Starting a pre purchase inspection business

[Onsite inspection guy]

Hello I am starting a business doing in depth pre purchase inspections on private, auction and dealer machinery. Any thing from construction equipment to farming equipment and there attachments and implements. I am a 10 year dealer certified mechanic and have experience with an overwhelming amount of different machine manufacturers. I have seen too many of my customers purchase equipment with out the ability to inspect the equipment they are buying and getting burned on the deal having to dump money into machines that they thought were going to make them money from the get go. the difference between my company and the other inspection companies you see is that I will be the one inspecting and addressing any concerns with what you are buying. My main goal is to put confidence into your purchase.

 

[chim]

On the surface, this sounds like a good idea. The first two things I can think of are these:

How would you have the ability to cover a large territory? The service would be most useful to people who are interested in a piece of equipment that is some distance from where they live.

What kind of guarantee would you give a customer that your evaluation is accurate, and what if you miss something? One of our kids used a home inspection service before buying a house. There was a long list of disclaimers that boiled down to "we made an effort, but we may have missed stuff - and that's your problem, not ours".

 

[kthompson]

I bought a used Volvo Mini Excavator about 12 years back. Based a lot upon the independent inspection. I questioned it for a five year old machine to only have five hours on it. Was told it was wrong machine for rental market it was in. Trucking company was to pick it up the next day and I called to verify all was ready and to give them notice. Happened to talk with the shop manager and mentioned the amazing low hours...he was quick to say the hour meter has been changed, it has more like 500 hours...salesman with Volvo was in the area and did his own inspection and came back with there is a track that is also not as represented. We came to an agreed to lower price. The salesman and I both came to the exact same price independent of each other. I have bought three used machines and found the dealer in each case was dead on with the machine. One Volvo, JD and Kubota. I had another dealer I had talked with about three times before pulling out for about a five hour drive call me back to tell me after thinking on what you are wanting in a tractor do not recommend this tractor, believe it will not meet your wants. Not sure he had a company label but an honest dealer in Virginia.

As to house inspection sold one twenty years ago, their inspector had two issues with our house, both bogus. Had general contractor confirm one and the other as electrician told them he is wrong on that electrical issue, pulled electrical book to prove it.

I worked about eight years as an inspector for a heavy equipment manufacturer from the individual parts to the machine completed and even loaded tested them. So I know the value of a qualified inspection but also have the same thoughts as does "chim". Would you have a standard check list that is provided to the potential buyer? Would there be fluid test?

 

[Onsite inspection guy]

I have a standard inspection list for the customer and am in the process of getting a fluid test kit put together. These are all great points abd i enjoy the feed back.

 

[PILOON]

I actually did pre purchase inspections for clients in my past.

Not on excavation related equipment but on aircraft.
Few buyers were interested but those that did were miles ahead.
In aviation research was easy in that documentation was available that listed most snags and directives issued plus log books confirmed their compliance or not.
Non compliance of a directive was means of negotiating price adjustments.

Now I practiced what I preached when I purchased a dozer by hiring a dozer mechanic for inspection.
Paid off big time as repairs could have cost me 25% of the asking price.
I simply agreed with the seller's price providing he made the repairs needed as his price was within my price range.
Worked out just great in my case since I earned 3 X purchase price and later sold for exact purchase price since it was still in great shape and merely cost me one hose and fuel over the time of ownership.

Go for it, but be warned it will be a hard sell.
Worst will be auctions that could take lots of time/travel B4 a satisfactory unit will be found that fills the bill.

I prompted a friend to hire a dozer mechanic B4 he entered negotiations on a local unit.
That was 5 years back and he still has (limited) usage of that old dozer. (it is close to being a wreck, LOL) It just pops a track from time to time.
LOL, I showed him how to make fixed spreaders to replace the hydraulic leaking ones but he is hard headed and I'm not about to step in and do that for him.

 

[dougtrr2]

What is your liability if something goes wrong? For example: You do your inspection and say everything looks good. The customer buys it and through no fault of his or yours, the transmission fails. Who picks up the tab for that? You are talking used equipment, anything can happen.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Onsite inspection guy]

With an oil sample you can tell a lot on what is happening inside of components my main focus would be overview and oil samples for example if i find a transmission with higher copper content i know that there is some excessive wear inside of that trans and my client should be made very well aware of it by my report back to them and yes i agree 100% this is used equipment and anything is possible but a qualified mehcanic will be able to tell you that there is more risk in buying this machine over that machine and that this machine has a better probablitly of major failure than that machine as far as doing liability how can you do liability do you mean warranty because if so that would be based on the buyer seller agreement on how long or if they do a warranty

 

[Firemanbuck]

Curious how you price your services? As a percentage of the final sale price or a fixed fee?

 

[dougtrr2]

...... as far as doing liability how can you do liability do you mean warranty because if so that would be based on the buyer seller agreement on how long or if they do a warranty

No, it is pretty simple. I paid you to give me advice on buying a machine that then fails. You don't think someone is going to come back to you???

 

[4570Man]

There’s errors and omissions insurance. Home inspectors are required to have it.