TOPIC: Inspection Time

Yeah, I said I am never at the site more than 2 hours and that vary from an hour to 2 hours.

Gary, can you explain why the walk through takes 2 hours?

Because I need to show them around, we go room by room and I answer all their questions. We do alot for people that dont speak english very and it takes awhile. They have tons of questions. Sometimes they bring family with them, sometimes the agents ask alot of questions, you know they are there to make all the stuff that is wrong not seem so bad. yet its the agents that complain about the length of time. I try to corral them and keep them on track, but when they get talking to each other its hard. I dont mind that it takes so long, I want them to leave happy, its just the agents that complain. The clients are not there for the inspection, they and the agent show up when I am done. If we could do this job without agents involved it would be better.

Please don't let me sound insulting, that's not my intent. 2 people at 5 hours???...thats 10hrs total... + the two of you driving 2 hrs...that's 14 hrs!

As Roy mentioned...I average 2 1/2hrs for a 2.5 bath house under 2800 sq-ft.
Mike Holmes is TV!!! Television is about ratings...not reality. Don't gauge your business on a show geared for ratings.

Are you new to the business? Does your State require a License? An inspection is NOT technically exhaustive.  Use your time wisely! It takes less time to check a "sump-pump" than to check all the window blinds. If you open an electrical panel and it's wired "professionally" you can develop a level a confidence in the work performed by the electrician. If you know what you're looking for, your flow should should continue smooth & steady. A mechanic gets paid to fix the engine, not "detail" the car.

I work with a excellent group of Realtors who do not want me glossing over issues...but they want me to keep it moving.

Hi Dominic-
There is one area where I'm beginning to change my mind - and it worked well for me yesterday with (3)inspections for the day.
I hate to bring up a competitor, but its the "predefined comments" that can be chosen in 3D...which I'm begining to think might be a good option for a template on SOME inspections

Yesterday I had 3 homes, all newer,...2001, 2004, 2001; 2.5 bath, 3 bath; and 4 bath; ...all in decent shape.
I use the full ver of HIP.  I started all 3 reports BEFORE the inspection, up loaded to my Windows 8 tablet with DROPBOX.

During the inspections, I spent less time checking off comments where components were GOOD.  Some changes during the inspection had to be made...ie; one home was wired with Romex, another with Conduit (I'm on the border of the world where "hard pipe & wire", or Romex is used).

It actually worked well. Yes...I can save a "pre defined" report...but having a couple pre-made templates with "comments" already chosen may not be a bad idea.

One other thing...I wish "highlighted" TABS would stay highlighted, even after you close HIP,  use Dropbox, or reopen an inspection.

Just a few Brainstorming thoughts.

Dan, you already can pre-load templates. That was actually one of the main reasons the Merge feature was creates. Use the Merge feature you can create multiple setup homes in advance without affecting your actual base template. Then simply merge your pre-setup inspection with the one you're currently working on. If we did this with multiple templates then if you added a new comment to one template, it wouldn't appear on the others. This prevents problems like you had in 3D where inspectors had 20 templates and none of them were sync'd. Does this make sense?

I agree on the highlighted tabs. It's definitely on the to-do list.