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Two inspections per day is normal in my area. ALL of the good inspectors have two time slots, a morning one and afternoon. Technology is an amazing thing for those that take the time to set it up.
Why would someone want to hire an inspector that gets burned out because she works every day of the week? No regular time off means burnout, which means high risk for mistakes.
It's up to each inspector how he/she wants to run his/her business, of course, but I'm sure most buyers would prefer to hire an inspector who concentrates on only one home, their potential home, each day, and turns around their report the same day, without charging them an additional fee. Also, scheduling two could be an issue because you can run late if the first home has a lot of issues. How can you be sure if a home is going to be easy or not before you start the inspection? You can't. Merely seeing photos or knowing the age of the home isn't a guarantee. By doing just one, she isn't in a rush to get through a home that has a lot of issues. Besides, if you're doing two inspections a day and doing reports until late in the night, are you not at risk for burnout yourself? As for her working seven days a week, she is AVAILABLE for inspections seven days a week. After working however many days, if she's tired, she takes a day off, whenever she's not scheduled, or if she's super busy, she hands off a lead to someone else.
It's up to each inspector how he/she wants to run his/her business, of course, but I'm sure most buyers would prefer to hire an inspector who concentrates on only one home, their potential home, each day, and turns around their report the same day, without charging them an additional fee. Also, scheduling two could be an issue because you can run late if the first home has a lot of issues. How can you be sure if a home is going to be easy or not before you start the inspection? You can't. Merely seeing photos or knowing the age of the home isn't a guarantee. By doing just one, she isn't in a rush to get through a home that has a lot of issues. Besides, if you're doing two inspections a day and doing reports until late in the night, are you not at risk for burnout yourself? As for her working seven days a week, she is AVAILABLE for inspections seven days a week. After working however many days, if she's tired, she takes a day off, whenever she's not scheduled, or if she's super busy, she hands off a lead to someone else.
I don't think most buyers would prefer that. I think they would like the weekend appointments though.
1) It would take way too long to get in to the schedule of a good home inspector as they are in demand. Your fiancee can do 7 a week vs. other inspectors 10. The good home inspectors are out a week and a half here which just pushes our inspection time frames. With her 7 days, it would put her out two weeks for a spot which blows the inspection time frame. She can be successful and happy doing what she is doing, but agents are a fickle bunch. If someone can't meet the deadlines we have in contracts, we have to find people that can.
There are 4 hours between the morning appointment and the afternoon one. That is adequate time to inspect a basic home.
2) Twice a day means more homes inspected, which means the inspector has more experience. Inspectors don't book large houses for morning appointments for a reason. Large houses go in the pm, smaller ones in the am.
3) The inspectors don't work late into the night. Technology is an amazing thing. My favorite inspector uses some android app program that he uses along the way. Then he said he has about 30 minutes worth of work for each inspection at the end of the day.
My inspector as a buyer was awesome. My only experience, really. He told me to crawl up with him in the attic and gave me some tips on how to add more insulation and what to look out for in the future. I had a blast walking around with him, and listened to him telling me how to maintain and clean certain things.
The seller then showed up, and he was so good that he refused to say anything to the seller other than "hello" and "sorry, I can't disclose the report to you."
I feel it is an ABSOLUTE MUST to be there with the inspector. Some people just hire them and don't attend with them. You lose out on lots of information.
I inspect two houses a day unless I have a suspected difficult house scheduled. After 10,000 or so inspections, I can typically ballpark what any house will take within 15-30 minutes just by looking it up online. I do work late into the night though due to being apprehensive in switching to the canned software which would speed up the time. We crafted our report over 30 years and everyone loves the format as it is easy to read through. I have considered switching just for the more robust feature set, like video for example, but retain the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" mentality. We like to write very detailed notes on certain problems instead of boilerplate "You have X, Contact Y for further evaluation". Being contractors, we can supersede the inspectors licensure board restrictions on report writing to a degree.
We own a niche contracting business and have competitors reports sent to us almost every day. I have found placing the value on length of time at the inspection is basically worthless. I have seen reports from inspectors that took 5-6 hours according to the Realtor that sent it over, yet missed several issues. It is much more about observational skills. Most average sized houses take 2-3 hours for me, dependent on client participation level.
I inspect two houses a day unless I have a suspected difficult house scheduled. After 10,000 or so inspections, I can typically ballpark what any house will take within 15-30 minutes just by looking it up online. I do work late into the night though due to being apprehensive in switching to the canned software which would speed up the time. We crafted our report over 30 years and everyone loves the format as it is easy to read through. I have considered switching just for the more robust feature set, like video for example, but retain the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" mentality. We like to write very detailed notes on certain problems instead of boilerplate "You have X, Contact Y for further evaluation". Being contractors, we can supersede the inspectors licensure board restrictions on report writing to a degree.
I know that the inspector that uses the app spend a couple of weekends entering everything he could think of into the app, so he just pulls down the issue in a menu and it gets inserted. So they are boiler plate but you customize the boilerplate language yourself. So it is super time intensive upfront, but saves a lot on the backend.
I saw a video on YouTube and the inspector is just walking around with a tablet, talking the notes out which is converted to text, snapping the picture, and everything is put together automatically.....very tempting lol. Easier houses only take me about 45 minutes to write the report, but problem houses can easily take a couple hours. I might give it a shot and roll it out over time. Give agents the option of what report style they want and see how it goes.
I hope you mean the buyers. If you're coordinating directly with the agent, they've just made themselves liable.
I was just making the point that any report format we use has to be agent friendly as well since they do the negotiating. We don't want to hand over a convoluted mess like some of the canned software tends to be.
The agents do tend to set up the appointments in our area though with whoever the buyers decide to use. It is likely just easier to coordinate that way since agents and inspectors have such varied schedules.
I was just making the point that any report format we use has to be agent friendly as well since they do the negotiating. We don't want to hand over a convoluted mess like some of the canned software tends to be.
I had a client once who hired an inspector that his parents recommended. The guy was definitely a senior citizen to say the least and the report I got back from him was written in a stream of conscious style. It was horrible.
I had a client once who hired an inspector that his parents recommended. The guy was definitely a senior citizen to say the least and the report I got back from him was written in a stream of conscious style. It was horrible.
Got to love that lol. I saw a report last year written in narrative style, and no kidding, it started out "I knew it was a bad house when I pulled up the curb". I was looking for the signature to see if it said Stephen King lol.
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