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

Steve, you need to come to the conference, same as I told Dave so that you can learn. Once you come you can learn what you're doing that makes you take SO long and how to fix it. Imagine if it knocks your time in half, or even more. Is that worth it? Saving 1000 hours per year?

Two comments today from guys on the NACHI forum that finish ON SITE

John Shishilla (5 inspectors)

I have used the big three live on jobs for more than a month each. They all have merits. Not all work on Apple products of Windows mobile if you wanted or needed to go that direction.

3D is complicated and clunky but will do almost anything you want. The customer service is the weakest so be prepared to wait a day or two if you have questions. Which is not too bad if you are willing to look and work for your own answers.

HG is a solid program with lots of features. It is geared towards presenting on-line reports and has a scheduler. The mobile app is slow(too many clicks). The online scheduler and other features are nice but not top notch.

HIP is quick and easy to learn. The support is the absolute best. The reports are fully customizable, so you really can make your own look. It has many of the features you could want and integrates with other companies which makes it a perfect complete solution.

It is important to note it took me a month of working with each program before I used it for an actual inspection. If you do not have that time I suggest going where there is the best service(HIP).
Until you use a program for a period of time you will never know what you like or hate. Then you preference may change over the years, but it is difficult to change software because you inspection procedures will start to match your software.

I hope that helps"

and here's one from George Skeeters:

" Interesting discussion, to answer the original question from my vantage point.I use HIP, on the home mentioned the on site time would be 2 1/2 hours max and 15 minutes at the office making photo mark ups, sending. The system works with android, windows iPhone, iPad and for me the iPad was the most stable and user friendly . The intigration with ISN is very good and the reports can take on several looks and layout formats with just a couple clicks. Pictures batch add VERY quickly when you have additional pics you may take with a camera . I often have my laptop and when I get the site work done, I upload to the cloud and download to my laptop, complete the report over lunch and move on to the evening inspection. My time at home that evening is 25 min tops and I'm a civilian again? Hope this helps you in your quest!

By the way like buying a car or insurance?the two or three top brands are virtually equil but it's the service and support that make one stand out over another?Dom and his team are bar non the best in the business and their support and attention to detail have been no less than superb ! I often wonder how they do it and their online live help is priceless when I'm working on any issue and don't have hours to waste....this is something you should strongly consider when making your decision"

Not able to fund Vegas, but thanks. I will keep doing what I been doing, or until I can build a better mouse trap with Dom's software.
Thanks to all who responded.

Steve, that's the wrong answer. You can't afford NOT to go to Vegas! Use your credit card if you need to. Here's how much it's costing you to NOT go to Vegas.

Lets say right now you're average report is taking you 4 hours. After you go to the conference lets be super conservative and say that you can do them in 2 (you should go even faster though). That means you're now saving 2 hours per report. Inspectors typically value their time at $100 (to $150) per hour. That means you'd save yourself $200 per inspection. If you're doing 100 inspections a year (conservative for most areas of the country where guys like David are doing 300 to 400) and you're now going to save $20,000 by going to the conference as you'd save yourself 200 hours. At a 40 hour work week that would mean that you'd now have FIVE WEEKS of extra time. How many more inspections could you do if you had 5 extra weeks in the month? How much more time for family, for fishing, friends, etc?

David, there was a time where you were finishing every inspection report in under 45 minutes. Then you changed your strategy and starting taking longer. You just need to rethink how you do things again which is what conferences are for.

Steve, I suggest starting a new thread and posting a copy of your report too. I'm sure you'll get some useful tips from that.

Steve,
I'd be happy to spend some time working with you and offering some suggestions for speeding up.  Everyone is different in their goals for their inspections and reports, so there is bound to something you can improve, it just may not be obvious on the surface. Email me a finished report and I'll get back to you with some thoughts. No insults, demeaning your methods or ridiculing your reporting, just an inspection of your reporting.

Cameron, I sent 1 condo report and 1 home report with the report times.