Pricing inspection findings as a buyer's agent

How do you price a finding so it doesn't read like a wish list?

Put a dollar figure on every line of a repair request, sourced to something other than your own opinion: a contractor's bid, an inspector's priced add-on, a report-pricing service, or, for background only, a national cost guide. Next to each figure, state the source, the scope of the work, and the report page it came from. An unpriced line reads as a guess; a number traced to a named source gives the listing side something specific to counter instead of a flat no.

What are your options, and what does each cost you in time?

Ask today for pricing on inspection findings and the tools that answer are built for the inspector, not you. Spectora's help documents and Repair Pricer both assume the person adding the price is the one who wrote the report. What matters for a repair request is whose name ends up on the number: your contractor, the inspector (via Repair Pricer or Spectora's Cost Estimator, Spectora), a named report-pricing service, or, for background only, a national cost guide publisher. For the time and dollar cost of each option, see how to get repair estimates during the inspection period; for report-pricing services compared by name, see inspection report repair estimate services compared.

Should you price a finding yourself, or attach someone else's number?

Attach someone else's number. A figure with a named source and a shown basis is easier to defend to the listing side than a number you made up yourself. Your broker decides what you're permitted to put in writing on a repair request, so check with them before you price anything yourself.

How do you present a figure so it reads as sourced, not a wish list?

Put three things next to every dollar figure: the basis (who priced it and how), the scope (exactly what's included), and the report page the finding came from. The table below writes the same finding two ways.

The listing side can verify the scope against their own report and see where the number came from on the second line, not the first.

Use this when you hand the request to the listing agent:

"Here's the repair request. Each line has the finding, the report page it's from, and a dollar figure with a source attached, a contractor bid, an inspector estimate, or a priced memo. Everything on here is sourced, so you're not taking our word for it, you're checking where each number came from."

Which findings should skip a desk estimate entirely?

Some findings don't belong on any desk estimate, software or otherwise: foundation structural movement, a whole-house repipe, and regrading or drainage correction are the clearest examples. Kept's own repair-cost memo marks these as needing a professional quote rather than pricing them, because the real cost depends on what a contractor finds once they open a wall or dig a drain line, not on a formula. Handle these the same way no matter which pricing option you're using elsewhere on the request: get the specialist out during the contingency window, and list the line as "pending contractor quote," not as a placeholder number.

One-screen checklist, per report

• Every finding on the request has a dollar figure attached, not left blank.
• Each figure names its source: contractor, inspector add-on, report-pricing service, or (background only) a cost guide.
• Each figure states the scope of the work, not just a trade name.
• Each figure cites the report page the finding came from.
• Structural, whole-house repipe, and drainage findings are marked "pending contractor quote," not priced.
• The request states the metro the figures are based on, not just a street address.
• Nothing on the request is your own price opinion with no source attached.

How do you write the repair request as the buyer's agent?

Name the finding in the inspector's own words, the report section it came from, the specific remedy, and a dollar figure with its source, on every line, the way the table above does. Hand the filled request to the listing agent with the same one-line summary given earlier on this page: "Each line has the finding, the report page it's from, and a dollar figure with a source attached." For a copyable blank template and a worked example using real line items from Kept's sample memo, see the buyer repair request letter template.

Does your state have a form for this instead of a letter?

Your state Realtor association may publish a standard form for this instead of a freestanding letter. The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors publishes Form BRI, "Buyer's Reply to Inspections/Reports or Written Corrective Proposal," which it says is used "to notify the seller of the buyer's choice to accept the property or renegotiate the agreement" (Pennsylvania Association of Realtors). Where your state or brokerage doesn't have a form like that, you draft the request yourself. Either way, the request names the following:

How does this work across several deals in contingency at once?

Running this checklist on every report is what makes several contingencies at once manageable. Fix your sources before the window opens on any of them: your go-to contractors for anything over a dollar threshold you set, one report-pricing service you already trust for the rest, and a standing rule that structural, repipe, and drainage findings always go to a specialist rather than a desk estimate. With the sources and the format fixed in advance, the deal-specific work shrinks to reading the new report, dropping findings into that structure, and sending.

If you're pricing a request against a deadline this week, Kept turns the report into an itemized repair-cost memo, usually under 4 hours: try Kept.

Sources

• Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, "Buyer's Reply to Inspections/Reports or Written Corrective Proposal" (as of 2026-09-20)
• Spectora, "Why Use Repair Pricer with Spectora?" (as of 2026-09-19)
• Spectora, "How to Use the Cost Estimator" (as of 2026-09-19)