I was writing my first mock inspection and was wondering how you all went about report writing. I ended up writing exterior first then each floor I would stop and add in my observations.
Ive seen a few listed ideas and wonder your experiences were. Here are a couple I’ve seen:
Cut it into two halves: do the entire exterior then write everything about that, then, do the entire interior and write about it all at the end
write/type as you go
Also, do you report each bedroom/room or are all rooms listed under a system, IE interior ?
Curious…
Why are you posting in the Vendor section?
Are you a software vendor looking for information to develop your software?
All your posts are about report writing.
Why are you showing as a non-member?
Typically, I/we only share trade secrets with actual Internachi members.
Maybe I should save more technical questions for when I’m a member.
Currently completing a course in Ontario, Canada and it’s partnered with Internachi, so I’m currently going through all the course work for it and when I’m done I’m to contact Nick to sort out my membership.
The two main approaches to report writing are System and Rooms. Most write reports by system. Structure, Exterior, Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Interior etcetera. Your initial post had a mix of the two where you started with a system (exterior) and then switched to rooms (or floors) when doing the interior. Use sample reports from Home Inspectors websites to find a format that appeals to you.
There are home inspectors who, on this message board, have claimed to have served in court as expert witnesses for their clients. It is possible that some of them are telling the truth, but (from reports published on this and other sites) I have yet to see a software program that produces such a report that can be considered even weakly to support an expert testimony. An “expert” who would take such ambiguous and boilerplate tripe before a higher court than small claims would be taking a knife to a gunfight.
Since you asked this question in the Vendor forum, I think it should be answered in that context. If you are a new inspector, you can take one of two paths. You can limit yourself to become only as useful to your client as your computer software program you are trying to learn allows or you can first learn to write a complete and accurate description of a house and its systems and find a program that suits your style.
If you are skilled enough to write your own report, I recommend “How to Write an Expert Witness Report” by Mangraviti, Babisky, and Donovan. Incorporating this knowledge into your home inspection report will lock it down for you and your client.
What Bob said plus I found clockwise around the exterior and interion, photo trail, reports written in your office undistracted after reviewing photos and field notes.