Apparently, I’ve been taking too long to inspect an average home. I hear many inspectors can inspect two properties per day. is it possible, I’m being too accurate or are other inspectors depending on their O&M Insurance? Please give me some advice on how I can perform two inspections a day and sleep at night.
Only one a day for me, the more you know the longer it could take.
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Only one a day for me as well when I worked.
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I know a CMI who does nothing but take pictures and notes and spends maybe 90 minutes at a house. He builds the reports at home.
I’m 2-3 hours depending on the Home. Usually closer to 2 than 3 hours, but the bigger homes simply take longer.
If it’s a big home, I try to optimize my movements. My goal is to never revisit the same spot on the house, reduce the number of trips back to the van, etc.
Finally, dogs of homes just take longer. You’re documenting a lot more issue. Clean homes just go faster.
During last busy season(Jan/Feb/Mar I was doing 8-12 a week. At least one day a week I had two, usually 3 or 4 days had two. It was a bit of a grind for sure. I could never do 3 in a day, it’d be completely blown out.
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There are lots of variables amongst inspectors, types of homes, geographic regions, etc. If you are most comfortable doing one per day, stick with it. It seems to be working since it appears you have been doing this for over a decade (Joined 2014). Lots of inspectors who say they do 2 and 3 everyday, 6 days a week, are doing mostly very basic, simple homes, have a helper, work 12 hour days, etc. If none of those things appeal to you, stick with the one per a day. On a side note, many who do one per day make just as much as the inspector that is going for quantity over quality, as they can charge more for their higher quality service.
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Begin by sharing with us the typical home you are inspecting. A lot of the braggarts that throw out that crap (3 to 5 a day), fail to mention they are inspecting 1,400 SF 3 bedroom slab-on-grade.
Most veteran inspectors like myself, only inspect one home a day, my typical in my area is 75 to 150 years old, 1.5 to 2.5 stories, 3-4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, full basements (finished and unfinished), and walkup attics are common, as are attached and detached garages. I spend 3-4 hours inspecting, plus the walkthrough which averages another hour. I do not do on-site reporting, which is performed back in my office. My clients pay a premium for my services, and virtually never receive a complaint for the time I take. Realtors also never receive any complaints regarding my work. An in-depth inspection utilizing whatever time I deem necessary is a win-win-win for everyone!
Note: next time an inspector brags about their inspection count, request a copy of their report. Quite often, you never hear from them again!
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A proper and thorough inspection takes as long as it takes. Don’t worry about anyone else. Just do a proper and thorough inspection and charge more as it is worth more.
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That needs repeating.
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On average, I take right at 1 hour per 1,000 sq feet on site. Then about 5-10 minutes per 1,000 sq feet at home to double check everything before sending the report.
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I’m with JJ on my typical job site time. One thing that speeds your overall time is how your report software is streamlined to find and assign observations to your images. Developing the right comment library takes time. A good library and efficient access shortcuts are key to overall efficiency. That should be your focus.
If you want to minimize time while on site, or if you’re getting into a time crunch, simply taking pictures at the property speeds you up significantly.
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Agree. I have found that clients and real estate agents get inpatient with a long inspection when the home inspector spends a bunch of time fiddling with their phone. You want to be thorough onsite, but also efficient with everyone’s time.
I am heartened to see that the majority of the commentors so far only do one inspection per day. I have to be very selective of the homes and distances involved to schedule two full home inspections and it inevitably ends up becoming a long stressful day.
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Of course it’s possible, I do 8:30 am and 12:00 pm as my time slots.
It all comes down to your process and software. When I used HIP I did 9 am and 2 pm. And then I still spent hours at home at night on my report, when I started using spectora, the process is much easier and I publish the reports before I leave the property.
I have spent hundreds maybe thousand hours on my templates and narratives over the years.
I also do termite and sewer scope on most inspections, some times radon and mold as well. I am very rarely late for my noon appt.
