How to Write a Great Home Inspection Report

so welcome everybody my name is ben gromicko i am from internachi internachi is the international association of certified home inspectors alright let's start we are the world's largest organization of residential property inspectors and we have about over 10,000 members in the United States North America and we do this free monthly webinar open to everybody you don't have to be a member to watch the webinar we'll put this recording actually on one of our pages after the webinar in a couple days you'll see it tonight we're giving a discount for non-members non-members can receive a 50% discount off their first year membership to internachi by emailing me tonight so welcome everybody tonight we're going to talk about how to write a great inspection report so we're going to go over a few things one of them is understanding that we are judged as home inspectors are judged on what we do and what we say and our report represents everything it represents everything that we do everything we say and represents our business it represents what we inspect what standards I follow it represents what I saw what I didn't see my knowledge my skills my abilities my grammar it represents my personality my success my credibility my value my everything my inspection report is the most important thing you can show me your website your certifications your photograph your inspection vehicle your special tools but I'll hire you based upon your report you show me your report and I'll know if I want to hire you or not and recommend you to my friends therefore you must work on writing a great inspection report every day work on it every day at night I used to come home put the kids to bed go to my office and work on every inspection narrative that didn't work quite right that day and every day I would improve my inspection report to be more concise to be the best report out there to be clear and easy to understand so that's what we're going to do tonight we're going to do in a home inspection on this house that I did and we're going to write an inspection report not the whole report I figured for tonight we're just going to need to write about one system the roof system so let's inspect the entire house we'll take about 5-10 minutes and then we'll go through a bunch of pictures and then we'll write the inspection report here's a few things four things I want to emphasize tonight I want you to keep this in mind by the way these notes and these slides are going to be available for download so to write a great inspection report you have to do a great inspection that means you have to inspect everything even if it's not required by your state by your regulations or by your standards or practice you take pictures of everything as well it's free it's easy to do is to carry two digital cameras one was for pictures and one was for video so inspect everything that's the first thing that's how you write a great inspection report you inspect everything you just don't settle for the minimum standards or practice you use the standards of practice second point as your report outline when you write a book when you write a play a movie a story you need an outline and the standards are practice provides that outline for your inspection report it also provides a procedural list on helping you through the inspection process itself tells you where to go what to look at what to say and do so inspect everything use the standards practice Third Point direct your clients to other sources for general information if you're making general comments or you're throwing in information because well for the heck of it don't consider not doing that consider the value in writing unique comments that are specific for that client and specific to the house right only what is specific to the inspected in-house fourth point make recommendations that matter okay don't just make recommendations because well without any purpose and what really does matter during the home inspection well every inspection report we wrote this we wrote in a little article about what really matters in a home inspection and it should be in every home inspection report and it's titled what really matters in a home inspection in this article focus the focuses the attention of your clients to what really matters in a home inspection and it's narrowed down to four categories one what really matters in the home inspection major defects you're really focusing on finding major defects two you're focusing on finding things that lead to major defects so a major defect example would be a significant roof leak right or a major roof structural problem second thing would be things that may lead to a defect like a small water leak coming from a piece of roof flashing that's missing third thing that matters in a home inspection is that you try to find things that may hinder your clients ability to finance legally occupy or ensure the home such as um double you do stuff like mold or termite damage and the fourth thing you look for is safety issues Plus such as a lack of GFCI protection in the certain area so you're looking for those things that matter during the home inspection and we wrote this article for your client to know what really matters in a home inspection and once you find those things right you want to make recommendations that matter that that help focus your clients attention to taking action so this is some of my recommendations by the way right this is not a requirement of Internet you I'm a home inspector I've been a home inspector since I was 22 I believe I've done many thousands of islands affections now I train home inspectors so this is my advice to you categorize the defects that you found the four things that matter during the home inspection you want to have your client take action well they fall for me into three categories one of them is is just a monitoring issue so I recommend monitoring this condition it denotes a system or component needing further evaluation and or close observation in order to determine if correction is needed so let's just keep a look at it let's say I found in the kitchen ceiling underneath the second floor bathroom looks like a watermark it's dry to the touch maybe I'm using an instrument it's dry it's not wet there's no major damage but it's a watermark not sure what it is just monitor it second recommendation category improvement and repair is recommended