report writing Archives - Charles Buell Consulting LLC

January 12, 2020 by Charles Buell

ScribeWare Conversion—a religious experience

On June 1^st, 2019 I gave up my love/hate relationship with my report writing template.

For more than 15 years I had been building and maintaining my template in Microsoft Excel. I had written many macros, created thousands of links, and written thousands of narratives.

While a thing of beauty, and impressive in what it could do, speed was not one of its qualities. It became a way to do reports that was incredibly detailed and provided a process that made it difficult for me to miss stuff. It really covered my back-side well, but it was a laborious process that I would not wish on anyone.

Around the first of June I hurt my back in a crawlspace, and I decided to take a break from inspecting and focus on moving my excel template into ScribeWare. Anyone that has ever changed software programs knows what a pain in the ass this endeavor is. For me it took about 30, 12 hour days, just to get to the point where I could start to make the information fully functional in ScribeWare.

No software company makes this easy for obvious reasons and I was intent on not just carrying over all my language, but I also wanted to replicate the process that I loved in my old system. This involved a radical customization of the template as well as importing thousands of narratives.

Before you pick ANY software, you best do your homework.

The hundreds and eventually thousands of hours you spend building your narrative library, and other customization of your software, will mostly be for naught when you want to make a change.

EVERYONE will tell you their software is the best, so be careful listening to other inspectors, EVEN ME.

After we spend hundreds of hours building something, why would we ever admit we made a mistake? Each inspector can know the truth, but unfortunately there is no way for the rest of us to know the truth.

It is probably more accurate to state that NO software is the best, and the best ones are ones that are in process of getting better. Some meet these criteria, most do not.

An inspector’s business model will have a huge impact on what they consider the best. Are we to believe the inspector that says their software is the best because it allows them to create 20 page reports? If you are asking, “what is wrong with a 20 page report,” regardless of software, we may not be able to have any discussion at all.

Ask yourself what you want from a software, and then look at them and see which one can get you there the best. (need more help on this list)

Does it have to be able to allow you to do your inspections on site?
Does it sequence and present the information you gather in a clear way?
Does it have to have a super functional app?
Does the app need an internet connection to input data?
How customizable is the general information areas of the report?
How important are pictures, videos and supporting diagrams?
How important are canned narratives?
How easy is it to find, edit and use those narratives?
Does it have to handle your contracts?
Does it have to handle scheduling?
Does it have to handle follow up?
Does it have to interact with agents?
Do you want HTML? PDF? Both?
Cloud storage?
If the internet goes down can you still work on your report?

For my own business model, some of these things I could care less about, but for other inspectors some of the things that I do not care about would be deal breakers for them.

I think the following are things every inspector “should” care about when selected software:

how the report looks
how interactive and functional is it for the client
how it supports building narratives
how images/diagrams can be made to interact with those narratives
how easy it is to pull up your canned narratives?
How easy is it to insert pictures (do you have to go create and hunt for jpegs or can you merely copy and paste directly from anywhere?)

As an instructor, I have seen most if not all of the report software available and have spent time playing with many of them to see if they would suit my needs.

No other software I have tried even came close!

There is currently no software available that allows the inspector to do what Excel can do with pictures right in the template/software. None. Anyone that says otherwise just does not know how powerful Excel is.

There was absolutely NO software available that allows the inspector to customize the software to the levels I could in Excel.

But now there is ScribeWare.

ScribeWare allows the inspector to be as shallow or as deep as the user’s business model requires. ScribeWare, working in conjunction with PowerPoint for pictures, creates the most powerful report writing software I am aware of.

If you are looking for ways to set yourself apart, ScribeWare can certainly be part of that plan, and in the process elevate both the individual inspector and the whole profession. The later part of this, is something that I do not ever see being discussed. Does the software we use, elevate the profession and provide better information to our clients? Or, are we only interested in what works for ourselves? If one of your primary concerns is whether the software will allow you to get to that fourth inspection of the day, I have no clue. This is certainly of no interest to me or my clients.

ScribeWare has cut my report writing time in half, but more importantly it allows me to create a better looking report, with a template designed to not allow me to miss things, because I was able to replicate my Excel process in ScribeWare. This amounts to liability reduction while continuing to grow my business based simply on the quality of my report.

Sample of one of the 180+ diagrams built into ScribeWare

ScribeWare also comes with all my inspection diagrams.

Check out this video of a simple tour of a small section in ScribeWare to get a glimpse of how powerful it is. It is best viewed on a real computer on full screen view.

Please keep in mind, this is my use of ScribeWare “on steroids.” Most inspection reports do not go into this level of detail, but I can tell you, the more detail, the lower the liability. The point being, the software can be tailored to your own needs better than any other software I am aware of.

ScribeWare Demo

Also, if you are going to be at Inspection World, New Orleans, next week, check out the ScribeWare booth. Steve Lamb, Dylan Chalk and I will be there to answer any questions you have.

Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

October 18, 2017 by Charles Buell

Sometimes the inspector must be wishy-washy

Most of the time, in report writing, it is advisable to be as clear and to the point as possible.

When reporting on issues discovered in the home, we want to describe what the issue is, what the consequences will be if nothing is done, and what repairs should be made and who should make the repairs. Most of the time this is not difficult for an inspector, and the more experienced the inspector is, the number of times this is not the case goes down.

