TOPIC: How do you do your summary with the client?

An update to my post on this subject in September....Shortly after I wrote my post, I went on an inspection and forgot my work sheet on my office desk...Oh *%#@, right? Well, I had my camera (nikon D80, SLR) and just started taking pictures or more pictures then I had been taking. When I got back to my office, I had 130 pictures of an 1,800 sf home and these became my notes. I have since stoped writting notes on site and take pictures of everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. This has shortened my on site time from about three hours to two, for an average house. My reports include about 40-60 pictures depending on the house. I certainly like the idea of using the onsite computer and being 90% done when the site work is finnished and I can see an issue with my new method if I were doing more than one insection in a day, but so far so good. Any thoughts???

I had considered the same thing a few months ago, Craig, and thought it may work. The only problem I can imagine is accidentally leaving something out, where the checklist I use will sort of keep me on track. I haven't had the Kahoonas to leave my checklist behind and only use the camera yet. And what about bouncing around since you are taking pics as you go, and not necessarily in the same order as the report? There is already some of that anyway, like taking pics of the A/C Condensor while outside looking at the electric drop. It seems as though as you are writing your report, you would come across a picture and say, "Oh crap, I forgot about that", then have to go back in the report, find the section where you took the pic, and fill it in. Still sounds like a fairly decent idea, though. I am going on an inspection this afternoon where there are two houses on one property, so they are getting treated as entirely different inspections. This could be confusing with pics only, trying to remember which pic is of which house :-\

Craig, quite a few guys use that method but the best is data entry on site. That way you're writing narratives while the info is fresh and you can look more at an issue if needed. You're also done onsite rather than going home where there's lots of distractions. Taking an extra 30 minutes on site will save you an hour or more at home.

I can't figure out how you can do the report onsite unless you spend another 2 or three hours onsite. 

Yes, I can see that Data Entry On Site would have advantages. However, actually Writing naratives on site, does not work so well. If your template (like Brian Handy) has an good "libray" and you are just clicking your way through 90% of the inspection, then I can see how D.E.O.S. would work great. If your template is like mine, still a work in progress, then I am not so sure.

Yep a work in progress  :-[