that's how I phrase it and it denotes a system or component that should receive normal maintenance repair or adjustment in order to function properly I would say cleaning the gutters because it's filled with leaves or a tennis ball would be an improvement in repair recommendation correction and further evaluation recommended the third one denotes a system or component that's significantly deficient or at the end of its service life and needs corrective action by a professional contractor this is where something is wrong and it takes a lot more than just a regular homeowner to fix it and we commend this professional making corrective action to inspect the property further further evaluation in order to discover and repair related problems that were not identified in the report because when a contractor blows through the wall blows through the ceiling of the dining room to find that water leak they're going to find a lot more right we're just visual inspectors all Corrections and evaluations must be made prior to closing okay so remember inspect everything take pictures of everything it's free use the SOP as a guide not only for your report but for your inspection direct clients to other sources for general information don't pile up your report with information that everyone else says right general information about shingle roofs that's really great to find on Google but should it be filling up a thousand word space in your inspection report fourth thing is make recommendations that matter so what do I mean by direct clients to other sources for general information right only what is specific to the inspected house well let's look at an example I'm going to pick on one of my friends here his inspection report is a very good thorough inspection report however I noticed that a couple things in the roof section here's the roof section starts off with roof the video has a little bit of a delay so I'll I'll go slower when I bring up a picture it has let's see I did a word count it has all this see a roof has all this blue stuff I'm highlighting it's almost a thousand words before we get to a picture of the roof even if we get to the picture of the roof it says these areas need to be cleaned it's kind of like a general comment um don't fill up your inspection report with things that are general right what you want to do is direct your clients somewhere else to get general information and you could actually get your attorney to help you with this put this information if you're going to incorporate other sources of information into your agreement into your service put it in your agreement have an attorney help you write this up like big client agrees that the agreement consists of the following the terms and conditions that you normally have during inside an agreement system yada yada and then add and the documents incorporated by reference or the documents incorporated by attachment you can attach things and they're all complementary to one another and together establish a complete terms conditions and obligations so you can refer your client to physically separated documents but incorporate them into your inspection service and allow your inspection report to be clean of all this general information stuff direct your clients to other sources for general information if you're writing the same general information as your competitors then what's the special difference about hiring you why did I hire you if I could get the same general information from everybody else remember your report represents everything about your business so you don't want to say the same thing as the other guy right consider incorporating other sources of information such as internachi's home maintenance book by reference or incorporating internet use consumer oriented articles I'll show you where to go for that don't put one thousand word spaces of general information in the most valuable product that you produce that reflects everything that your business is right specific client specific information and how specific information now other sources you can get anywhere naturally our org slash now that's our home maintenance book you can actually refer in your report once you have it in your agreement your fir your clients to chapter 3 of the internachi hominins book which is about roofs you can go to NatGeo org slash articles consumer oriented articles it has a lot of general information that every a lot of home inspectors say or you can go to well not or but definitely enter your standards of practice the the practice the standards by which you perform your inspection put that everywhere on your inspection report and in your agreement and refer to it and use the SOP the standards of practice as your guide as your report outline it's like a table of contents and it use the rope SOP as also a systematic approach to performing the inspection procedure itself so let's perform an inspection using the standards of practice so let's go their standards of practice is that next org slash SOP and there's the roof section and I'll highlight the roof section and it says the inspector shall inspect from ground level or the eaves you don't have to go up on any roof the roof covering materials the gutters the downspouts vents flashing skylights chimney and other roof penetrations and the general structure of the roof from the readily accessible panels doors and stairs you have to describe the roof covering materials and you have to report as a need of correction of any observed indications of active roof leaks so that's your that's that's your guide not only as an outline for your report but how you perform the inspection so this is actually the first system personally that I inspect I get up on the roof probably before even the scheduled time of the inspection because it's the hardest thing that I do to get up on the roof and inspect the roof and it tells me what to inspect so let's do that let's get up on the roof and inspectors roof and bam remember I'm inspecting everything I'm taking pictures of everything and this is my money shot I take this picture to impress everyone who's reading my inspection report not only my client I want my client to know that I go to the very top of their roof and work my way all the way down but I want to show everyone else the best thing that I produce about my inspection company remember my report is going to include a ton of photographs I took over 450 on this particular