Severe is not the same as expensive: how inspection findings split by seriousness
In Bay Area inspection reports the severe label is set before the estimate; it tells you what to look at first, not what you will spend.
Each line is one label, from its share of the 658 priced findings in 22 Bay Area inspection reports, left, to its share of the total estimate, right: severe rises from 12% to 19%, moderate rises from 47% to 55% and minor falls from 41% to 26%.
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Inspectors describe what they find; they rarely rate it.
Insite gives every priced finding in a report one of three labels, Severe, Moderate or Minor, together with a separate urgency and a separate estimate. The labels are Insite’s, not the inspector’s. A label is about how serious the condition is, not what it costs: it does not depend on the estimate.
Across the 22 reports Insite priced 658 findings. 81 of them (12%) are labelled severe, 310 moderate and 267 minor.
Every report, one dot
The chart gives each report one dot, placed at the share of its priced findings labelled severe, and reports with the same share stack up in one column. Shares are rounded to the nearest 5%.
Each dot is one report, in the column for its share labelled severe to the nearest 5%; the left end is reports with no severe finding or almost none.
The median share labelled severe, report by report, is 12%, and the middle half runs from 7% to 21%. Four of the 22 reports have no severe finding. Counted rather than shared, the most severe findings in one report is 10, in two reports.
Why three labels
Insite assigns the label at the step where it scopes the repair: it asks that step to pick one of three labels, Severe, Moderate or Minor, for each priced finding before it is priced. The step has no written rubric for the three, so the best description of each label is what lands in it. These labels are Insite’s own reading of each priced finding, not the inspector’s: most Bay Area reports do not rate items, they describe them.
62% of the 81 severe findings are in the Safety Issues and Electrical categories, with HVAC and Structural next; the issues labelled severe most often are safety items. Moderate is the middle label: it holds the most findings, 310 of 658, and 289 of them are marked Within 6 Months. Minor holds the maintenance-scale items, with the lowest median estimate per finding, $357, and all 81 findings marked Long-Term.
The three are kept apart since they answer different questions. The label says how serious a condition is, the urgency says when to deal with it, and the estimate says what it might cost. A finding can be serious and cheap, or minor and costly, and each answer would be lost if one stood in for the others.
Severe is not the same as expensive
The chart sets each label’s share of the 658 priced findings, on the left, against its share of the total estimate, $464,096 across those findings, on the right.
Each line joins one label’s share of the priced findings, left, to its share of the total estimate, right; a line that rises carries more of the estimate than of the findings.
Severe findings are 12% of the findings and 19% of the estimate, so the severe line rises; the moderate line rises from 47% to 55% and the minor line falls from 41% to 26%.
Severe findings take a larger share of the estimate than of the findings, so some severe findings carry large estimates. A total, though, says little about the typical finding.
The median severe finding is estimated at $589, close to the median moderate finding at $573; the median minor finding is $357. The next chart shows each label’s median estimate per finding and the middle half of its estimates.
The dot is the median estimate for one finding in each label; the band runs over the middle half of those estimates.
The middle halves of the severe and moderate estimates overlap: severe runs from $330 to $1,354, moderate from $357 to $937 and minor from $228 to $582. The label tells you what to look at first, not what you will spend.
What is labelled severe
The chart shows where the 81 severe findings fall, by the category Insite gives each finding. Each arc runs around its ring by its category’s count of severe findings, and the longest arc, a full three-quarter turn, is the category with the most.
Arcs run outermost first in the legend’s order. Four more categories hold 10 severe findings between them: Exterior, Roofing, Insulation & Ventilation and Plumbing.
The Safety Issues category holds 34 of the 81 severe findings (42%). Electrical follows with 16 (20%). Within Safety Issues itself, 48% of the 71 findings are labelled severe. The chart draws the five categories with the most; four more with at least two severe findings are named in its note. Categories with a single severe finding are left out; the one other severe finding falls in one of those.
The next chart goes to named issues: the homes where Insite labelled an issue severe at least once, each marked on a track that runs from none of the 22 homes to all of them.
The track runs from none of the 22 homes to all of them; the count is at the end of each row. An issue is shown only when it is labelled severe in at least two homes.
Two issues lead, each severe in 5 of 22 homes: electrical panel / breaker issues and smoke / CO detectors missing, old or untested. Two follow with 4 each: stair / guard rail safety and dryer vent damaged, crimped or wrong material.
All of the recurring severe items are safety items: in plain words, electrical panels, smoke and CO detectors, stair and guard railings, dryer vents and panel covers. As a category, gas systems also hold 4 severe findings.
Severe and urgent are different words
Insite sets an urgency separately for each finding: Immediate, Within 6 Months or Long-Term. The grid crosses the two: each tile counts the findings with one label and one urgency, and the darker the tile, the more findings it holds.
Rows are labels and columns are urgencies; each finding counts once, in its label’s row and its urgency’s column. One shade scale runs across every tile, so the darkest tile is the largest count in the grid.
67 of the 81 severe findings (83%) are marked Immediate; the other 14 are Within 6 Months. 289 of the 310 moderate findings are Within 6 Months. Seven minor findings are marked Immediate: urgency is set separately from the label, so a small item can still be one to do now.
Does age or price change the mix?
We split the reports by when the house was built and by its price, one at a time. The price is the asking price, or the sale price for the 2 homes where only that was published. A band is shown only when it holds at least three homes, and a home missing a fact is left out of that split.
There is no straight line from age to the share of findings labelled severe: the highest medians tie at 13% (Built 1960–1979 and Built 1980 or later), the lowest 10% (Built before 1960). Nearly every home in each age band has a severe finding: 4 of the 5 homes built before 1960, 7 of the 8 built 1960–1979 and 4 of the 5 built 1980 or later.
There is no straight line from price to the share of findings labelled severe: the highest median is 19% ($4M and up), the lowest 10% (Under $2M). More than half the homes in each price band have a severe finding: all 4 homes under $2M, all 6 at $2M–$3M, 3 of the 5 at $3M–$4M and 3 of the 4 at $4M and up.
Treat gaps between bands as rough. Each band holds a handful of homes, between 4 and 8; prices follow region, and most of a region’s reports come from one inspection firm.
Three things to do with the labels
If you have a report with Insite’s labels in hand, start here.
- Read the severe findings first. They are 12% of the priced findings here, and 18 of 22 homes have at least one.
- Check each severe finding’s page and photo in the report, so you see what the inspector saw and not only the label.
- Ask the inspector about each finding Insite labels severe: is it a safety item, damage, or a system that does not work.
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