5 inspections in one day

I was at my John Deere dealer yesterday picking up parts for my tractor and talking to the parts guy he mentioned that he took the pro source home inspection class which is now apparently Kaplan. He mentioned the instructors said they could five inspections a day. :shock: I don’t know about you guys but I have a full plate doing two a day, juggling radon monitors, and handling phone calls/scheduling.

It got me to thinking, how many inspections can you guys do in one day?

I do two a day because I am a human being and I don’t want any regrets with my wife and daughter. But around here we are expected to do radon, well, pest, etc, so our inspections take longer. I know a guy in another state that does three a day, but just the home inspection, and is home before I am.

I just saw an inspector yesterday and him and his partner are doing 5 a day together. I laughed at him, not because he was lying (he was telling the truth) but because I know those guys well. Both divorced, estranged from their kids, and the one drinks himself to sleep at night. Not saying everyone who does that many ends up like that, but I know too many guys in my area that do. That’s just my 2 cents.

There is an old proverb - a lover of silver will never be happy with income. It means if you’re in it for the money, you will never be happy

I did 5 once this year. It is too many. I regularly do 4 and that is hard as well. Performing the inspection isn’t the issue, it is producing the reports as you quickly fall behind volume. The 5 inspection day was made possible because of 3 of the units located at a ski area. So I could just go from one to the other. 2 were under 1000 ft 2. No attics or basements, centralized heating and hotwater. So it cut the time down drastically.

What tractor do you have? I have 4 John Deere farm tractors.

Well it does depend on what your are inspecting, and size of the property. If they are all small condo’s, one can move fairly quickly (no outside, roof, basement or crawlspace). Some do not have their own heat or hot water (centralized) although when we had a condo it had an electric furnace/ac and electric hot water so does vary.

If all you did were condo’s, and if they were located in close proximity, then doing five in a day might be possible as no worry about daylight hours, and the reports would be easier and shorter. But you still have drive time, time to eat, etc. So even at that would be a long day. (and am not certain how long one could keep the pace - even if they did find enough condo’s to keep going)

Unfortunate any education group is stating such as makes a lot of poor expectations and either causes some really bad inspections or some really disappointed inspectors. (also brings in low ball pricing - guys figuring if they can do five a day then $200 per inspection sounds good)

That’s that ignorant mentality of “Instead of doing two inspections at $400 each, one can lower their fee and do five inspections to make a $1,000 Jackpot!!!”

5 quality inspections a day would only be possible with a team approach.

I do a lot of smaller properties here in Bmore, 1200 sq. ft. is common in the city.
So 3 a day is doable, and they sometimes can be within the same area of town.

I think I did 4 in a day once just to accommodate my agents but that was too much!

For me as a one man show, 5 in a day would be more than I care to even attempt. I have done 4 in a day on a couple occasions and it broke me off with an 18+ hour day and a couple hours the following morning. For me 2 a day is ideal.

Smaller doesn’t matter - has all the same stuff! I did a 1,144 sq ft’r yesterday that had 88 observations with 94 pics to go along with it.

I just have a little 455 lawn tractor with a 60 inch deck and less than a half acre lawn. I can mow my yard in about 20 minutes. :cool:

I will do only one old house a day 50 yrs+ or 2 newer homes a day but I look at them online before I make that determination to do 2. This along with the radon is enough.

I’ve been averaging about 3 hours at the inspection with another 1 to 1.5 hours to do my report on your typical 2000 sf home. I do everything I can to satisfy my clients and sometimes that involves taking extra time to talk through the issues found. I also spend more time on my reports than most but I do get a lot of compliments on how easy they are to read and understand. I believe writing a good report with lots of pictures is an excellent way to market yourself as well as helping your client through the issues. I gain a lot of referrals through this method but it does take time. The sample report on my website is an old one and needs an update, my report writing is always a work in progress.

I get the impression the guys doing up to 5 a day are doing a quick in and out inspection with a very simple report but would have to spend more money on advertising and marketing and have less referrals. Am I right in that thinking?

None of them will ever admit to it. In fact, you should become inundated with the Kool-Aid drinkers any minute now with their dictates to the contrary…

That is good!! I would expect no less if anybody is doing a proper job.

And there is a reason why!! It shows.

Well physics and the laws of science would indicate that your impressions are fairly accurate. Unless somebody is a superhero, able to see through walls, fly and move faster than a speeding bullet it is not possible to perform five proper inspections a day and complete a proper, professional and concise report on anything larger than a very small condo (certainly not the 2000 sq ft plus homes you mention above)

Around here… and in Southern California the Team Approach is gaining a bit of momentum and some listing agents are hip to it, and I’ve also had some interesting feedback from them. Would seem quantity vs quality is in question at times… not my worry really.

However, I’ve now received several calls, especially for bigger homes, asking if I’m bringing someone with me to “cut down on the inspection site time” and oddly enough, I even had a question posed if I can get in and out of a 80 year old multi million dollar home in less than 2 hours (3000 sf), I had already set up with the buyer and said very clearly “no”. <-- That particular inspection went fine, and the listing agent sent me a message thanking me for “keeping my feet moving” and that it was refreshing to see someone that can talk, input data and keep working (I guess the jibber jabber gets annoying when you are sitting there). I’ve received a couple referrals from the listing side of the transaction, despite the buyer’s agent thinking it should have been a lot quicker… oh well.

Anyhoo… on that same note. I’ve also received calls from the listing side, after an inspection is scheduled asking me

  • If I have General Liability
  • If I’m bringing more than one person or not, and if I am… to bring a Worker’s Comp certificate !!! <- It would seem that because there are a few multi firms in Los Angeles basin, the listing agents are becoming more aware of the additional liability if someone has a helper that presents risk to property if not insured/covered by worker’s comp. Some posts had been mentioned here on this MB, and would seem that some in the industry do it the right way, and others do it their way. I may get some help, but would be with WC, only way IMO (not trying to start debate, just feedback/observations)

Doesn’t really affect me too much… plenty of things to do anyway.

As far as 5 inspections in a day… maybe limited inspections, 4 points or single component inspections, sure. But 5 full fee paid home inspections in a day? Probably not a good idea for a single operator in regards to quality of work, or their sanity.

I get the impression the guys doing up to 5 a day are doing a quick in and out inspection with a very simple report but would have to spend more money on advertising and marketing and have less referrals. Am I right in that thinking?

From 5 inspections in one day - InterNACHI Inspection Forum http://www.nachi.org/forum/f11/5-inspections-one-day-101119/#post1331682#ixzz3ZNTUaIny

Exactly what I stated just the other day.
Just like any high volume place the quality level drops as sales increase.

It is law of physics.

Can’t speak for everyone… and I have a limited knowledge of what they actually do, but I was at same place at same time with a high volume $200 per inspection with helper guy, I was doing the pool inspection, and he was done quick enough (hour or less) that I had to point out the water coming out of the exterior wall as he was walking out the door :roll: He looked surprised, the agent said “put your guns away guys” hahaha

Heck yesterday I was winding up a inspection and mentioned I was worried about the tree at the side causing future issues after already noting many other problems however the drywall looked good,baseboard looked good,no sign of any flooding…hmmm put my pin meter on the baseboard the baseboard was saturated .

If I was trying to rush maybe no way I would have found this . never know ]

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In my opinion there is no one out there that good that can do five inspections in a day. If they were, they would never consider doing five inspections a day by themselves in the first place!

This discussion is rather mute.
If you’re good, you will spend the time.

Bob, along those lines; have you ever been done with the inspection and the client doesn’t show up on time and find yourself wandering around finding more stuff to talk about?

It’s scary if you think about it!