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How Kept prices a repair
Kept prices each finding from trade wages, materials, and local tax, not a flat guess. A memo on your full report costs $79, usually under 4 hours.
Updated · By 
Ben Sikes
How does Kept price a repair from an inspection report?
Kept Inspect reads your home inspection report PDF and builds a price for each finding from parts you can check. Each price is labor hours at the trade's wage, anchored to BLS wage data for your metro, plus materials, plus the adders a contractor charges (trip, permit, equipment, disposal, markup), then local sales tax. The memo shows those parts on every line, so you can see where a figure comes from before you put it in a repair request.
A memo costs $79 and comes back usually under 4 hours. It is written for home buyers and buyer's agents. Kept does not perform or sell repair work.
What is inside one line's price?
The public sample memo on the Kept home page prices a fictional house in the Nashville metro. These are its three worked lines, part by part.
| Finding (sample memo) | Trade | Labor (hours at hourly wage) | Materials | Trip | Disposal | Permit | Markup | Line total | Label | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replace about 140 square feet of cracked and lifted asphalt shingles, with new underlayment | Roofing | 8 h at $78 = $624 | $356 | $175 | $121 | none | $163 | $1,439 | modeled | Kept sample memo |
| Replace a 14-year-old 50-gallon gas water heater, adding an expansion tank, drain pan and relief line | Plumbing | 5 h at $96 = $480 | $1,296 | $100 | $60 | $75 | $364 | $2,375 | modeled | Kept sample memo |
| Extend 3 downspouts to discharge at least 4 feet from the foundation | Exterior | 1.5 h at $62 = $93 | $85 | $75 | none | none | $40 | $293 | modeled | Kept sample memo |
The sample memo lists 27 findings and totals $13,760. The three lines above are $4,107 of that.
Where do the wage figures come from?
Trade wages are anchored to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program for your metro. BLS describes the program this way: it "produces employment and wage estimates annually for approximately 830 occupations," and the estimates "are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas."
The wage is a metro figure. The home's address decides which metro's wages apply.
Why do some lines show a range and others a single number?
A line shows a range scaled to the model's confidence on that line. A line the model is confident in carries a single figure. A line with less confidence carries a low and a high figure around it.
Which findings does Kept not price with the formula?
Some findings are marked as needing a professional quote instead of a modeled number: foundation structural movement, a whole-house repipe, regrading and drainage correction, and similar. The cost of those depends on what a contractor or engineer finds on site, and a formula figure would be a guess. The memo tells you which lines those are, so your calls go to the findings that need them. For the ways to get those figures before your deadline, see how to get repair estimates during your inspection period.
What does Kept not claim?
- Kept publishes no accuracy percentage.
- Kept does not replace a contractor walk-through. A contractor on site sees conditions an inspection report does not record.
- A memo is a cost estimate by Kept. It is not the inspector's professional opinion or recommendation.
How do you use a modeled figure in a repair request?
Put the figure, the scope and the trade on the line, and name where the figure came from. For wording, see the buyer repair request letter template. For which findings belong on the list at all, see what to ask for after a home inspection.
If your inspection period is already running, send your report to Kept Inspect: $79, usually under 4 hours, with the parts of every price shown.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (as of 2026-09-19)
Cost figures are modeled from public wage and materials data unless a line says observed. Kept is accountable for the numbers on this page, and corrections go to support@usekept.com.