inspection we're not going to go through long but this money shot I'm going to beat my competitor with this so I use this to beat my competitor if my competitor doesn't go up on the roof and because the standards practice says that they don't have to I'm going to beat them because I think my clients in particular value me going up on the roof in a safe manner I've been trained to grow up on a roof I've been a roofer for many years of my life you don't have to go up on a roof to get this shot either you can use a spectroscope it's a 30 foot pool has a camera on the top a wireless connection to your device on the bottom you can use video and zoom in and take pictures full control so you don't have to have to get up on the roof but I do in fact I take a picture of me up on the roof because I'm going to beat my competitor who doesn't get up on the roof this is one thing I do very well that a lot of inspectors don't and I'm going to tell the world that I'm the inspector who carries a big tall ladder and we'll get up on your roof remember this inspection report is really important what are you communicating to everybody who reads your inspection report from me these shots not only show quality of inspection but it shows that I'm better than everybody else I'm the best I'm the best inspector that's the kind of attitude you have to have in this inspection business to be number one so this is a money shot from and I am inspecting in detail that's my hand in the report and I'm inspecting and I'm touching everything and I'm taking pictures of everything I actually shoot video as well now these pictures are going to be in my great inspection report and they're going to be in the inspection report early - so let's go through all the pictures that I took and I did this inspection many many years ago long before this webinar here's a downspout that's going to wrapping around a corner pushing a lot of water around the corner and going towards a gutter and I can see it a lame duck kick out flashing so we're going to take a look at that but I take pictures of every side this is the system right then I'm inspecting inspect everything and take a picture of everything this is the roof system but I break it down into components right the roof covering material the flashing the number of layers and anything else related to the roof system here's a shot of the gutter skylights I'm required to inspect skylights but not only that but I inspect all the flashing the header the that called the apron or the the footer and the step flashing I look for any kind of damage the vents the chimneys all the planes of the roof not just one that I can see from the front yard there's the porch roof so I'm going to go a little fast here so I'm inspecting here there's a tennis ball in the gutter right there so that needs to be cleaned up and that's an improvement recommendation homeowner can clean tennis balls there's this stucco and now I'm down on the ground the stucco exterior of the chimney is cracked and damaged so that needs to be repaired there's a good shot there I'm a true believer of a picture's worth a thousand words and when you have almost a thousand pictures I mean that's a lot of words so let's go through the pictures I'm taking every I'm inspecting everything every component almost every area and taking pictures like crazy I mean I'm just shooting like nuts take pictures take pictures don't be afraid that you're going to take a picture of a defect and oh you didn't you didn't see it or didn't put it in the report or something fearful I'll take a picture of it you will see it believe to see the defect that you took a picture of and you will see it and if you're unsure of that it just takes a couple years of being confident in your abilities to find defects that you took a picture of if if you're unsure take training we have hundreds if not thousands of hours of online training free to our members here's a picture that looks like some dirt to the novice inspector but you know better because you've taken our roof courses this is the kick-out flashing problem so the kick-out flashing is causing a problem water from the roof is running off it should be kicked out from the wall and into the gutter but it's not it's draining down the stucco and when I see that I know that there's a hole allowing water to get inside the wall so whenever you see stucco on the outside streaking from a gutter end where a kick-out flashing should be performing well I've never found a a condition like this that doesn't have water issues on the inside around the house I'm inspecting on required to inspect gutters and downspouts according to the SOP as my guide there's the downspout and diverter pipes there's much of different kind of pipes looks like the underground pipe four inch PVC was abandoned and now they diverted it to grade but that's all a part and I see the sump pump discharge I'm assuming at some pub at this moment is discharging into the ground near the underground drainage pipe something is messed up with downspouts probably grading maybe there's water issues drainage problems so I'm keeping that in mind as I go around the house and here's the exterior a lot of pictures of the exterior we're just going to focus on the roof I just wanted to show you I have a specular prop there's a bulging stucco area plus the the sidewalk hard surfaces are not leaning away from the house so I know we've got an issue back here with water penetration systems and components think of the exterior system there's the Goodyear blimp actually flew above my inspection vehicle there's the driveway is a component of the exterior stucco obviously the doors as you can see I almost touch everything and take a picture of it the actual grounding electrode conductor the grounding wire to the rod was disconnected there's the heat pump a couple of issues there I'm not going to dwell too much on the exterior or any other system in the house so that was the exterior I want to get to the roof only we don't have all night so 226 pictures of the roof in the exterior how many pictures do you take and I'm going to try to put as many pictures in my great inspection report as I can because it shows everything that I do write your report shows everything that you are and what you do and what you see and what you don't see so it's represents everything a great inspection report represents everything and if I can throw in more digital pictures