Auckland · 2026 Edition
Building Inspection, Price Check or Builder’s Site Visit: Which Do You Need Before You Buy?
Get the building inspection first, because it finds the problems. A price check then puts a cost range on each item, and a builder’s site visit is for a house where the numbers are big or the report is unclear. Most buyers need the first two.
If you are buying your first house, or your first older one, it is hard to know which checks exist, who does them and what order they go in. This guide sets the three side by side. One thing to say up front: we are builders, not building inspectors. We do not carry out building inspections and nothing we sell replaces one. What we do is put prices on what the inspector found.
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The short answer
| Building inspection | Building Report Price Check | Builder’s site visit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | An inspection of the house and a written report on its condition | A desktop study that prices every item in your building report | A builder walks the house with your report in hand |
| Who does it | An independent property inspector you hire. Not us | Our Master Builder with our quantity surveyor (QS) | Our building team |
| What you get | A list of defects and the maintenance the house needs | A low–high price range for each item, marked urgent, soon or cosmetic | Up to 1 hour on site, then a written price update |
| Cost | Set by the inspector. Ask for a quote | $199 Standard, $299 Next working day | $449, or $250 if you already bought a Price Check on that house |
| Time | Ask the inspector when you book | 2 working days, or the next working day | Price update within 2 working days of the visit |
| Does it need a report first? | No. This is the report | Yes | Yes |
Our service prices include GST. We have left the inspection’s cost and timing in words on purpose: inspectors set their own fees and bookings, and we will not guess a figure for someone else’s service.
What a building inspection does and does not do
The inspection is the base everything else stands on. Settled.govt.nz, the government’s home-buying guide, says that before you buy you need to check the land and buildings to identify any significant defects and to understand what urgent or future maintenance is needed. Its advice is to hire an accredited property inspector and ask for a report that meets the New Zealand building inspection standard, NZS 4306:2005.
The same page makes four points worth knowing before you book:
- There is no licensing regime for inspectors in New Zealand. Settled lists professional bodies that register and accredit their members, which is the practical way to find a qualified one.
- Check the insurance. Settled says to make sure the inspector has a good level of indemnity insurance, so you are covered if something that should have been found is missed.
- Commission your own report. If you rely on a report the seller or agent hands you, you are not likely to be protected if a problem turns up later, because the inspector’s contract is with the seller.
- A builder is not the same thing. Settled lists “ask a builder to look at the property” as a separate option and notes that a builder may not provide a comprehensive report.
We agree with that last point, and we are builders. Inspecting a house and writing it up is the inspector’s trade. Pricing and fixing what they find is ours.
What an inspection does not do is just as useful to know. Settled is plain that an inspection may not find all the defects, and suggests you ask the inspector to highlight the areas they could not check and any risk areas that may need further investigation. And a building report tells you what is wrong, not what it costs to fix. That is the gap a price check fills.
Read the “could not inspect” list twice
The parts of the house the inspector could not get to are as important as the defects they found. When we price a report, we list what it could not see alongside the priced items, so you know which numbers are firm and which are open.
What a price check adds
A Building Report Price Check starts where the inspection stops. You send us the report. We send back:
- every item in the report priced as a low–high range including GST;
- each item marked urgent, soon or cosmetic, with the trade it needs;
- what the report could not see;
- one summary page you can take into the negotiation.
It is priced by a Master Builder with a QS (a quantity surveyor, the person who measures and costs building work) from our own Auckland jobs: 500+ projects since 2014.
It costs $199 including GST with a 2 working day turnaround, or $299 for the next working day. We take one next-working-day order per day, subject to availability. The clock starts when we have received your report and confirmed it.
Be clear on what it is not. It is a desktop study, which means we work from the report and do not visit the house. It is not a building inspection, and it is not a quote. Our guide to estimates, quotes and proposals explains the difference. We are also not an independent valuer or an independent QS. We are a building company pricing work we carry out ourselves, and you should read our numbers with that in mind.
The fee is credited: “If AVR does the work within 12 months, your report fee comes off the contract. It counts only against a signed contract and is never refunded as cash.”
When a builder’s site visit is worth it
Most buyers do not need one. A site visit earns its fee in three situations.
| Your situation | Why a visit helps |
|---|---|
| The priced list comes to a large sum | When big money rests on a few items, it is worth having a builder look at those items on the house itself. |
| The report is vague or hedged | Wording like “further investigation recommended” is hard to price from a desk. On site we can see how far the problem is likely to run. |
| The range on a key item is wide | Seeing access, the size of the area and what the work connects to lets us tighten the range. |
The pre-purchase site visit is $449 including GST. We spend up to 1 hour at the house with the report, and you get a written price update within 2 working days. We book it through the real estate agent, since the house is not yours yet, and there is no travel charge anywhere in Auckland.
