Home repair estimate template for home buyers (free)

What should a home buyer's repair estimate template include?

One row per inspection finding, with eight columns: the finding, the report page, the trade, the scope, where the figure came from, a low cost, a high cost, and what you'll ask the seller for. Copy the blank table below into a spreadsheet and fill in a row for each finding you plan to raise.

Most free templates online are built for contractors. They carry a client block, labor rates and a profit line, because the contractor uses them to bill you. You need a list of priced asks that the seller's side can check against the report.

Key takeaways

• One finding per row, so the seller can agree to some lines without reopening the whole list.
• Every figure needs a named source: a contractor quote, a dated cost guide, or a priced memo.
• Big structural items get "quote needed," not a guess. Book that contractor first.

The home repair estimate template

Paste it into a spreadsheet or a document and add rows as you go.

How do you fill in each column?

Not every finding deserves a row. Sort them first with how to read a home inspection report, then decide what's worth raising with what to ask for after a home inspection.

How do you estimate the cost of home repairs as a buyer?

You have three ways to get a figure:

• A contractor's written quote. The strongest number, and the slowest to get inside your inspection window.
• A national cost guide, named and dated in the source column.
• A priced memo built from your report. Kept prices every line of an inspection report for $79, usually under 4 hours.

Whatever the source, a line price has the same parts: labor hours at local trade wages, materials, the adders a contractor charges (trip, permit, equipment, disposal, markup), then sales tax. Here's one line from Kept's public sample memo, a rear-slope shingle repair on a fictional house in the Nashville metro, shown before tax.

Use these parts to check the quotes you get. A quote with no trip or disposal line may add them later, so ask. The full breakdown is in how Kept prices a line.

Some findings shouldn't get a desk figure at all: foundation movement, a whole-house repipe, regrading for drainage. Write "quote needed" in Low and High and book the contractor first. For every way to get a number before your deadline, see how to get repair estimates during the inspection period.

What does a filled-in template look like?

Here are the three priced lines from the same sample memo. The memo lists where each finding is rather than a report page, so that column shows the location. It gives one figure per line, so Low and High match.

If the seller would rather not do the work, $4,107 is your credit ask, and every dollar of it points at a specific finding.

Can you use this template in Google Sheets, Word, or as a PDF?

Yes. Select the blank table and paste it into Google Sheets. If everything lands in one column, click Data, then Split text to columns, and set a custom separator of the vertical bar. From Sheets, download the finished table as a PDF to send your agent.

Google Docs' Markdown support covers bold, italics, links and headings, not tables. For Word or Docs, build the table in Sheets first, then copy it across.

How is this different from a contractor's estimate template?

A contractor's template prices a job they plan to sell you. The improveit360 guide ends with "Calculating Profit Margin and Finalizing the Estimate," and Smartsheet's templates are for "general contractors, estimators, and construction managers."

Yours does a different job. It turns the report into priced asks, each tied to a page the seller's side can check. You don't need a profit line or a client block. You need a source for every figure.

How do you turn the estimate into a repair request?

Each row becomes one line of your request: the finding, the page, the ask, and the dollar figure with its source. The buyer repair request letter template gives you the wording around each line. If your inspector used Spectora, its Repair Request Builder takes one figure per line.

Whether a row becomes a repair, a credit or a price reduction is covered in repairs vs. credit vs. price reduction. Your contract sets the deadline for the request, so confirm the date with your agent.

Should you ask for the low or the high number?

Ask for the figure you can back up. With one written quote, use it. With a range, the high end covers scope that grows once a roof or wall is opened, and the low end is where you can settle if the seller pushes back.

Do you need a contractor quote for every line?

No. Get quotes on the big or uncertain items and price the rest from a named source. What matters is that every number has one, so the seller's agent can't wave it off as a guess.

If your template has empty Low and High columns and your window closes this week, upload your inspection report to Kept: $79 per memo, usually under 4 hours.

Sources

• improveit360: How to create a home repair estimate
• Smartsheet: free construction estimate templates
• Google Sheets Help: split text into columns
• Google Docs Help: use Markdown in Google Docs, Slides and Drawings