We figure about 3 hours for inspections up to 4,000 sf with one inspector. After that, we have two inspectors, and we can usually complete a home up to 6000sf in 3-4 hours. We do a good number of large homes; the typical S.F. we inspect is around 3500sf. We normally schedule 1 inspection a day per inspector, but when it is busy, we can handle two a day.
A 1,500 sf home on a crawlspace should not take more than 2 hours on site. It is all about having a good system that you use every time you inspect. Also, if you know your SOP/Template/Report and do not need to rely on it to prompt you on what to inspect next, that will make a huge difference in your on-site inspection time!
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That’s a rather arrogant and defensive comment. Yep, you must be too accurate. That’s your problem. Sheesh
First, take a bite of humble pie, then take a look at what you are doing and who you are. We are not all alike. I had a buddy with a photographic memory. He never touched his report during an inspection. He just cruised through the largest houses, and did his reports in the quiet and comfort of his home office without ever missing a thing. His onsite time was a fraction of mine. I do not have total recall.
I can usually inspect two 3000-3500 sq ft houses built in the last 40 years in a day. But I’ve spent six hours on a 120-year-old 800sq ft home. The house and the client can dictate time onsite. Thursday, I had a first-time home buyer buying a 72-year-old 1000sq ft house on a crawlspace. Four hours on site and the house was pretty clean.
Know yourself. If you are structured and deliberate, then fine. If you are flexible and can go with the flow, then fine. We are all different. Don’t get hung up because some other inspector seems to be faster. It doesn’t mean they are doing bad inspections. They may be just wired differently than you and me.
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I spend about an hour for every thousand square feet. It fluctuates depending on age or any ancillary services. I use a tablet for writing or taking notes in the field and a seperate digital camera for pics. I put the final report together back at the office in most cases under an hour. It just depends on how large of a property I’m inspecting. I’ll do 2 a day if they are 2,500 square feet or less but any bigger and I try to stick to one.
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Time management is the issue, unlikely you are any more thorough than someone doing 2 a day, anyone should be able to do 3 a day, the question is how many hours a day do you want to work, the day has 24 hours. I start at 8am, meeting clients and realtors at 11, at this time my report is complete and printed, I finish the presentation at 11:30. start my afternoon job at 12:30, meeting clients and realtors at 3:30, finished at 4. This is an ideal world where the jobs are within an hours drive apart. I do have to adjust the afternoon start time if the inspections are far apart, which is common. I do inspections up to 3 hours away; those days I try to only schedule 1
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How can you be “Too accurate” and what does that have to do with doing two inspections a day? I’ve never heard of O&M insurance. How does that or any kind of insurance have anything to do with how long it takes to do an inspection?
I agree with Lon, that you sound arrogant. Do you think that other inspectors are not as accurate as you are? Even if you are more accurate how would that have any bearing on time. If one inspector refers to a lamp as a lamp and another refers to the lamp as a light bulb, one is more accurate than the other but there is not much difference in the time it takes to say, think, or write one compared to the other. If anything, lamp, which is more accurate, would take longer to say or to write than light bulb. Some guys say footers instead of footings. How does it take the guy who says footings any longer than the guy who says footers? One is clearly more accurate than the other.
The amount of time it takes to do an inspection has more to do with the characteristics of the house and having a well defined system than accuracy.
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For me time onsite time depends on the size of the house and more importantly the condition of the house.
I inspected a 6k sq ft home yesterday that had 2 HVAC zones and 5 bathrooms that took me 4 hours to complete, I record all the information onsite and take pictures that get inserted directly into my software, then back at the office I download the inspection from the cloud and go through to add detail and make sure the pictures are properly oriented.
I’ve been in 2k sq ft homes that have taken longer due to the poor condition.
This is an accurate statement for me, the more education and experience that I have gained through the years has increased my time onsite. This is the only job I’ve ever had where the longer I’m in the industry, the longer it takes me to complete an inspection.
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I think he meant E&O insurance
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I’m guessing he really meant “thorough” and not “accurate.” Not every inspector works to the same “thoroughness” standard. The less thorough, the less time it takes. As an example, an inspector who tests every window and every receptacle is more thorough than an inspector who does a representative sample, and therefore their inspections take longer.
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