in my inspection report more than you I'm gonna beat you it's a competition there's the dryer exhaust hood in the garage with a screen that's not bad enough it's in the garage it's filled with lint so it's the dryer I couldn't believe it the dryer is exhausting into the garage and it has a screen on it and it's caught there's the garage pictures that skip through that not many problems in their garage door openers on an extension cord that's not permanent so I turned on the dryer I didn't turn on the washer but you can turn on the dryer too quickly to confirm the exhaust and for sure enough it exhausts right into the garage and there it is there's the electric dryer the vent pipe goes up the wall and exhaust out into the garage and while I was looking at that I scanned over to the left and I saw a little mark on the wall and I didn't realize what it was I got out my tools took a little picture it looked there's an anomaly there I got my moisture meter my hydro Pro moisture meter detector it buzzed and ranked that thing is wet so this is the area where that kick-out flashing is observed from the interior ceiling wall area intersection area of the garage on the other side of the garage is the office room and there's the kick-out flashing area at the corner of that office room the window was okay but the wall I moved the furniture away from the wall and there was wood destroying organism mold there's even a spider there water damage watermarks it was very humid there that wall was actually wet and and I tell you the truth the seller didn't even know the seller really didn't even know what was going on it was behind furniture and this is in the crawl space this is below the office space this is the crawl space structure this floor structure there's the foundation PVC drainage pipe and I pulled down the insulation because I tend to move insulation and there's water marks water damage major moisture intrusion from that kick out from the roof so it's coming all the way down through the garage through the office down into the crawlspace so then well I started looking all over the place in the whole place now has water marks the other crawl spaces have water marks there's water coming in there's been a lot of problems with this home on the outside it looks perfect some indications with the gutters and downspouts not diverting away but you know these pictures again inspect everything and take a picture of everything because you're going to need them I'm going to put it in my inspection report because that's how I write great inspection reports because my clients love those pictures so let's go through there's the as in the system in the standards of practice under the roof system you're required to inspect the roof structure general roof structure from underneath right in the readily accessible areas like the attic space so there were no roof leaks that I found here taking pictures of everything now it's this is the basis for the content within my inspection report but pictures and I have to remember everything so this is the discharge pipe of the hot-water tank main shutoff valve to an electrical panel that's in good shape it's going to go through these systems faster the sump pump it is sitting in a big pile of dirt which clogs the pump and makes it fail prematurely it should be in a nice clean summer pump it buckets plumbing Li some GFCI problems I ran watered all the fixtures on the cold was reversed I'm doing the interior as required by the SOP the handrails some drywall cracking I'm just going really fast here I understand we're just going to get to and writing this inspection report we're going to write the roof system of the inspection report chimneys and fireplaces taking pictures I wanted to demonstrate to you how many pictures I take I take pictures of everything that I inspect that's a lot of pictures and that's a microwave actually detector one of our old versions so let's write a report a home inspection report let's just write the roof system and again I'm taking I'm inspecting everything I'm taking pictures of everything now I'm going to use my SOP as a guide it guided me through the house told me what to inspect in what order and what not to miss now I'm going to use the SOP as a guide tool to write my inspection report system by system component by component here's the SOP itself right the roof and shall inspect all these other components I described the roof covering material and I shall report in need of correction any links I break it down a little bit my report now has a header and kind of like chapters in the subtitle of it within the chapter so the roof system then the roof covering materials that's going to be a section gutters and downspouts that's going to be a section vents flashing skylights chimneys and other roof penetrations that's another section of the roof system the general structure that's another roof system and these three types of recommendations the monitoring the improvement and the correction and further evaluation I'm going to if I find any of those four things that really matter during the home inspection that we talked about previously I'm going to make these recommendations that really matter I'm going to identify the system I'm going to describe the components describe my observations and make really good recommendations so let's write a report and we do that by going to the SOP oh we already did the SOP so let's go to the report itself so here's the report that I just wrote really for this webinar based upon the photographs that we have remember the system and then I bring it down to components that are specially required by the SOP and then sometimes I throw in more additional components especially for heating and cooling systems so the roof system is a category like that like the top header of this section and then I break it down into components and I wanted to go over some of the basic disclaimers and paragraphs I always have in every inspection report not too much I've got maybe a hundred words here I don't like to say too much within every inspection report but these kind of things are they work for me I want to help my client focus on what it is that I'm doing and set their expectations so this is downloadable too so you don't have to write this down or memorize it I can give this to you on our webpage and you can download it if you want and you can feel free to take these sentences and copy everything