Thread: type reports preferred

What type Inspection reports does the seasoned Inspector prefer, the check off list or narrative report. Thanks

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Me-- Narrative

Narrative report,
www.SanAntonioTexasHomeInspector.com

Write the whole report out. I don't and never have used a check list.

Check-list reports are for dummies and for those that perform litigation support the proverbial wet-dream. Sorry if I sound negative, but that's my opinion. Unfortunately most franchise inspection companies use that type of inspection report, but am I complaining?

All my reports are narrative.

I have a Pic-List system that I have put together over the years.
and then that is cut-down to fit each Building I inspect.

Best

Ron

Psychic

Narrative. I would't be able to explain to my client what my findings mean, or recommend what my client should do about them, in a way that my client can understand, with a checklist. IMO we owe our clients more than what can be provided through a checklist report.

I use a few check boxes and tables to fill out the state required info. Otherwise, it's all narrative with pictures. Reports with circles, hollow circles, diamonds, filled-in squares, etc. are totally confusing.

Most buyers only get a home inspection once every few years or less and most realtors just work with a few guys so the average non-HI doesn't really know what's out there for reporting. Point being it doesn't seem like a report will make or kill your business.

As mentioned, to cya, the narrative is a good idea.

I find check lists and abbreviations to be difficult to read and understand. If something is poor, don't use P. However, my three biggest gripes with narrative reports are:

(1) Disclaimers that address items or conditions that do not exist. I have read disclaimers for ice dams, but it is not cold enough around here for snow or ice, and I once read how a "tar & gravel" roof is potentially unreliable on a house that had a sloped comp shingle roof.

(2) Improper grammar and/or word use. I feel that a badly written report reflects poorly on the inspector and the profession in general.

(3) Technobabble. While I have no problem with using proper terminology, it can easily get out of hand. Descriptions need to be clear and simple

Originally Posted by Gunnar Alquist

(3) Technobabble. While I have no problem with using proper terminology, it can easily get out of hand. Descriptions need to be clear and simple

About 5 years ago, when the state required associate inspectors to conduct 'practice' inspections, I had 1 guy who must have been an english major or used a thesaurus because when he handed me his report, I couldn't figure out what he was saying and I inspected the same house as he did.

KISS

Daniel, check out people's web sites for some sample reports; you won;t find many checklists there.

Narrative
I have to agree with Jerry, it's the dummies, franchises and $150.00 for a house who use checkbox (here's your report right at the end of the insp)
Brandon makes a good point also. I've been hired to a) interpret checkbox reports and b) do another insp after someone paid for a checkbox. People don't know what the hell those things mean. Lay people have an almost impossible time interpreting those things. I've even had trouble trying to interpret a couple checkbox reports trying to figure what the hell the guy was really trying to say (besides nothing).
One of the things I push to potential clients is that I will provide them with info that they can actually understand and use to make an informed decision. An insp done by an engineer and then written by an english major, probably won't do the client much more good than a checkbox. I'm not talking about using 3rd grade inglesh, rather saying 'switch or light' instead of 'device or luminaire'. Did I misssspell something?
I have to say though, a lot of the ones I have seen LOOK REALLY GOOD. Hard binder, lots of glitzy info/product promo inserts, etc. It makes the uninformed client think they are really getting something. Unfortunately, all glitz, no substance.

I use Palm-Tech Software, it it is a hybrid of a checklist & a narrative. It allows you to show your client the items that have been inspected and are not defective through a checklist format.

When you discover a defect it allows you to write whatever narrative is necessary to convey the message and attach pictures to the item. To me it is the best of both worlds and very simple to understand. Just for the record I do not use disclaimers or canned boilerplate in my reports, furthermore, I handcraft all the narratives for each & every defect for each & every report. I am going into my sixth year with this software and never had a complaint.

Here is a sample of a Checklist/Narrative style report, it will even allow you to easily add cost to repair estimates.

BTW I am not affiliated in any way with Palm-Tech other than being a customer.

