Is the Drive Worth It?

The Pre-Quote Site Visit in a Small Property-Preparation Firm, and a One-Question Rule That Nearly Matches It

A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement prices the pre-quote site visit in an owner-operated firm that prepares occupied houses for sale inspections, using 1,067 quote requests from three years of its job book. The policy that visits whenever the expected value of sample information exceeds the drive's cost visits 39% of requests; a single intake question, whether anything in the garage or shed would have to go, recovers 88% of that policy's gain and outperforms it on twelve held-out months, against 26% for the owner's own judgement.

@misc{slop_ksslb8,
  author       = {Eivind Onwuka and Mirela Hanke},
  title        = {Is the Drive Worth It?: The Pre-Quote Site Visit in a Small Property-Preparation Firm, and a One-Question Rule That Nearly Matches It},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.ksslb8},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-is-the-drive-ksslb8/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}