Sometimes however, it simply is not possible to “know” with any degree of certainty what is “actually” going on, or what the “actual” consequences will be.

An all too common example of this is moisture around toilets.

How can the inspector determine this? Well obviously if the area is visible from a crawl space and the floor is all wet, the written narrative is pretty easy and straightforward. But let’s say it is a second floor bathroom with no access under the toilet. If the inspector checks around the toilet with a moisture meter, and they notice what appears to be moisture under the floor covering, can the inspector categorically state there is moisture under the floor covering? If there is in fact moisture under the floor covering can the inspector tell how much damage there is or is not?

They certainly should not conclude there is moisture under the floor without other forms of confirmation. Some types of floor coverings will allow moisture meters to indicate either “false positive” or “false negative” readings. A lack of temperature differential will even result in thermal imaging to be of little use–or at least to a high level of confidence.

If salts are present around the toilet, this could confuse the moisture meter. Houses with boys can often have this issue. Cleaning the floor can often eliminate this variable.

I routinely hear of home inspectors stating something like: “Moisture was noted around the toilet as indicated by moisture meter. I recommend repairs by a licensed plumber.” The plumber subsequently shows up and finds nothing wrong with the toilet seal when the toilet is removed and no indication of moisture under the toilet.

There are two big problems with the inspector’s statement. Just because the moisture meter says there is moisture does not mean there is moisture, and repairs may not be necessary.

So the inspector has a problem.

How do we communicate this finding to the client?

All we can do is comment something like this: “A moisture meter was used to check for moisture in the floor around the toilet and it indicated the possibility of moisture. The only way to know for sure is to remove the toilet and check. False positives are possible and common. I recommend further evaluation by a licensed plumber and if any leaking is found I recommend that proper repairs be made as deemed necessary. Damage discovered may also involve other parties that might need to make repairs to the structures under the toilet. Hidden damage is common, but often times there is no damage. This is especially true when the toilet is in fact leaking, but moisture is confined between layers of floor coverings.”

How is that for wishy-washy? However, this is what is necessary to communicate an issue that cannot be “positively” confirmed in the context of the home inspection. Stating that there “is” moisture is not adequate and stating there “is not” moisture is not adequate.

Sometimes the inspector MUST be wishy-washy.

Black and White has little place in the lives of home inspectors, and sometimes we must live in the greys and is part of establishing inspection expectations.

By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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April 19, 2016 by Charles Buell

There is a reason why they call it an “Inspection.”

It seems at times, home inspectors are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

What should report write-ups about home defects look like? If you talk to 100 agents and 100 inspectors you will likely get 200 answers.

If you talk to clients, you will not likely get nearly so many answers.

Since obviously, we are not going to get the answer from home inspectors or agents, I will, for this exercise focus on consumers. After all, it is them the report is written for is it not?

If you asked agents this last question some would argue that it is for them to assist in negogiations. If you ask inspectors some would argue they are written to reduce their liability. Both would likely add that of course they are also written for the consumer. Sometimes who the report is written for gets lost in the nuances of other interests.

It is obviously more complicated than this.

Since I work for the client, I write my reports for the client. In that context I also know that the agent needs to be able to read it and understand it, repair persons will need to read it and understand it, but primarily, the client needs to read it and understand it.

As I get to see a large number of inspection reports in the course of a year, I am noticing a trend toward simplification of report writing to the point of them becoming almost useless. I won’t go into all the reasons for this but a major reason is “time.” There is a huge push to spend as little time on inspection reports so that the inspector can move along to the next inspection. To achieve this goal, the inspector relies on canned comments—canned comments that have a one-size-fits-all mentality.

For example the inspector takes the cover off the electrical panel and notices there are issues. The report reads something like this: “Inspector noted issues in the electrical panel. Recommend evaluation by electrician.”

This kind of report writing is not “informative,” or “useful,” in any way to ANY of the parties involved in the transaction—except to keep the inspector moving on down the road.

Keep in mind that not all inspections are even involved in a real estate transaction. This kind of reporting becomes even less useful when there is no agent involved to attempt to interpret whatever the report is trying to say.

More important—this is NOT INSPECTING!

To inspect something means, “to look at (something) carefully in order to learn more about it, to find problems, etc.”

What the report comment actually does is recommend that someone else do the inspection.

Without documenting what exactly the issues are, what is the client to think? They could think there is almost nothing wrong or the house is in imminent peril.

Home inspectors must provide enough information about what was observed to put the issues in some kind of context for the reader. The recommendation should discuss what the implications of the issues are; and, that would include some kind of indication as to the urgency of repairs. Can it wait until the electrician is at the home doing other things or does it need repairs yesterday?

A more appropriate write-up regarding the electrical panel would include all the noted issues in the panel, what each of the issues means (why it is wrong) and what the implications of the issue are. Is the issue a fire hazard, a shock hazard or a maintenance issue?

Most clients will have a knee-jerk reaction to “electrical issues” that is somewhat fearful or negative. Helping clients to understand the severity of issues can help them relax and have more room to deal with issues that might be of more consequence—electrical or otherwise.

Obviously it takes more knowledge, experience and time to inspect in this manner.

But that is why they call it an “Inspection.”

By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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