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Re: Time to generate a report
Jack covered it fairly well, this has been talked about many times over the years.
As for myself, I would say that a basic normal inspection on a 2,500 sf home with 2.5 baths on a crawl space would take no more than 3 hours. If it is empty and clean I would say that time would be cut down by thirty minutes. Even when I do a 5,000sf home I would expect to be done in about 3-4 hours, any longer and I'm not working efficiently. Time is money and it is about the only thing that we can control during an inspection.
I have seen too many inspectors who do not have an established pattern to their inspections. They are jumping all over the place and waisting time. You know that you will need to check every room so why not do the electrical outlets, check the windows, doors, ceilings, floor, etc. while you are in each room. Limit the number of times you enter a room to only one time, unless you have a question. I have seen many inspectors do just the electrical and then do just the windows and on. All they are doing is waisting time and energy.
As for writing reports: If you are writing the information down and then transcribing it into another document, you are waisting time. Take as few notes as possible. Rely on your brain and on photos to guide you after the inspection is done and your reporting time will be cut dramatically. This brings up another topic and that is that many inspectors depend on their software or reporting system to guide them through the inspection. This is the wrong way to do an inspection, it takes more time and it can also prevent you from seeing something that needs reporting but it is not covered in your reporting system.
If all boils down to doing what you are comfortable doing. I'm comfortable in taking few if any notes and many pictures. About the only notes I take are of things that I find that are wrong.
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