A building-wide inspection, not fourteen small ones.
Most inspectors treat an apartment building as a stack of small home inspections, or walk a few units and extrapolate. We do neither. We open every unit, document it on its own, and then look at the building as one system: the roof over all of it, the plumbing and electrical that serve every door, the stairs and walkways tenants use daily, and the sewer line everything drains into. That is how the recurring problems show up: the same corroded angle stop under nine kitchen sinks, the same stained ceiling under one section of roof, the same altered wiring behind every wall heater.
The inspection follows the ASTM E2018-15 framework for property condition assessments and the InterNACHI Standards of Practice, and it is performed by a 15-year journeyman plumber and licensed contractor who has spent a career inside the systems that fail first in older buildings.
- ✓ In every unit: electrical and GFCI protection, plumbing and water heaters, heating, appliances, windows and doors, finishes, water damage, unpermitted alterations, and photographs of every room.
- ✓ Roof & Exterior: roofing, flashing, drainage and penetrations walked where safe, plus stucco, siding, grading and site drainage. Flat and tile roofs alike.
- ✓ Structure & Site: visible foundation and framing, attic and crawlspace where accessible, parking, walkways, exterior stairs, landings, balconies and railings.
- ✓ Shared Systems: the electrical service and meter banks, central water heaters, laundry and mechanical rooms, with uninsurable panels such as Zinsco and Federal Pacific called out.
- ✓ Sewer Camera: the main lateral scoped and recorded, because one failed line under a 14-unit building is a 14-unit problem. Included in every scope.
- ✓ Asset Inventory: every water heater, furnace, panel and appliance photographed with its data plate and recorded with make, model, serial, age, condition and estimated remaining useful life.
Buyers in due diligence
A contingency period is short. You get a complete record of what you are buying, organized by significance, with repair cost ranges by trade, in time to negotiate or walk.
Owners & asset managers
Know what every unit and every system is worth in years, not guesses. The asset inventory turns deferred maintenance into a budget you can schedule.
Property management companies
A third-party baseline for the whole building, unit by unit, that stands apart from turnover reports and tenant complaints when ownership asks what the property needs.
Partners, lenders & syndications
An independent inspection by a Certified Professional Inspector, with photographs behind every finding, that every party reads in the same portal.
Pick the depth the decision needs.
Every proposal is written for the building in front of us, but most fall into one of three scopes. All three include the roof, the sewer camera and the photographic report in your portal.
Property Condition & Asset Assessment
For owners budgeting capital, or buyers who need the asset picture first.
- ✓ Walkthrough assessment of every unit
- ✓ Inventory of appliances, water heaters, heating equipment and other major assets
- ✓ Equipment age, typical lifespan and estimated remaining useful life
- ✓ General evaluation of exterior, common areas and shared systems
- ✓ Roof and sewer camera inspections
- ✓ Photographic report with maintenance and replacement priorities
Comprehensive Property Inspection
The scope we recommend for acquisitions and older buildings, where the building as a whole tells you more than any one unit.
- ✓ Everything in the asset assessment
- ✓ Full inspection of every unit: electrical, plumbing, heating, appliances, fixtures and interior components
- ✓ Visible foundation and structure, with accessible attic and crawlspace areas
- ✓ Roofing, siding, stucco, exterior surfaces, grading and drainage
- ✓ Parking, walkways, exterior stairs, landings, balconies and railings
- ✓ Accessible shared electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems
- ✓ Deficiencies organized by significance with recommended corrective actions
Roof, Sewer or Single-System
Often the first call when a specific problem or an insurance question is on the table.
- ✓ A focused report on one system: the roof, the main sewer lateral on camera, the electrical service or the plumbing
- ✓ Credited toward a larger scope if you go further within the same transaction
- ✓ See roof inspections and sewer line inspections
By unit count and scope, not by the hour.
We take advantage of the efficiency of inspecting a whole building at once and pass it on, and the proposal is written the same day you call. For scale, two recent proposals are shown here against our published single-apartment rate.
Pricing assumes coordinated access to every unit and one accessible main sewer cleanout. Additional sewer lines, mold sampling or other specialist testing is quoted separately when it is warranted. Remaining useful life estimates are for planning and are not guarantees of future performance. All residential pricing is published on the pricing page.
Comprehensive Property Inspection, two days on site. The asset assessment for the same building was proposed at $2,195.
Every unit inspected, building envelope and systems, sewer camera and plumbing testing, itemized deficiency report with a 1, 5 and 10-year capital forecast.
Our published rate for a single unit. Fourteen separate inspections would be $5,936 before the roof or the sewer.
One portal. Everything the decision needs.
The report, two ways
A live, searchable web report organized by building system and by unit, plus a designed PDF for the file and the lender.
Asset inventory
Every water heater, furnace, wall heater, panel, range, refrigerator, dishwasher, disposal and laundry machine, with make, model, serial, age, condition and estimated remaining useful life.
Deficiencies by significance
Safety items, items needing further evaluation, repairs and maintenance, each with photographs, the unit it was found in and a recommended corrective action.
Repair Planner
Findings priced in realistic Santa Barbara cost brackets and grouped by licensed trade, so bids can go out the same week. See the Repair Planner.
Sewer video
The recorded camera run of the main lateral, with the distance and condition of what we found, kept in the portal with the report.
Capital forecast, on request
For larger properties, a 1, 5 and 10-year replacement forecast built from the asset inventory, ready to drop into your underwriting model.
📱 See What You're Getting
No 200-page PDF data dump. The same interactive report we deliver on every home, organized by unit and by system for a building, with the photographs and cost brackets behind every finding.
What we refer out
Structural engineering, environmental sampling such as asbestos and lead, termite and pest reports, and the statutory balcony and elevated walkway inspections under SB 721 are performed by the licensed specialists those reports require. The proposal tells you which of them your building needs, and we coordinate access so they can be done on the same visit rather than a second round of tenant notices.
Related: commercial inspections for retail, office and light industrial buildings, and move-in and move-out inspections for individual turnovers once you own the building.
Multifamily Inspection FAQs
What owners, buyers and property managers ask before they book an apartment building inspection in Santa Barbara County.