Inspection taking too long because of..."fluff"?

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Hi everyone, I am a new 53 year-old home inspector in Honolulu, Hawaii. I’ve been working for a multi-inspector firm for about 5 months and have performed around 100 inspections. It seems that on almost every inspection, except for maybe 2 or 3, I have FELT RUSHED AND STRESSED with completing the inspection/report writing, in the time allotted. Now, I don’t know if all inspectors do this, but our company always invites the client and their agent to attend a review/walkthrough at the end of our inspection, so we go over the findings of our inspection verbally with them. This means, there is almost always a hard finish time…so you can’t easily extend the inspection time on the back end. Combine that with the fact that our company expects all inspectors to photograph, just about everything that they inspect, functioning and not functioning, defect or no defect. So the bathroom has multiple photos of toilet, sink, supply plumbing, drain plumbing, shut off valves, flooring, walls, ceiling, vent, shower walls, shower enclosure, shower plumbing, etc…even if there are no defects for any of those things. The photos aren’t too bad, but labeling each with their location…is a lot of clicking and typing and finicky, fine motor, phone work. I am constantly feeling pressured, stressed, making click mistakes on my phone, swearing under my breath, and realizing that a lot of my time and focus is going toward making entries on Spectora onsite, rather than actual inspecting. It seems like, people are frequently concerned about the length of the inspection…of course the seller and seller’s agent, but also the buyer, their agent seem to question why or how it could take that long to do…a 900 sq. ft. townhouse (for example). I end up telling them that there are a lot of things we look at and a lot of pictures we need to take. And I do a lot of apoligizing! I have just recently learned what a “fluffy” report is…and I’m sure ours would be considered fluffy by inspectors that only photograph defects, but I believe that the counter argument is… that photos of functional items show they have been inspected.

Can anyone suggest a middle ground where my boss can get his visual documentation that functional items were inspected, but do it in a way that is faster and easier. For example, like wearing a body cam and keeping it running, for verification that the various components were inspected…but it wouldn’t take any additional time during the inspection.

By the way, it took me and another new inspector, 6 hours do do a 2500 sq. ft single family house last week. We logged 110 defects, and the report came out to 193 pages.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!! Aloha :slight_smile:

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Good experience so you know what NOT to do when you go it alone. The only bbn pictures i take that are not defects are locations. The SOP will require you to report the location of the main water valve. Main disconnecr, etc. Plumbing that works doesn’t make the report. The other non defect item will be when the SOP tells you to describe a material. Although this is not a hard and fast rule. Flooring for example may simply be a list of the various types.

Sounds like they have you doing a room by room report. Most inspectors on this forum report by system. Much faster.

It’s just going to take awhile for you to master their system. Have you talked to any of the other company inspectors?

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Practice, practice and perhaps more training.

I run my company a similar way, and my guys have no problem doing 2500 sq ft in 3 hours or so, even with taking all those photos.

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That’s a load of crap, it’s done when it’s done.

They can go measure the rooms for furniture, walk the grounds or chat with the neighbors while you finish.

You likely can’t (and shouldn’t even try) to change your company or bosses routine, so choose a path that works best for you.

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Something wrong there.
A long report would be 80 pages.
I typically see 35 - 50 pages reports from venders.

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When you are new, it is going to take longer. It is just that simple. You are still trying to figure out things on the fly. Once you have done it for a few years and 1000 rather that 100 inspections, you will see your onsite time start to drop. That is if you commit to memory things that you are learning early on.

That is one thing I think people misunderstand about Spectora. Just because you are hearing of other inspectors that get 3k sq ft done in 2.5 hours and publish onsite using Spectora, does not mean you will be able to do the same.

It takes quite a while to get to that point unless you are doing new construction with only 10 or so issues.

Thinking just because you use a certain software that you will be really good and fast, is similar to thinking driving a car makes you a Nascar racer.