or take what I have and improve it to make your route much better so I inspected the roof covering materials I inspected past tense that's another way to write a great report don't use present tense use past tense and our legal counsel wrote an article about why all home inspection reports should be written in past tense this inspection is not a guarantee that a roof leak in the future will not happen roofs leak even a roof that appears to be in good functional condition may leak under certain circumstances we will not take responsibility for a roof leak that happens in the future this is not a warranty or a guarantee of the roof system I stole some of this from Jeff Pope so thank you Jeff it's virtually impossible for anyone to detect a leak except as it is occurring or by specific water tests which are beyond the scope of our home inspection please refer to chapter 3 of the home maintenance work incorporated with this is inspected were incorporated with this inspection report and provided to you at the inspection so I take all that general information and I divert my client to somewhere else go somewhere else to get this general information that I still want to tell you about and I've incorporated it into this inspection service and you have agreed to that but for this inspection report which is going to represent everything great that I do in my business I'm going to leave it for only client specific and how specific information and I'm going to blow you away with photographs of the things that I do during my inspection the roof was covered with laminated shingles made from asphalt fiberglass materials that's about all I want to say monitoring recommended a shingle roof isn't isn't is intended to be water resistance not waterproof the actual service life of this roof covering will vary depending on a number of interrelated factors regular maintenance and roof inspections will certainly extend the life of this roof and I tell my client at the end of every inspection that I can come back and do maintenance inspections if you'd like the components category gutters and downspouts underneath the roof system I inspected the gutters and downspouts improvement and repair recommended something a homeowner could do I saw a tennis ball inside the gutter at the rear left house gutter improvement and repair I saw indications of improper installation of the downspouts and diverter pipes including the sump pump discharge pipe here's another component vents and chimneys so I'm using the SOP to guide my inspection as I inspect everything and take pictures of everything and then I used the SOP to write my report system component describe the component with pictures and my sentence of that unit that you inspected it using a past tense and then make recommendations that matter here's I observed indications of damage at the stucco exterior covering of the chimney stack in the rear including cracking and missing material a correction and further evaluation recommended a kick-out flashing is not installed I observed indications of active roof leaks and major water damage caused by the kick-out flashing area located at the front of the house yada-yada I observed indications of streaking water marks on the stucco below my god blow the gutter during my inspection I observe indications of active water intrusion in water damage in the garage ceiling near this cookout area during my inspection so these sentences are written in a particular way great inspection reports have a systematic approach in the communication write this all the sentences are kind of looking the same and our legal counsel of internachi gave recommendations on how you should say that you saw something a defect during the inspection one is one way is do not use no evidence was observed use this sentence structure I observed past tense the defect during my inspection that's it so I observed indications of active water intrusion during my inspection it's a past tense I saw indications of active water intrusion during my inspection I observed indications of water intrusion below the office room structural damage caused by water intrusion this area was wet to my hand so here's another component the general structure from underneath right I inspected the general structure of the roof from readily accessible areas that's as almost a copy-paste from the students practice I did not observe any indications of active leaks from the Attic space during my inspection in the pages of the report of a great inspection report should be numbered so that no one page can be extracted without anybody knowing so that's it that's the that's the system the roof system it's very specific concise specific to the house and concise ly written and written um in a format that is repeatable right you see this type of format headings system component describing identifying the component describing the condition and making recommendations and I want you to know this URL our legal counsel wrote an article about how to write your observations during your inspection in your inspection report so nacho org slash 'visible is that article and a a copy of all the materials that we're going over in this webinar and the webinar recording itself and future scheduling of webinars is at this URL Nachi doric slash webinar so we are judged on what we do and what we say and your report represents everything that you do and say and everything that your inspection business is all the good about your inspection business this is your opportunity to have to work on the greatest marketing piece that your inspection business produces that's the inspection report you should work on it to improve it every day keeping these four things in mind we learned tonight that you should inspect everything even if it's not required take pictures of everything it's so easy to do consider a video use the SOP as your report outline and as your guide in doing the inspection procedure itself and direct client clients to other sources for general information don't clog up your inspection report with a ton of information that everyone else says also write only what is specific to the client and the inspected house and the fourth make recommendations that matter for non-members tonight tonight only we're giving a 50% discount off of the first year membership to internachi this is to all non-members so email me tonight if you're interested in joining internachi for the entire year at