What a great home inspection report looks like

I recently had another home inspection company owner ask me what an ideal home inspection report should look like. I gave him a fairly lengthy answer via text message, but I think this is a great question that deserves an even more detailed explanation. I’ve been in the home inspection game since 1997, and I’ve seen a lot of reports. We started with the notorious carbon-copy handwritten triplicate form, and today we deliver HTML reports with embedded videos. Between then and now, we’ve done everything in between.

Today, I believe the vast majority of home inspectors deliver digital reports that look similar to any other report at a glance. But what’s the difference between a great home inspection report and a mediocre report? Here goes.

Professionally written

There should be no typos, spelling errors, grammar issues, or incomplete sentences. Perhaps the worst offender of an incomplete sentence is when a home inspector writes “Recommend repair..” That grinds my gears. The home inspector is literally telling someone to make a recommendation for repairs; they’re not making the recommendation themselves. Sure, we all know what they mean… but get it right! Half of your job is to write this stinking report.

Confident observations

A well-written report will clearly state facts with confidence. “The front door was rotted” is a good example. It’s clearly stated, concise, and confident. A weak report might say “The front door appeared to be rotted” or “The front door was observed to show evidence of rotting”. Now I’m giving you less information, and I’m using more words to do it.

Confident recommendations

A well-written report gives straightforward advice. “Have the front door replaced” is a good example. Again, it’s clearly stated, concise, and confident. The opposite might sound like this: “Recommend contacting licensed contractor to have the front door further inspected for possible corrective action, which may reveal additional concealed defects.” The more recommendations for further inspection you find in a home inspection report, the weaker the home inspector’s confidence in their own work.

Concise

A home inspection report should only contain the necessary information. I don’t like 100-page reports that take hours to read. That’s clearly in the territory of a home maintenance manual. It’s a lot of information to digest for someone trying to use the home inspection report to guide their buying decision.

On the other hand, it’s nice for home inspectors to provide buyers with a home maintenance manual. We used to compile our own custom manuals, then we started giving our clients a printed Owner’s Manual. By 2009, I had written a diverse range of blog posts, and we began including direct links to my blog posts within our inspection reports. Here’s how this might look: “Winterize all exterior faucets every fall to help prevent freeze damage. For instructions, click here: How to prevent your outside faucets from freezing“.

Today, I believe this is the ideal balance between providing a concise report and giving my clients access to critical home maintenance information.

Fluffy stuff out of the way

Home inspection standards of practice require us home inspectors to describe a lot of stuff in our reports. I’m not talking about reporting on defects; this is about documenting how a house is built. For example, I need to describe how a roof is framed. It’s almost always conventional wood framing or wood trusses, and I don’t think any really cares… but I need to put this information in my report.

This information should be displayed as fine print at the bottom of the page, pushed to the back of the report, or on a secondary tab in an HTML report to keep it out of the way. It’s in the report if anyone needs to look it up, but most people don’t care. The same goes for describing home inspection standards of practice. If a home inspector is going to include their SOP in the report, this information shouldn’t get in the way of the “meat” of the report.

A summary at the beginning

A home inspection report summary should include the big stuff. The roof is toast? The electrical panel is hazardous? You have a wet finished basement? That all goes in the summary. It’s big expensive stuff that might affect someone’s decision to buy the house. It should also include immediate hazards, such as live wires protruding from a box or a disconnected furnace vent. It’s not expensive to repair this equipment, but it’s essential to have these items fixed immediately.

A summary report should not include anything else. My summary reports used to include every recommendation I put in my report. I used to deliver 30 – 50 point summaries, but at that point, it’s hardly a summary. It’s just a condensed version of the whole report without photos. Some home inspectors don’t include summary reports because they want to force their clients to read the entire report, but I say that’s insulting to the client. Let the client choose whether to read or not. They can do with the report as they please.

Give people what they want

What all of this comes down to is delivering a product people want. Make it easy for homebuyers and real estate agents to digest the information you’re providing them. If a home inspector has established a strong reputation by consistently delivering 100-page reports, good for them. They’ve found a niche, but this isn’t what most people want. Most people want the stuff I listed above.