I like the reports that come with cash.

rick

I have 87 copies of my competition's reports dating back to 1993. None of the franchises here in San Diego used, or use, checklist reports, dating back to 1993, and that includes AmeriSpec, W.I.N. HouseMaster, HomeTeam, and Pillar to Post. Two of the local multi-inspector companies still use checklist reports.

I have one "report" (I use that term loosely in this one instance) where the home inspector issued 17 pages of handwriting, 16 pages of which was about plumbing, and this was on a 10-year-old home. If you haven't guessed, he spent 37 years as a plumber before retiring to home inspections and wanted to upgrade the home to 2004 standards. My Clients got their money back from him and were kind enough to donate the report to me for my collection.

The Courts here prefer narrative reports since they tend to result in fewer cases clogging up their dockets. I'm sure Plaintiffs' attorneys prefer checklist reports since they make more money with them.

Originally Posted by Brandon Chew

Narrative. I would't be able to explain to my client what my findings mean, or recommend what my client should do about them, in a way that my client can understand, with a checklist. IMO we owe our clients more than what can be provided through a checklist report.

That's what the Courts from here all the way up to Ventura County seem to be telling us, or at least the results of lawsuits that I have in my possession, at least one from each Southern California County. I love reading them, as well as Barry Stone's syndicated columns, because they give me a good idea of what the public expects of its home inspectors. I personally believe that every one of Baryr Stone's columns should be required reading before one becomes a home inspector. Even if you don't always agree with his answers--and I don't, and have even succeeded in getting him to change two of his answers and agree to disagree on one other--knowing that the questions come from the public is very telling.

Originally Posted by daniel nantell

What type Inspection reports does the seasoned Inspector prefer, the check off list or narrative report. Thanks

Dan,
It really depends upon what you define as a "narrative" and a "check off list" type report. If you are comparing a PAPER checklist form to a printed report with checkboxes on them..those are two different things. Our report is what I call a table delimited partial narrative style report. It is not a completely narrative report which can sometimes be very hard to find specific items but is more of a table of items and comments that has indexed items that make it very easy to navigate and find any item you are looking for.

http://www.knightssoftware.com/Sampl...n%20Report.pdf

Jeff

Originally Posted by Jeff Knight

Our report is what I call a table delimited partial narrative style report.

29 Pages, 6+ MB and no summary, I'm sure it works for you but I would be getting tons of phone calls emailing 6+ MB reports to my customers.

I really try to keep the report to 10-12 pages (500K) and always, always, always provide a summary at the front of the report, that is all they really read anyway.

Hi Jeff,

I run my pictures through the FREE Version of Bomes Image Resizer , before putting the whole Report into a pdf. to keep the file size to a minimum.

Summary page goes into a separate pdf. attached to email.

Sure cuts down on returned email due to the mail box is full.

My reports run from 7 pages (small condo) to 20 pages (scraper of a house). The report size is never more than 500 KB, and I upload my reports to my web site and then provide my Clients a link. Much easier for everyone concerned, especially since many of the free ISP's still strip out attachments. Just make sure the link is a full URL and not hidden in other text since those types of links often get stripped out, too. I use Adobe Acrobat to convert files to PDF. Out of all the PDF converters I've tried, Adobe is still the best.

Originally Posted by Billy Stephens

I run my pictures through the FREE Version of Bomes Image Resizer , before putting the whole Report into a pdf. to keep the file size to a minimum.

I believe the best image re-sizer if you are running Windows XP is in the FREE Microsoft XP Power Tools. Once it is installed all you do is select the photos, right-click and a menu comes up, choose your size and it is done. The nice thing about it is that it is always just there whenever you are working with photo files.

Originally Posted by Joseph Burkeson

I believe the best image re-sizer if you are running Windows XP is in the FREE Microsoft XP Power Tools. .

.
What You Got For Vista ?
.