half off and my email is Bennett internachi org and that was about 40 minutes I went a little bit long but I'd like to look through some of the questions that you're all asking me and go over the answers I'll continue for another few minutes if you all want to stay here I'll stay another 20 minutes or so if you'd like I'm answering questions but if you want to leave thank you very much please visit that's it / / webinar if you want a recording of this webinar and download the information so I'm going to go through some of the questions on people checking in is the newsletter in French no but many of the articles that we wrote that are consumer oriented are in French and Spanish in English and they're located at Nazi org slash articles so if you go there we have hundreds of articles for general information some of it is consumer oriented and a lot of it is translated into other languages how long does the newsletter run in weeks months years we have five years of content and every client starts that new cycle of content so for every client there's five years of content monthly newsletters that are that are specific to the home and specific to the client and it's a free monthly e-newsletter on through our system can you show an example of the newsletter that client will receive you can do one yourself so sign your spouse up your friend up sign up your your other email account and take a look I highly recommend doing that we have a few other things like the home energy report I highly recommend generating a ton of sample reports so you can see what you're producing and it's free there's no cost to this is there a reasonably priced inspection checklist and report generator available that can be customized to some extent oh I use a mobile device with inspection software on it and I take that mobile device to every system within the house - every component and I write my inspection report with inspection software I highly recommend not using pencil and paper checklist stuff that was done a long time ago now clients assume that they are going to receive a report that is generated quickly through some kind of software and it has a lot of pictures and a lot of really good specific information about their home and software allow you to upload video so if you would like some recommendations you can email me but there are many to choose from many software's to choose from and Internet she has negotiated discounts for members exclusive discounts for members who choose one software company over another and we we can help you I can help you find that discount it's hard to find that all these special benefits and discounts so just email me feel free to give me a call or email Larry yes the CPI logo you can download that if you're a member of internachi ah yes Canton forgot to mention that Canton has donated this work of art in our conference room at internachi headquarters it's actually the guts of a gravy baby grand piano I believe so thank you Ken my big concern terry asses how do I write inspection reports quickly it takes me too long suggestions yep write it on the fly write it while you're going around I can't can't believe that people go through a home for two or three hours and then go back home after driving home and then sit down to write the report try to remember all the things that they saw that day I would do two sometimes three inspections a day no kid there's no way I could remember all that stuff at the end of the day and I don't want to sit down at night and write my inspection reports or at least the the meat of it right I want to do it while I'm at the inspection and that's how I I figure out my billable hours actually because I don't want to bill for get paid for work at night right I want to make sure that my inspection only takes me four hours including driving and for time so I'm scheduling jobs that are no no more than an hour way I'm doing jobs there no more than 3 hours long and I'm getting all of my inspection report writing if it's not a majority of it or majority of it if not all that done at the inspection and then at the end of the day I can tweak some reports and I usually print out a summary I'm right after I'm done with the inspection so my software will produce a summary I click the summary button and it actually prints out or I can send it I email PDF to my client so I want to produce a summary at the inspection that allows you to produce a report essentially quickly right Terry so it produces summary and then bind it into a1 over that internachi um special report binders the three-ring binders put a home inspection home maintenance book in there or home a this book has punched holes that gives weight physical weight and then add some articles about general information that their articles at that URL there and there's a few other things you can add in we have all those products at significant discounts for members but you can write a report quickly and if you if you misjudge the size or difficulty of the house well that takes some learning to do or some training with your office manager you want to make sure that you are getting paid for your time ok I'm just going over some of the questions can i download your presentation yep we're going to put it at in give me a couple days natural Rick slash webinar I'll have the video this recording of the webinar and all the reports and slides that you saw boilerplate comments should be mentioned as okay yes absolutely as long as they fit into the repair and replace item on the report absolutely yeah I don't type every word so boiler plate in my head means something that I say as like a foundation eighty percent of the paragraph that I need to say to my client I want to click one button and then fill in the unique stuff it's usually severity of the condition or the location of the component that kind of tweaks every boilerplate template paragraph that I start quickly into the report do you go up on every roof no I'm chicken I really do so I don't go up I love to just use a 28 footer I have touched my 40 foot aluminum ladder a handful of times a couple barns I did in commercial properties but I I carry a 12 foot aluminum a 28 foot fiberglass Louisville and then I carry little step ladders to one I carried out its the basement I have basements were in my area and low stepladder just get me up off the concrete floor so I can look at the ledger board on top of the foundation wall and take pictures