Greetings fellow inspectors. I was curious what the average time is you generally allow to complete your inspections. Let’s hypothetically say the home is 2000 sq ft and not over 40 years old (although my testimonial to follow is quite different). The reason I ask is over the past year I have transitioned from a team inspector approach (two inspectors on each inspection) to working solo the majority of the time. For most of the past 7 years I have worked alongside a co-worker, the goal being a more thorough and efficient inspection for everyone, myself included. Agents, specifically, really appreciated the team aspect, especially on larger and/or older homes.
Yesterday morning I did a solo inspection on a home built in 1911. It was only 2 bedrooms/1 bath, but with a basement and crawl space, and an attic only accessible through an exterior hatch which was beyond difficult to get to. The agent, who I have worked with many times, became impatient, as the time it took to complete the inspection was taking longer than she had expected. Frankly, I was hoping to finish up sooner than I did, but my dedication to providing my clients the most accurate, thorough, and detailed inspection report possible oftentimes causes the process to drag on.
With all of that said, I don’t plan on changing how I approach inspection reporting, but I am interested to hear how the rest of you do things and see if I am on track, out to lunch, or somewhere in between. I appreciate any thoughtful, helpful, and serious responses.
I would, and do, schedule these homes at 3 hours and sometimes go 3.5 to 4 hours!
Agents love to say… “Well, it’s ONLY a 2 bedroom…”!
Guess what, adding another bedroom at 10’x10’ (Old home) don’t mean shit!! I can get all the bedrooms done in 10 minutes! It’s all the other situations that take the time. I spend about 50% of my time in the basement/crawlspace combo… 25% on the roof/exterior… and 25% in the Finished interior. Garages, and other stuff just adds to that!
It takes what it takes. I give a rats arse what the agents think!
As to your ‘newer homes’ scenario… I average about 2.5-3.0 hours, but remember, I am in the land of Basements, and an (unlisted-undisclosed) additional Crawlspace is a common “Surprise” in addition to the primary Basement!
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ndegaris
(Neil DeGaris, CMI KY License # 102167)
3
I feel for you folks in areas where the agent has to be present.
So, how long did it take you solo? Like JJ, most homes are 3 hours for me. Number of bedrooms don’t matter. Number of bathrooms does matter. Occupied or unoccupied matters, as does how many HVAC/plumbing systems and electric panels. But all in all, I can get just about any “normal” house done in 3 hours (I know, define normal, lol).
Much of it depends on how much of the report you are trying to create while on-site. There is also setting the right expectations with the agent / client. I warn everyone that they will likely get bored with the process if they plan on staying for the whole inspection and it is better (for them and me) to show up towards the end. I am primarily focused on inspecting and taking notes with pictures on-site and generate 90% of the report afterwards. I am known for being more thorough than other inspectors in my area. That said, for a smaller, newer home on a slab, it might only be 90 minutes on-site and 90 minutes to create the report. A slightly older average home on a crawlspace is going to take me about 2 hours onsite and 2 hours for the report. Older and bigger take longer, of course.
It might help you out if you didn’t try to write your report on site. Take photos and move on. Just because all the new guys are using fancy mobile reporting software, doesn’t make it easier or faster. I found it slows me down. Using mobile can add hours to the inspection. Write your report at home where you can relax and concentrate on the report. You should be able to identify the defects by your photos. And remember all the other things within a couple hours.
a less than 2800 sq feet single family slab less than 10 years old will run about 3:30-4 hrs for me. Older beat up homes used to run 5-6 hours or more. I just had a 15 year old 7000 sq feet vacant fancy pants house with a massive crawlspace run about 11 hrs spread over two days.
To start with my average house is in the 4,500sf - 6,500sf range BUT once in awhile we get the smaller ones 2,000sf - 2,800sf and say about 30-38 yrs old and with most of the basement finished (seldom see crawlspaces or slabs on houses by me). On the smaller ones an average time is usually about 2 hrs on site AND 1 hr on the report at home.
95% of the time an agent will be there to open up for us AND if the buyer is going to be there we tell them to come the last 30 minutes +/-, and we allocate about 15-20 minutes to Summarize the hi spots of the inspection.
On a typical 2000 sq ft home I always schedule the inspection for 4 hours.
On average I’m onsite between 3 and 4 hours, sometimes longer, and then another 30 to 60 minutes to complete the report back at the office. Also, most of my inspections include lateral sewer scope inspections, which I do sub out, but I am involved with the actual scope part of the inspection itself, which can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes, depending on the condition and length of the lateral.
I have found that for an average size house, the condition of the house will determine the amount of time I’m onsite more than anything else.
The bottom line is, it takes as long as it takes. I never let anyone rush me when it comes to doing my job, my way.
The problematic homes with a problem every time you take a step take much longer to report on and it isn’t because of my software. It’s because if I see a problem, I investigate to see if there are other related problems not so visible.
A well taken care of 2000sq/ft home I can knock out in 90-100 minutes. An 800sq/ft dump may take 2.5 hours. Every time you find one thing, you find 3 more that need documentation.
Typically we schedule 3 hrs for the inspection and approx 30 additional minutes for the walk through.
We did have one time where the listing agent told the “tenant” that we would be done in two hours. The tenant’s wife came home while we were just starting the walk through and told us we “couldn’t” be there.
We packed up and as I was leaving their son came out with a phone as his dad, the tenant, wanted to talk to me. He threatened to have me arrested for trespassing and told me that he used to be a home inspector and that if I knew what I was doing it would only take me an hour or so to do the job and that he was going to report me for my transgressions I guess.
I told him to bring it on. Never heard anything else about it.
I was hoping to get out of there in 3 hours, but with the mess in the basement (an excess of tools, stored items, etc making visibility difficult), I finally finished in about 4 hours. As for the agent being present, most of them stay for the duration, but some just open the house and go run errands or whatever and come back at the end to go over the inspection summary. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a sole present except me. Just get out of my way and let me focus.
I’m right in line with Mark on that. Just before I retired the number of flip houses had skyrocketed. Talk about something that adds time to an inspection … I hate flippers!
I do as much of the report on site as possible, so obviously that will add to the time (though save me time at home when I’d prefer to be doing something else). It’s a give or take and kind of the reason I was interested in how my colleagues are doing it. I appreciate the feedback, Brian.
I actually find it to be the opposite, but again, I am coming from a history of working alongside a co-worker who was responsible for the other half of the house. It’s way different sorting through 150 photos to over 300. Still, I appreciate the feedback and will take it into consideration, at least to a certain extent.
