Home Inspection Report Information...


Introduction

There are over 30 different Home Inspection reporting systems available to the Home Inspector. Even though most of them follow the various published Standards of Practice, the majority of them display a vague format and deliver a poor presentation. These kinds of reports are favored by those Home Inspectors, whom I mentioned on my homepage, perform one-hour inspections.

Upon numerous years of careful consideration, I chose to use the best possible reporting system created by HomeGauge. Using this highly customizable software allows me to convey my findings in a concise professional format which makes it easy for all parties involved to understand. Most importantly to remember, it is not the computerized report system that finds defects. Knowledge, experience and the ability to observe keenly are the cornerstones for gathering information and conveying it through a comprehendible report.

Many inexperienced Home Inspectors rely on computerized report systems to dazzle clients with numerous photos. However, insignificant photos clutter reports by creating endless pages to review. You, the Home Buyer, have already observed the decor during the inspection and don’t necessarily need more pretty photographs.

The new generation of computerized reports has also created convenience for the novelist scholar-types. These Home Inspectors write endless narratives with up to 50 pages of print for reading. In our busy lives of today, these Narrative reports are almost never reviewed by you the Home Buyer, Real Estate Agents, Attorneys, Sellers or Contractors. You will also find these bloated reports containing paragraphs of protectionist verbiage stating endless exclusions about why they could not do their job.

I do not include a Report Summary as do most Home Inspectors. Summaries filter out inspection items that the inspector feels are not important enough for consideration. I strongly feel it should not be the inspector’s choice as to what is important or not to a client considering the purchase of a property. Too often this has the tendency for everyone to rely on this brief version while ignoring the comprehensive main report.

My reports are uniquely customized by the use of colored text in the fashion of a Traffic light – Red, Amber and Green. These colors meaningfully depict the nature of an inspection item or area, as we are all accustomed in driving a car on the road. Blue text is introduced as a suggestive need for regular maintenance or monitoring due to conditions that may not have been present during the inspection. The color differences assist in the ability to scan through and categorize the findings.