I resize all my photos as soon as I get in the office. I put the entire collection on my hard drive with the same file name as the inspection. Then open with MS Office picture manager and resize the entire folder so that my pictures fit side by side, save the file and then use the Office picture manager to view and copy and paste photos into my report. This is one tip I picked up here a while back; this lets you control the size of the photo rather than just viewing a thumbnail when using the "insert" picture function inside MS Word. No need to compress after that although I have used the power toys photo edit function inside Word in the past. Very handy tool to have.

I found that sometimes resizing the pictures also cuts down on clarity. I never resize the pictures which does result in a very large file to try to email. My solution was to encrypt the pdf files and post the reports to my website. Then I send a link to the customer with the "key" to unlock the file. All the client or realtor has to do is click on the link, download the file and enter the unlock code.
Lee

Originally Posted by Joseph Burkeson

29 Pages, 6+ MB and no summary, I'm sure it works for you but I would be getting tons of phone calls emailing 6+ MB reports to my customers.

I really try to keep the report to 10-12 pages (500K) and always, always, always provide a summary at the front of the report, that is all they really read anyway.

Yes...that report was a large one where the pictures were put into the RTF file before it was saved as a Word document. Microsoft wastes a lot of memory when you include pictures in an RTF document. My mistake. I have replaced it with a different example of a report that has a lot of pictures and is only about 1 MB. The Summary report is a separate report from our system since a lot of times the agent just wants the summary report and not the whole report.

Jeff

Originally Posted by Joseph Burkeson

29 Pages, 6+ MB and no summary, I'm sure it works for you but I would be getting tons of phone calls emailing 6+ MB reports to my customers.

I really try to keep the report to 10-12 pages (500K) and always, always, always provide a summary at the front of the report, that is all they really read anyway.

Exactly why I never include a summary. Agents will ask for one and I grin and say "if I give you a summary, that's all you will read and you will miss important information" They usually reply with a sheepish grin and say yeah, you're right.

hallelujah

I am glad someone else said those words beside me. I never do a summary page for the exact reasons you stated. I use to get phone calls down the road after inspections with folks saying that I did not have such and such in my summary.

I want them to read every word no matter how trivial it may seem. If I don't put a particular disclaimer in the summary they would think it was unimportant and call me on it later.

Thanks for saving me from the response for not originally stating that

Ted

I had a summary, but not like a normal summary,

My report identified what I looked at and what what I found not right.

My summary included only everything I found not right. I.e., the other information of what I looked at was not there, just what was not right.

I found that it worked well, because it included *EVERYTHING* which I found that was not right. Sometimes my summary would be 20-30 pages.

Jerry

I will spend the money to go on one of your inspections AND THE TRIP AND HOTEL FEE.

I will keep my mouth shut and just watch and listen.

30 PAGE SUMMORY. IT BETTER BE A LARGE APARTMENT COM[PLEX.

TED

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

30 PAGE SUMMORY. IT BETTER BE A LARGE APARTMENT COM[PLEX.

Ted,

Nope, just a house.

Jerry

I inspected in Jacksonville Florida. The builders had issues but 30 pages. Are you inspecting homes built by Cuban refuges that escaped from an insane asylum

I am not picking on a particular race for those of you that escaped from a Cuban nut house. Just using it as a reference

Ted

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

Are you inspecting homes built by Cuban

Now Ted ...

You do remember that I inspected in South Florida, don't you?

We had a saying down there: Miami was the only Third World country you could visit without a passport.

Actually, most of my inspections were in north Palm Beach County - but, the workers were still mostly ... what's that country just south of Texas?

I do have to admit. They must have better controls out here or something. Yes I find items of concern in every new home I inspect but there seems to be an ongoing lets out due the inspector out here. Most supers I meet list the items other inspectors have found and they seem to try to out due the next inspector. As I tell my clients. With out us coming in behind the builder and muni inspectors it would revert back to the inspector and builder just shaking hands and having coffee together like it use to be.

And it use to be like that. I did a good job building or remodeling but it still was a "hey Ted how is it going, where is that inspection sheet" check, check