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I’m guessing your work flow in houses isn’t very efficient yet. That comes with practice and experience. Hopefully your boss is interested in developing your skills and not just setting high expectations, and can give some guidance to you guys.

I don’t think room by room is necessary that much slower than system based templates, but it will vary immensely on how well the software is set up. A multi inspector business may have some pretty clumsy set ups.

One of the first things I’ve told new people is to master Spectoras search function, that can save a lot of time scrolling to find comments.

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“Search” is absolutely key to using Spectora efficiently onsite.

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So I’m an old school inspector and in my company we only post photos of an issue or to ID an area. We do not add a photo of an item just so show we looked at it or it has no problems! Our typical report will have about ten photos on average, sometimes less and sometimes more but I would say that ten is average. Reduce the number of photos and it will speed up the process!

This has worked well for me for almost 30 years! Write a great narative report and support your findings with photos of only the issues found.

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So am I understanding you correctly, that you (typically) only find 10 defects on average in the typical home you inspect??

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I have to agree with Scott. Here and elsewhere, I hear of reports getting more and more bloated with pics and more pics.

If one wants extra pics for a CYA moment, just keep ‘em out of the report.

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Sometimes more and sometimes less. But if you took an average I would venture to guess it would be around 10 for a typical home. Our typical housing stock is around 0-25 years of age with a few older homes tossed in.

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If what you are claiming is true about the company you work for then find a new company or start your own company! Apparently your Boss (??) is stupid and paranoid! Placing trivial pictures in a report is a total waste!! Yes take the photos for documentation but not to be placed in a report. Not playing that stupid game alone would cut your time easily by 20% - 30%.

As for suggestions for the Boss I suggest all the Inspectors get together and chip in to have him lobotomized! Then you won’t have to worry about it. As Forrest Gump’s Mother always said “Stupid is as stupid does” and your Boss appears to be the epitome of that wise saying!

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I started documenting where the doorbell transformers are located. While it’s only happened a few times, I’ve had emails/calls “we want to install a video doorbell and need to replace the electric doohickey, do you know where it is?”

I have the entry in the electric section, but I’ve found these things when I’m in the attic, in the pantry, in the guest room closet, etc. Search makes it fast.

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Why should the location of where you found a transformer matter? Electrical is found in damned near every room/space of a home? Are you saying you have to perform a Search everytime you have something to say about electrical in Spectora? WOW!

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The location matters to the home buyer, I.e. the person I’m providing a service to. Edit to add: Many original doorbell transformers do not have enough voltage and/or amperage to support video doorbells and can easily be changed out by a home owner…if they just know where the damn thing is.

The electrical section in Spectora is, for me at least, predominantly concerning the main panel, supply, gfci/afci and a smattering of other things. One of the smatterings is the location of the doorbell transformer.

It’s super easy to pop into and out of sections, that said, when I’m in an attic for example, it’s easier to just search for Doorbell, update the location and a picture, then continue right where I left off.

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A comprehensive home inspection report is crucial for buyers. It covers major structural components, electrical and plumbing systems, HVAC systems, and more. Inspectors meticulously assess each area, noting deficiencies, safety hazards, and maintenance. As you gain experience, your efficiency will improve. However, a thorough inspection typically takes 3 to 4 hours for a typical home. Inspectors who spend less than two hours may overlook significant issues and fail to follow InterNACHI’s inspection guidelines. Keep up the good work!

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Even though it is easy to move between sections, like you say, I stopped doing that a long time ago. Global search is the best way to go, in my opinion. The only time I actually go into a section is sometimes when I know I have a narrative but can’t remember the keywords. But instead of doing that, most of the time I just get the pics and will find the narrative at home on desktop.

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If I was a buyer and saw that the inspection report that was well over 100 pages, my first thoughts would be “Holy crap! What’s wrong with this place?” and probably walk at that point.

I guess some inspectors/companies think that the longer report justifies their fees. :man_shrugging:

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So the number of pages in an inspection report would cause you to make decisions… not the information contained in the report???

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