Commercial Property Inspections

Commercial property inspections start with two primary decisions.
First, choosing the right inspection format, and then second, choose the right inspection firm that knows how to follow that format. The inspection format is important as some lenders, especially on large projects, may require the ASTM guideline or portions of that guideline that may be excluded in another format. Having a conversation with our commercial team manager can help you understand options and come up with a list of items to ask your lender to ensure we tailor the inspection scope to fit your requirements.

How to choose a commercial inspection firm?
When choosing an inspection firm, you need to consider a number of factors that include the extent of the inspection, scope of work limitations, and what the inspection firm’s experience and education can bring to the table. Experience, education, team size, specialty inspections resource list, availability, technical training… Some firms have engineering teams on staff, others outsource as needed. Certainly having resources such as in house structural, mechanical, and environmental engineers can sometimes speed up an inspection process, but this ongoing overhead also can increase prices or cause delays as your project waits for those resources to become available. Other firms work with multiple independent specialists and pull these experienced professionals in as needed to complete a project.

At the end of the day, the commercial inspection manager will coordinate the resources needed and pull them all together into a consolidated final report. When you call to discuss your inspection needs there should be an in-depth discussion on the property characteristics, future use plans, and who will be the end users of this report. Once that information is gathered, we work on contacting subspecialists to understand their availability and costs and then create a written proposal for us to review and fine tune for your project.

What type of inspection format do I need?
The two most popular commercial property inspection standards are:

The ASTM Guideline on Property Condition Assessments (PCAs): Evergreen Property Inspectors is an active member in ASTM and offers inspections that conform to the ASTM Standard E2018-15. https://www.astm.org/e2018-15.html

This PCA format is often used for large projects and those that are using Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financing.

Commercial Property Inspection Standards by CCPIA (Certified Commercial Property Inspectors Association) https://ccpia.org/  This format is used for small to mid-size projects such as a retail locations, hotel, auto shop, warehouse, light industrial, office buildings,  multi-family investments of 150 units or less.

Video on commercial services
We can help talk you through the pros and cons of choosing various commercial building inspection standards or guidelines so you can meet the needs of your lender or other investor requirements.

Call us today to learn about your commercial property inspection options and we together we can create a plan to fit your needs. Learn more on our commercial property inspections website page.

William Frost
William.Frost@EvergreenPropertyInspectors.com
877-805-5255
9648 Olive Blvd Ste 370
St. Louis, MO 63132