and I need stepladder to get into the Attic a lot of ladders what inspection software do you use and could you provide a sample report short just to email me and I can give you some recommendations on software and we have discounts we negotiate some discounts for our members how many pics do you normally include your report about 50 but I take probably 10 times that and I keep all those pictures in my archive room and I actually give them away I used to used to burn them to a CD and then I used to just dry and now I drag them to a USB and give over a USB and a video as well so I would finish up the report and then I would go play videos for my client I'd set up my computer and printer to print on the summary and sometimes if they wanted to wait I'd print out the entire report and I'd play a video or videos of the roof inspection that I took and I would just play it and then turn my computer around and let it play and tell people to take a look and I wouldn't say anything I would just let them watch the video and they would realize holy cow after about 10 seconds into it that's my roof and my inspector did that and boy did they feel great they felt like whatever the bill is I'm getting my money's worth so playing video of the roof inspection is really good my client can't see what I'm seeing so filming a video and then playing it for my client in front of the real estate agents is just a killer marketing strategy where'd you get that where'd you get the training to go up on roofs on install roofs and build homes I built homes and barns how do you get up on the roof in the winter I don't I don't like this slide I have been caught brewing off a roof especially flat ones so I've never sprayed a roof with hot water but I always wanted to but um yeah my wife doesn't like me going up on snowy roofs and neither do i but I have actually and then I simply tell my client I can't inspect the roof I put it in the report I take pictures of the roof I try to scrape off the snow but I have no idea what's going on under a foot of snow and I'll come back and take a look you know if you're if yeah that's part of my service I'll come back if I can't see something I'll come back a lot of pick a lot of questions about pictures the tapping is a bit too much sorry about that the pictures of an advance I'm sorry everyone about the videos there are 800 people attending that may be slowing down the video what camera do you use cannon is great small digital camera but you know we've been interested highly interested in mobile devices the spectroscope uses some iPads or any kind of mobile device and in our home energy report software our free report software a lot you can use any you can use your iPhone I have an iPhone my cell phone or any mobile device iPad droid a lot of questions about the pictures I'm a new inspector I want to add video rather than pictures is that now acceptable method I say it's kind of like icing on the cake don't let your video be your main service or product that you give it's just icing on the cake right it just allows you to communicate what you would what you would normally type in text in just in a different way I think home gauge allows you to easily upload video and there might be other software companies out there but home gauges ISM is on the forefront of that so take a look at that and if you need a link to that I could send it to you what software do I use what software do I use um we actually have a for you beginners a an inspection checklist for performing an entire home inspection it's free its downloadable and it reflects the standards of practice so if you fill out the checklist completely you have in fact followed and performed a home inspection according to the standards of practice and that's a free checklist on our site and if you want to know what's systems and computer software systems I you can just email me I'll send it to you how much time do you take on an inspection Philo Philo is that your name and how much time do you write the report so it takes me about a half hour to 45 minutes to compile the report into something some kind of finished product but remember I write as I go but it takes me that long because of all the photographs I think it's 30 minutes of my time and it's worthwhile because I write a great inspection report for each one of my clients how much time do you take to doing the inspection write it you have to think about that and how much you charge so if it's four or five hours per inspection if it's a five hour inspection time you're probably only gonna do one a day if it's four probably do two a day home does it take you how does it take you do you include a summary page of the major defects in your report absolutely is the first thing that prints out and it's actually the only thing that real estate agents want they want to get this house to closing and they need to go negotiate over the things that I found that are wrong what's a home can you explain how you include videos in the report I actually never did I just filmed videos and I gave those movie files to my client and I would play those movies for my client at the inspection talking on and I believe home gage has the ability highly gauge software has the ability to embed videos into your report Oh cliff is saying how do I feel about the using inspection software versus my word document that's it I just created a Word document just for this webinar just for the teaching I always use software for many many reasons one of them is the software can allow you to improve the way you inspect by forcing needling forcing you to inspect the entire say for example roof system before getting on the ladder and coming down because if you're using a mobile device you can actually see what you have completed and what you have not completed you can't make a mistake unless you're totally ignorant of what you're doing with your mobile device and your and your software can't you can't can't miss anything I can't imagine me missing any system or component when using inspection software on a mobile device because if it's if it's the roof system I'm on the roof with my mobile device and it's telling me what to inspect and what not to inspect and I'm inspecting everything anyways but it's also reflecting the standards of practice that's how I wrote remember how we wrote we went to the standards of practice using as a guide as an outline to to your report it guides me as I do