Can you tell me the cost over the phone?

We can tell you honestly what the range depends on and roughly what your situation is likely to need, which is usually enough to decide whether to go further. The actual number comes in writing after a confidential consultation, because quoting a case we have not understood yet is how people end up with a bill they did not expect.

Do you charge for the first conversation?

No. The initial consultation is free and confidential, by phone or at our Coral Gables office. If an investigation is not the right answer for your situation, we will say so in that conversation rather than take a retainer.

Is a retainer required up front?

Yes, as is standard for investigative work, and the written scope tells you exactly what it covers before you pay it. You will also be told what happens to any unused portion.

Does it cost more if my spouse is careful or hard to follow?

Sometimes, because it takes more hours or a second investigator. That is a conversation we have with you before adding either, not a line that appears on the invoice afterwards.

Is it cheaper if I already know where they will be?

Usually, yes. Specific, reliable information about time and place is the single biggest thing a client can do to reduce the hours needed.

What if the surveillance finds nothing?

You still get the report, and you still pay for the work done — no investigator can guarantee a finding and you should be wary of one who does. A properly documented negative result has real value: it closes a question that was otherwise going to keep costing you, in money and in sleep.

Are your investigators licensed?

Yes. Florida agency license A1800135, issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Licensing, where you can verify it independently. Ask any investigator you are considering for their number before you hire them.

Do you work in Spanish?

Yes, including the consultation and the report. In Miami-Dade that matters more than it sounds: describing a sensitive situation in your own language is the difference between telling us what happened and telling us an approximation of it.

How Much Does a Private Investigator Cost for a Cheating Spouse?

It is the question almost everybody asks first, and the honest answer is that it depends on a handful of things you can actually understand — not on a number somebody pulls out of the air. An infidelity case is one of the easier investigations to price, because the parameters are clearer than most. What follows is how a licensed Florida agency arrives at a figure.

Two things worth saying before the detail. First, we do not publish a rate card, because the same “two days of surveillance” costs very different amounts depending on where and when. Second, you should never pay anything before you have a written scope and price in front of you. If an investigator will not put it in writing, that tells you what you need to know.

What actually drives the cost?

Five things, in roughly this order of impact:

Surveillance hours. This is most of the bill on an infidelity case. Not how many days pass, but how many hours an investigator is actually working your file.
How many investigators. One is usual. Two becomes necessary when a subject is likely to be followed into a venue, or when a single vehicle would be noticed on a quiet street.
Where and when. A subject who stays within Coral Gables is cheaper to document than one who drives to Fort Lauderdale on a Friday evening. Traffic is not a detail here; it is the schedule.
Difficulty of access. Gated communities, high-rise buildings with attentive lobbies and private parking all cost time before any observation happens.
What you need at the end. A short written summary with stills is one thing. A report built to be handed to a family lawyer, with continuous time-coded video and an investigator available to testify, is another.

Why won’t you just give me an hourly rate?

Because an hourly rate on its own tells you almost nothing, and the agencies that lead with one are usually the ones whose quote grows afterwards. The number that matters is the total for a defined piece of work: how many hours, on which days, covering what, producing what. A low hourly rate attached to an open-ended number of hours is not a cheaper investigation, it is an unbounded one.

We quote per case after a confidential consultation, in writing, before anything starts.

How many hours does a typical infidelity case take?

Most infidelity questions are answered in a short, well-timed block rather than a long open-ended watch. The reason is simple: people are creatures of routine, and the useful hours are usually a predictable window — a particular evening, a lunchtime, a gym session, a weekend morning. An experienced investigator spends your money inside that window instead of spreading it thinly across a week.

That is also why the first conversation matters so much. The more you can tell us about the pattern you have noticed, the fewer hours it takes to document it.

What makes an infidelity case cost more in Miami-Dade?

Three things, and they are local rather than general. A great deal of this county lives behind a gate or above the tenth floor, where there is nowhere for a vehicle to sit unnoticed and a lobby camera sees the investigator first. Traffic decides what is achievable in an evening — a subject leaving Brickell at six and an investigator leaving at six past are not arriving together. And venues here are busy and well-staffed, which cuts both ways: easier to blend in, harder to keep a clear line of sight.

None of that is a reason for a bigger bill by default. It is a reason to use investigators who already know the ground, because the alternative is paying for someone to learn it.

What is included, and what is extra?

A quote from us covers the investigator’s time, the vehicle and equipment, the documentation, and the written report. Things that are genuinely separate get named in the scope before you agree to it rather than appearing afterwards — significant travel outside the county, a second investigator added mid-case, or extra days you ask for once the first block is done.

What should never be a surprise line is “administration” or “report preparation” added at the end. Writing up the work is part of the work.

How can I keep the cost down?

Genuinely, by talking to us properly before anyone sits outside a building. The cheapest hour is the one we did not need to spend.

Bring what you already have: the pattern you have noticed, days and times, vehicles, places, names.
Be honest about what you are actually trying to achieve. “I need to know” and “I need something my attorney can use” are different jobs at different prices.
Do not ask for surveillance on a day you already know nothing will happen.
Let us say no. Sometimes a short records or open-source check answers the question for a fraction of the cost of surveillance, and occasionally there is no investigation that can answer it at all — in which case we would rather tell you than sell you one.

What should a written quote contain?

Before you pay a retainer, the document in front of you should state the objective in plain language, the number of hours or days covered, how many investigators, what you receive at the end, what happens if the agreed hours run out, and the license number of the agency doing the work. Ours is Florida agency license A1800135, and you can verify it with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services yourself.

Is a cheap investigator a false economy?

Often, and not for the reason people expect. The risk is not that cheap work finds less — it is that cheap work finds something and documents it in a way that cannot be used. Video with no continuous timestamp, a report that states conclusions instead of observations, evidence gathered by walking onto private property or putting a tracker on a car with no lawful basis: each of those can turn your own investigation into the strongest argument the other side has, in a Florida family court, about you.

Price is worth comparing. License, method and what the file looks like at the end are worth comparing more.

For investigations other than infidelity — background, asset, custody, corporate — the drivers differ, and those are covered in what a private investigator costs in Miami.