Hello everyone, im a new inspector and have completed about 20 inspections and am using Spectora for my report writing. I am spending way to long on writing reports and around 4 hours on site. I could easily spend 10 hours writing the report.
I admire anyone that can do 3 inspections a day. I realize that I am new to this but there has got to be an easier way. Homes in my Eastern KY area have a lot of defects. Maybe someone has a descent Spectora template that I could purchase?? Business is starting to pick up a bit and would like to market more but am afraid that I cant keep up, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Paul
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Not everyone is a three-a-day kind of inspector. I rarely did more than one full inspection a day and I think if you compared those inspections to a three-a-day inspector, the difference would be quite obvious. There is a market for both and everything in-between. Figure out which you are, focus on that market and charge accordingly.
I average about 100 photos per report. I find it very difficult to follow the report as I’m going through the home(I’m using a system by system report).
Sometimes I think a room by room report would be much easier .
That’s because you’re letting the program determine where you go and when you go there.
Consider inspecting without the software guiding you, or modify the software (although it will never be exactly in step with each unique property).
This 100%. It seems like a great idea to have software that allows you to get the majority of the report done in real time. But it takes years of experience with inspections and molding your reporting software to get there. I abandoned that idea and simply do the report at the office now.
Okay, so if I do most of the report at office(which I am anyways) how is it possible to keep up with photos and where exactly they are taken so you can remember where to put them in the report? Especially if you are doing more than one inspection per day.
I’m currently taking photos in a systematic way as I go through the home but it is still difficult to keep up with where they are taken.
After each defect photo you could take a step or two back and take another as a reminder to yourself of where the picture was at. (all electrical outlets kind of look alike, for example).
Many Spectora users are building the report during the inspection but that may take too much time if you are still learning the software.
Where in East KY are you? Are you within an hour or two of Middlesboro KY? Do you have a mentor to show you the ropes yet?
I agree with Bert.
For every defect, you should take two pics. An overview and a close-up of the specific concern.
Also… as a NEW inspector, IMO you should NOT be performing three inspections a day anytime soon! You need to stick to ONE a day until you master the craft and get a handle on your reports. For many inspectors, that would typically take a full year of inspections (100+). Proceeding too quickly, and you are setting yourself up to fail.
I could see doing 3 inspections one day, and writing 3 reports the next. But to be honest, the canned report programs look canned. I don’t like them at all.