THE SHORT ANSWER
Decide with two tests rather than by instinct. First, job value: below your own threshold, often somewhere between two and four thousand, a site visit costs more in time than it adds in conversion. Second, scope variance: if the price could plausibly double once you see the property, visit regardless of value. Video surveys cover a growing middle ground. The point is to protect survey hours for the work where being in the room genuinely decides the outcome.
Survey time is the scarcest resource a small contracting business owns. A visit is rarely just the hour on site; with travel, preparation and the write-up afterwards it is closer to half a day once you count honestly. Spend it on the wrong enquiries and you have no capacity left for the ones that would have paid for the month.
Yet the reflex in most trades is to visit everything, on the reasonable grounds that being in the room converts better. That is true and it is not free. The question is not whether visits help, it is which enquiries deserve one, and the answer should be a written rule rather than a decision made afresh on every call.
The numbers, at a glance
True cost of a site visit: typically two to four hours once travel, the survey and the write-up are counted together
Common value threshold: most contractors land somewhere between EUR 2,000 and EUR 4,000 of job value as the line for an automatic visit
The scope-variance override: visit regardless of value whenever access, structure or hidden condition could move the price by half
Video survey coverage: a workable substitute on a meaningful share of mid-value jobs, at roughly a quarter of the time cost
The two tests, applied in order
Value test. Is the likely job worth more than your threshold. Set the number once, in writing, and calculate it from your own hourly recovery rather than copying someone else's.
Variance test. Could the real price differ from the phone estimate by more than about half. Roof structure, damp, wiring age, access for plant and anything hidden behind a wall all trigger this.
If either says visit, visit. The tests are an or, not an and, because a cheap job that turns out to be twice the estimate destroys the margin on it entirely.
If both say no, price remotely. Photographs, measurements and a short video walk-through will usually do it, with a clearly stated assumption list.
What being in the room actually buys you
Three things, and it is worth being clear about which of them you need. Accuracy, because you see the condition rather than the description. Scope expansion, because homeowners point at other work once somebody competent is standing there, and this is frequently the largest hidden value of a visit. And trust, because a person in your kitchen is a different proposition from a document in your inbox.
On a two thousand painting job the accuracy is achievable from photographs, the scope expansion is limited and the trust matters less because the risk is small. On a fifteen thousand extension all three are decisive. That is the entire logic of the threshold, and it explains why the right answer differs so much between trades.
Pricing remotely without exposing yourself
Remote pricing fails when it pretends to certainty it does not have. The fix is an explicit assumption list: this price assumes the substrate is sound, assumes standard access, assumes no asbestos, assumes the existing pipework is where the photographs suggest. Each assumption is a named condition under which the number changes, and stating them protects the quotation without hedging the whole thing into uselessness.
Ask for better inputs than most contractors do. Four photographs from specified angles, a video walk-through narrated by the homeowner, and two measurements taken with a tape rather than estimated. People comply readily when told exactly what is needed and why it produces a firmer price, and the quality of a remote quotation rises sharply with those three inputs.
Booking the visit is itself a qualification event
Whether someone will commit to a specific two-hour window in their own home is one of the strongest signals of genuine intent available anywhere in the process. It costs the homeowner real time and forces a small decision. An enquiry that resists any concrete date, repeatedly, is usually still in the research phase whatever the words suggest.
That makes the offer of a visit useful even when you are prepared to price remotely. Offer both, and let the choice inform your expectations: the homeowner who wants you there on Thursday is closer to buying than the one who would prefer a figure by email, and your follow-up effort should be allocated accordingly.
Writing your own visit rule
Calculate the true cost of a survey including travel and write-up, then price it against your hourly recovery.
Set a job-value threshold as a number and write it down where the team can apply it.
List the conditions that override the threshold and trigger a visit at any value.
Build a standard request for four photographs, one video walk-through and two measurements.
Attach an explicit assumption list to every remotely produced quotation.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote.
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Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Do video surveys actually convert as well as visits?
On mid-value straightforward work, close enough that the time saved is worth the small difference. On larger or structurally uncertain jobs they do not, mostly because the scope-expansion conversation does not happen on a screen. Use them to extend your reach, not to replace your best surveys.
What if the homeowner insists on a visit for a small job?
Go, but book it into a route with other calls rather than as a standalone trip. Insistence is itself a buying signal, and refusing on efficiency grounds reads as disinterest. Efficiency comes from clustering visits geographically, not from declining them.
Should I charge for surveys?
It filters aggressively, which is useful once demand exceeds capacity and damaging before that point. Where it works best is complex diagnostic work with genuine expertise attached, credited against the job if it proceeds. On routine replacement work a fee mostly sends enquiries to the firm next door.
How do I stop visits eating the whole week?
Cluster them by area on fixed days, cap the number per week, and enforce the threshold rule even when an enquiry sounds appealing. Most overrun comes from making exceptions, and exceptions are easier to refuse when the rule was written down in advance.
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