They were in the news earlier this week or late last week announcing the closure. Their hope was a buyer would take over before they had to lock doors. It really is sad that they could not make it.
My first stitches were the results of a Shopsmith bandsaw. The thought of how great of a system they are is different than practicality. Everything is just an awkward size when actually using it.
Both. Inspection software companies started throwing in all kinds of other stuff with their inspection reports because there’s only so much to do with an inspection report. It isn’t difficult to adapt to inspection trends or changes in standard operating procedures.
If you look at inspection reports over the past 35 years, there have only been a few major changes. The advent of affordable digital cameras was the driving force for the first major shift. The trend toward more narratives and fewer checkboxes was the next big shift. A big shift that happened a short time later, and that fit well with already developing trends, was a move toward a Texas TREC influenced report format.
When I introduced a report based on the Texas format, it became my best seller in a very short time. Texas based Whisper Solutions started to promote their Texas based software outside Texas right around the same time that I did. In fact, our booths were next to each other at the 2006 NACHI convention. I’m not sure, but I think that might have been Whisper’s first national convention. Over the next few years other inspection software companies followed suite. Today, it remains the basic format used by almost every inspection report.
Since then, it has mostly been a matter of shuffling the same deck of cards. There are some differences among reports but it’s easy to trace back through inspection report history over the past 25-35 years to see how they all ended up where they are. Most of the contemporary reports look very similar to reports from 20 years ago, with the main differences being more fluff in reports. Inspection reports are substantially the same as they were 20 years ago.
You may recall that we went through a period when cartoonware was popular. All the software companies jumped on that bandwagon. That lasted, what, maybe five or six years? Then after an absence of seven or eight years or so, spectora came on the scene and have introduced cartoonware to a new generation and new breed of inspectors. The new guys haven’t been around long enough to recognize that spectora didn’t invent the concept. We’ve already been there and done that. Dog and pony shows will get an inspector only so far. Eventually, their lack of substance catches up with them.
That’s the nature of all-in-one stuff, doing lots of things but doing none of them especially well. I took a wood shop class in high school and wanted a Shopsmith because I knew I wouldn’t have the money or the space for a well equipped wood shop in the foreseeable future, so the Shopsmith seemed like a good choice. Even that was more than I could afford. I was also an electronics hobbyist. Unlike a woodworking shop, an electronics workbench was financially within my reach.
Right! I offer all my customers a free one-on-one live remote training session. Most inspectors can confidently start doing reports after a one-hour session. I don’t put a time limit on the session time though. I also always offer to do a follow-up session at the customer’s convenience. It’s best to do five or six reports before the follow-up session. That way it gives the inspector time to get comfortable with the basics and write down any questions they might think of along the way. Most tell me by the end of the initial session that they are ready to fly solo.
Many of my customers like to figure stuff out on their own. Everyone is different.
The inspection report is a too critical to an inspection business to need more than a day, maybe two, to be proficient with it.
“After more than 70 years of serving makers, builders, and woodworking enthusiasts,
*Shopsmith has unfortunately reached the decision to suspend operations immediately.
Unless new ownership emerges, this iconic American brand will soon be dissolved. Our lender is
preparing to take possession of and liquidate the company’s assets – a move that would
dismantle the brand and close a long chapter in American woodworking history.”*
We have a home inspector here in New Jersey that does 3-4 inspections a day. When we were going for our NJHI license everyone would all go along with him to get our hours. He did not use any companies report software. He had made his own program. We all agreed he had the worst reports any of us had ever seen. He still as of today does a large volume of inspections.
With three or four inspections a day, he must be writing a report that’s easy for the clients to understand. A home inspection report should be nothing but a narrative with photographs.
Anything else is just garbage and fluff. But there are those fan boys who love all the bells and whistles and garbage that the clients will never use or understand. The software companies know this and add more garbage to lure in more sucker home inspectors.
Because those ‘bells and whistles’ are intended for the realtor, e.g. to make their job easier, to bring in their paychecks with the least hassle possible… in effect, they are considered the modern day “soft report”.
I used bestinpectors.net products the entire time I was in business. It suited all of my needs without 50 pages of worthless crap thrown in…..
Those in training always are always smarter than those doing the training. It is actually the point in your career when you are the smartest.
Another related thread from a “few” years ago…
That’s a blast from the past! There a few broken links in that discussion thread. The inspection report world has a revolving door. I used to keep track of all my competitors as they came and went. I gave up because there were too many coming and going. It got to the point where there were new software companies at every major home inspection event, but most would be gone within two years. There aren’t many of us who have survived more than 25 years in the business.
I did an inspection for a young guy who had a growing website development company. He told me how bad my website was and how it needed a lot of work. I asked him how he found me and why he chose to hire me. He said found my website doing a search and was impressed with my background and credentials. I said “And here we are”.
He became one of the area’s biggest website developers and a big property investor. He had me inspect all his investment properties. After about five years and many inspections, he was buying another house for himself when he was about to get married and he had me inspect it. He introduced me to his wife-to-be and said, “This is George. He has a really crappy website”. I just smiled and said, “And here we are”.
Contrary to what some inspectors think, people rarely hire an inspector based on the inspector’s inspection reports. They hire inspectors based on their reputation more than anything else. At least half of home buyers will either not look at the inspection report or they will just breeze through it.
I found that clearly true when I was inspecting.
Yes indeed. 