My Home Inspection Report
(Click to view a blank home inspection report (Adobe PDF file: 628kb)
Some do computer-generated reports. Some buy reporting systems from vendors to fill out by hand. Some are franchised and have their own reporting system. Me? I have refined my own custom proprietary checklist style handwritten inspection report over the years that is highly customized to what I have seen in this region. I believe it combines the best of all reporting styles. You don’t have
to wait for me to generate a computer report on site (but you may request a preliminary Summary of Issues on site). I then digitize the report at my office, annotate and add in the photos, include the industry Standards of Practice and my own recommendations and upload the Adobe PDF file to my website. There, you enter the password I give you to retrieve your report. The speed of handwritten checklist style and the convenience of digital without the excessive disclaimers and distracting minutiae of a computer generated report that can lead to what you are really concerned about getting lost in all the extra foofoo.
All my reports include the following items and categories:
- Home Inspection Agreement.
- Report Key.
- Summary of Issues: (This you may request at the end of the inspection, if warranted by need or urgency.)
- Health or safety hazards (of a more urgent nature).
- Items requiring further evaluation.
- OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES (that may involve significant money, time, and/or labor to rectify)
- NOTEWORTHY ITEMS NOT OPERATING or NOT OPERATING CORRECTLY
- Deferred cost items (Items that have reached or are reaching their normal life expectancy or show indications that they may require repair or replacement anytime during the next few years).
- MINOR ITEMS (NOT a complete list!)
- Outside: Grounds & Drainage
- Utilities & AC/Heat Pump Units
- Roofing & Chimneys
- Exterior: Walls, Siding, Trim, Doors & Windows, Attached Structures
- Foundation: Slab on Grade, Wall
- Garage & Garage Doors
- Cellar/Crawlspace/Unfinished Basement
- Electrical: Primary Service Panel, Secondary Service Panel, Sub Panel
- Plumbing: Supply Lines, Waste Lines, Fuel System, Water Heaters
- Heating & Cooling
- Kitchen & Appliances, Laundry
- Interior Spaces (living and sleeping rooms)
- Bathrooms
- Fireplaces: Masonry, Metal, Prefab or Inserts
- Staircases
- Attics
- Virginia & NACHI’s Standards of Practice
- CD of photos
At the inspection you will receive a CD. The CD contains over 125 sorted, annotated, educational and informative photos that I have taken over the years (all de-identified) to illustrate operational and maintenance subjects. It alone is a fabulous resource!
Later that day or night, after processing (usually within 3 hours), the full report will be available for download from my website and will include all the elements above plus the photos (many annotated) from your own inspection. In addition I include the Standards of Practice at the end. It is an Adobe PDF file—a very common format that you most likely already have on your computer. In the unlikely event you don’t I provide a copy of the Adobe Reader on the CD or you can download it at http://get.adobe.com/reader/. See Inspection Photos for real examples of what you get.
For New Construction and Project Consultations the report format is a field report--a punch list and narrative as required.
