Should a home inspection report include repair costs?
Most professional standards of practice do not require inspectors to estimate repair costs, and there are good reasons for that. Repair pricing depends on contractor overhead, materials, market conditions, and the full scope of the problem — none of which can be determined from a visual inspection alone. Reports that include cost estimates are using software-generated figures, not contractor quotes, and those numbers can vary significantly from real bids.
How do I know which findings in an inspection report are serious?
Inspectors typically categorize findings by severity — safety concerns, significant defects, and items to monitor are common distinctions. If a finding is unclear, ask your inspector directly. A good inspector will help you understand which items need immediate attention, which are typical for the age and type of home, and which require a specialist’s evaluation before you can know the full scope.
What should I do after receiving a home inspection report?
Review the report with your inspector if possible, and focus on the significant findings first. For anything structural, mechanical, or involving concealed systems, get a quote from a qualified contractor in that trade before finalizing your negotiating position. Use the report as a roadmap for those conversations, not as a repair budget.
Does a home inspector tell you what needs to be fixed?
A home inspector identifies and describes conditions that are deficient or in need of attention. They don’t determine what specific repairs are required — that’s the contractor’s role once they assess the problem directly. A good inspection report will tell you what the condition is, why it matters, and what kind of professional should evaluate or address it.
How is Resonant Homes’ inspection report delivered?
Reports are delivered digitally, typically within 24 hours of the inspection. They include narrative descriptions of findings, photographs, and clear categorization of items by priority.