If you have already paid for one of our reports on the same house, that fee comes off the $449, up to $199. So after a Price Check the visit costs $250. After a $99 cost plan it costs $350.
A site visit is still not a building inspection. We are there to price work, not to inspect the house. If you have no inspector’s report yet, get that first.
Where the free Instant Estimate fits
The Instant Estimate is our free online calculator. You answer a few questions and get a ballpark in minutes. It gives one range for a whole project, such as a bathroom, a kitchen or a full renovation. It does not read your building report and it cannot price a list of defects item by item.
It is most useful early, when you are comparing houses and want to know roughly what the renovation you have in mind would cost. It is the only free pricing step we offer buyers.
A simple order of steps
| Step | What to do | Who to talk to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | While you are looking, use the Instant Estimate for a rough renovation budget | No one. It is online and free |
| 2 | Once you are serious about a house, commission your own building inspection | An accredited property inspector |
| 3 | Read the report, including the list of what could not be inspected | The inspector, for anything you do not follow |
| 4 | Get the items priced | Us, with a Building Report Price Check |
| 5 | If the total is large or the report is unclear, book a site visit | Us, through the agent |
| 6 | Decide what to do with the number | Your lawyer, for your agreement and its conditions |
Step 6 is not ours to advise on. Settled explains that if a satisfactory property inspection report is a condition of your offer and the report is not satisfactory to you, you may be able to withdraw your offer on those grounds. What you can do under your own agreement, and by what date, is a question for your lawyer or conveyancer. For what your lender needs, ask the bank.
If you are planning changes to the house as well as repairs, our cost planning reports cover renovations, recladding and extensions in the same desktop format.
Other reports you may hear about
LIM (land information memorandum). A LIM is a report the local council prepares at your request. Settled describes it as a summary of the property information the council holds on the day it is produced, such as building consents, drainage, zoning and special land features like flooding. It is about the council’s records, not the condition of the building, and it will not show a problem the council has never been told about. Your lawyer or conveyancer can help you read it.
Weathertightness inspection. Settled says buildings with plaster-style monolithic cladding built between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s carry a high risk of leaking, and that you should get an independent building inspection or a weathertightness expert to look at a house of this type, because there may be no obvious signs. It adds that an inspector can use a moisture meter to indicate moisture problems without making holes in the walls. Any further or invasive testing they recommend is a specialist’s job, not ours.
Engineer’s or surveyor’s report. Settled describes this as similar to a property inspection report but more focused on the whole section and the structure of the property.
If the house you like has plaster cladding, read should you buy a plaster home in Auckland and our list of recladding warning signs before you offer. If the report points towards new cladding, a Recladding Cost Plan prices that one job from $99 including GST.
Inspection, price check and site visit FAQs
No. A Building Report Price Check is a desktop study that puts a price range on each item in a report an inspector has already written. We do not carry out building inspections.
Yes. The inspection finds the problems, and without it there is nothing for us to price. Settled.govt.nz recommends an accredited property inspector and a report that meets NZS 4306:2005.
You can ask one, but it is not what the government’s guide recommends. Settled notes that a builder may not provide a comprehensive report and tells buyers to check the level of indemnity insurance. We do not offer inspections; our site visit is for pricing a house that already has a report.
Our Price Check is $199 including GST, or $299 for the next working day, and the pre-purchase site visit is $449 including GST. The Instant Estimate is free. Building inspectors set their own fees, so ask the inspector for a quote before you book.
The building inspection. A price check and a site visit both work from the inspector’s report, so they come after it. The only step you can take before the inspection is the free Instant Estimate, for a rough renovation budget.
Yes. What you paid for any of our reports on the same house comes off the $449, up to $199. After a Price Check the visit is $250, and after a $99 cost plan it is $350.
Yes. The site visit has no travel charge anywhere in Auckland and is booked through the agent. The Price Check is a desktop study priced from our own Auckland jobs, so nobody needs to visit the house for it.
Got a building report and need the numbers?
A Price Check puts a low–high range on every item in the report your inspector wrote. Two working days, or next working day.
See the Building Report Price Check · $199 →
