David,
It is my humble opinion that the inspection report is the most important part of the process and to blast through this area of the inspection is foolhardy.
When I started in this business 12 years ago I did not have these forums to gather information from other inspectors, I pretty much started everything from scratch on my own. When discussing my plans with a colleague from my former job it was his opinion that the inspection report is the only thing we have to sell to the client and that it should be worth something!
I have yet to be able to get away from site-specific reports. The only thing I use the inspection software for is to organize my data and photographs. The information that I store in the report program are the quotations from building code standards and my state law reporting requirements. Such as, "the automatic garage door opener reversed direction when blocked during closure".
I narrate every significant issue and paste it into the report.
I use a lot of photographs (one of the advantages of this reporting software) so most of the narrations go there.
To reiterate, I don't think I have ever been told on the inspection site what a good job I was doing while I was inspecting the house. It is not until the verbal reporting begins at the post inspection walk-through (which is the first phase of the reporting process) that a client begins to feel comfortable and realizes the value of my information versus the inspection fee.
To follow up the good inspection and an excellent post inspection walk-through with an "economy" report only tears down everything you built up. There are times when the client had already decided not to purchase the house and did not need a detailed inspection report. I always feel uncomfortable taking this shortcut, even with the client's permission.
When I don't follow up with an exceptional report (even when not needed), this will still affect the client's expectations when deciding to use me on the next home inspection they purchase. I often do three to four inspections for one client. To provide a skimpy report only deteriorates their subconscious opinion of my services.
You never know who's going to get their hands on your inspection report and it is the best form of advertising I use.
It takes me about two hours for a report that does not have a large amount of deficiencies (20 is about average).
Much of this time is in preparation of photographs and thermal imaging overlays using other programs besides HIP.
I'm still in the process of completely stripping my report template to the bare bones. I feel that reading to find what I want to say takes longer than saying it in a dictation program. I tried using other inspectors templates but found the select-and- pic approach to take up way too much of my time. Also, It takes more time to figure out the sections were the photograph has to go because you must select a major and minor section for the picture to go. Stripping down the report reduces the number of areas where the picture can get lost.
The "room by room" approach is way too time consuming.
Many of the "component" approach templates still use the room by room technique (i.e. having electrical sections outdoors, inside, attic, basement, etc.). All the electric goes in electric.
In the discrepancy panel I simply put "red" and "Black" and click the number of issues I want to dictate. Move them to the red/black box, double-click and insert my narrative in the drop-down. If I took a picture, the narrative goes in the caption but I then most supply a brief narrative in the red section so it hits the summary page (I'm still working on this process).
If you have a lot of selections in the discrepancy panel and you find yourself reading too much, adding a brief description in front of the narrative so you only have to read the first couple words helps you locate things faster.
Garage door reversal: The downward force pressure adjustment on the automatic garage door opener is not properly adjusted. This is a personal injury/property damage concern. The automatic opener should be adjusted in accordance with manufacturers specifications and is best performed by an overhead door contractor. This condition requires repair (state requirement).
