Tell me how this can be done

The following is an excerpt from a website. All too often I read things like this.

“This report is made up of 15 sections, including kitchen, bathrooms, heat/AC, electrical, roof, exterior areas and more. Within these 15 sections there are over 200 individual items which we evaluate thoroughly.”

At 200 individual items evaluated on a report it would take a minute or less to evaluate each item, unless, of course, each outlet, switch, door and window is counted as an individual item. And all for $250.00 (a little over $1.00 per item).

This seems to me like it could be opening itself up to an easy lawsuit for a client if they went to court. Any thoughts on this.

If the inspector spent just 1 minute on each of the 200 items, it would take at least 200 minutes=3hrs and 20 minutes.

I don’t believe the electrical panel and wiring could be inspected in 1 minute, nor the roof, nor the attic, nor the ‘anything else’.

So this notion of a “thorough evaluation” is ludicrous.

I think I would request a listing of the “more than 200 items” if I were thinking of hiring him.

There’s a thought–you call him, posing as a prospective client, and ask him about that.

!) I tell my client I am going to miss items
2) I do random checks on components and take long looks at systems
3) I make sure that I remember the big ticket items

As you guys are going with 200 items let me ask the next poster how many of those 200 items are more than you can afford to lose.

Roof
Foundation
Structure
Water intrusion

Cover those and the rest should not make you jumpy.

We could check thousands of items if we had 2 days .

I don’t remember whose website it was, but I recall seeing an inspector claiming over 400 items!!! (About 8 months ago).

OK now I gotta go count.

I have around 240 component items in my template but that is one kitchen and one bathroom.
So that adds to report time.

Bathroom

Sink condition
How water supply
Cold Water supply
Drain for leaks
Drain for correct drain type
Cabinet floor
Mold in cabinet
Doors of cabinet
Base of cabinet
Access of cabinet
Sink drain stopper
Sink Drain stopper handle

Toilet

Overall visual condition
Flush handle
visual leaks
firmly seated
seat present
lid present
physical location
flush process
refill process
cracks in tank

I got 23 items off the top of my head and thats just one sink and one toilet!

Its a play on words…

Yep sub-comments certainly add up to but have a bigger variable in how many you use.

Have no idea how you guys get a quality report on site with all that extra time unless you are simply pre loading a ton of it but bless you for for the attempt successful or not.

Probably this one Jeff I saw this about a month ago. :shock:

Each inspection follows a detailed inspection report that in a typical home covers more than 400 items,](http://www.depinspect.com/) An inspection averages between two and three hours to complete.

Why are they doing the Report before the inspection?
That just don’t seem right.

The OP’s post is from my website, I use the Home Inspector Pro software. There are over 200 items on the typical report. Obviously you don’t spend a minute evaluating the condition things such as the door bell, ceiling fans, soap dispenser, mirror, etc etc. This is the same for many items, unless those items are in poor condition. Also, there are many items on the report which every home does not have. Many homes in my area of FL don’t have fireplaces or gas furnaces. This leaves plenty of time to spend on the electrical, plumbing, roof and other major systems.

No need to call me, I’m right here! Any other questions?

Think about all the items you check on an inspection all the required sop notations and all the potential defects there are. That will add up to thousands of potential comments. Most all of my inspections do take over 3 man hours to complete and I think 300 specific observations would actually be a low estimate. Theres a lot of stuff we are looking at simultaneously.

Hmmm, nope, don’t look familiar, but it is basically the same message.

I seem to remember reading somewhere a while back, that an average home inspection covers 60,000 individual components.