my inspection and it guides my report it's a reflection of each other you gotta use software you're welcome JT welcome Samuel where can we purchase the hydro pro moisture extension pole that was years ago I think it's called high hydro shark now and I'm not sure if it extends I think it's just a really long thing up mine you know you collapsed down to a foot and email me I know where to get it but I can't remember the website now it's it's not very common I don't know why I can I can't remember the website where I found it yet another one sorry Mary Ann I can't remember where I got the hydro probe it's really remember I'm I'm a visual inspector but if I use a device it's going to just tell me general information there's two types of evaluations there's quantification and qualification right quantification is if you're using infrared or meat no moisture meter you want that number you want it precisely measured all right I don't do that I use qualification I just want to see if there's some kind of big splotch on the wall if there's some kind of big wet area some anomaly so those those tools that I use are all about qualification stuff I'm not not quantifying actual numbers Randy you have a very big question about kick-outs do you have any recommendations regarding kick-off flashings moisture intrusion moisture damage mold yeah you can email me but you know you this is the this is the cost of being really successful in the home inspection business you have to work on communicating your observations and one of the most important products the most important product that your inspection company produces that's your inspection report so there are many samples out there we actually have samples I'll send you a sample of my inspection report if you're interested in it and every software company that I know produces sample reports they give you a low free trial we have discounts with software vendors if you choose to purchase a software and those software companies have narratives within it as well internachi has the largest library of inspection narratives it's at a generic slash narratives I don't know how many tens of thousands eighty thousand narratives um that you can go over and we even have free sample ones I can send you the link and you can grab some free narratives all right off our internet web page all right there are over 400 now 398 people still attentive and is going over an hour now we've been speaking since about 6:00 6:30 by 8:30 Eastern and so I'm going to just put this up again for you non-members email me tonight if you want a first year membership at internachi for half off email me at Bennett internachi org more questions we're just going over the questions looks like people are leaving although there is about two hundred more questions everyone is asking just about the same thing what inspection software do you use I'm so glad you're all asking that question when I started in the inspection business there were a lot of inspectors using their pens and paper and little check marks and NCR reports where you write through in your press real hard and then you take the forms out right I was one of those inspectors that used in CR forms that carbon copy forms me now I love the questions what software do you use well speaking of software go to home energy report well go there and you can get free software from internachi to produce our home energy report software you don't need to be an energy auditor alright going over more questions what about five dollars per inspection I don't know what that means mark sorry how can our inspection report be worded accordingly and not and be not a deal-killer Oh well killing deals you know it's the house condition that needs to be addressed if if you have a it's the home inspector to describe it accurately right so if you have a GFCI missing at the bathroom sink it can actually hurt someone right that's why GFCIs exists it's all in the way you phrase it I mean it's no big deal no big investment it's a fifteen dollar component item off the home depot shelf and homeowners who are handy with electricity can do it themselves or an electrician can do it for about a hundred bucks so it's a life saving thing it's a safety hazard not having a GFCI receptacle near bathroom sink but it's no big deal you could spin it anywhere you want you could spin a missing GFCI to sound like no big deal which it is that's no big deal or you could spin it to sound like man this is an indication that you shouldn't you shouldn't buy this entire house you know it's really you have an amazing amount of power with your words and that's why it is really important very important for you to work on how your report looks and how people read it and what it's actually saying I would go to a chapter and bring some samples of your inspection report maybe not the whole thing maybe a part of it maybe the whole thing passing out and just ask your buddies you pay for everyone's dinner or maybe dessert or coffee if they just give you ten minutes at their time read your inspection report and have them tell you what they think that's probably the best thing you could do because I'm just one person with my opinion I'd ask your competitors your friendly competitors at your local internet Chi chapter to help you out take a look at your report maybe well that's that's my recommendation all right everybody I think that's about it everyone's asking just about the same report how long does it take to do inspection how do you write narratives and how what software do you use and can you please stop tapping sorry about the tapping all right so I'm going to leave it at that nothing brand new is really be nest I'm going to say thank you all very much for tonight is an honor to serve you if you need anything else please email me bennett internachi org and for you non-members out there this is a great opportunity to join the greatest Association in the world it's the largest organization and home inspectors and everything you need to be successful is all in one place in internachi this is your opportunity to email me tonight to join in and actually for your first year membership and a half off bye everybody thank you you

Channel: Ben Gromicko

Views: 12,087

Rating: 4.7241378 out of 5

Keywords: Home Inspection, home inspection software, home inspection report

Id: lisUBWp29Ww

Length: 64min 43sec (3883 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 30 2013