How many pictures should an Inspector take ?

[David Nasser]

How many digital photos should I take on average for each home Inspection ?
1500 to 2000 home.

David

[rwand1]

Why would you take that many if any?
I am not in the habit of photographing any of my reports unless the client is not in attendance in which case I will photograph as needed and compile report back at home. I may include several photos in report or none fwiw.

[wforsyth]

CRIPES!!!!!

That would take me days...nay weeks...to sort out!

I usually end up with about 100-135.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

My first Digital camera cost me $1,100:00 Did Inspection for a person in England 90 Pictures 4 stores two aptmartents . Dial up no high speed back then before the turn of the century two am in the morning broke pictures down into 3 packages 90 minutes each package. Now did one for a person Westen Canada 99 pictures about 10 pictures per pack 5 minutes..This cameras is ten times as good as my first and cost $99:00.
Cookie. Todays inspection 4 pictures
1,500 is just about 10 to 15 times tooooooooo Many

[Doug Edwards, CMI]

Im sorry but these kinds of questions make my butt want to crochet a doilly! Take as many as it takes or as many as you want cause no one is checking or gives a damn.

[Christian F. Mettel]

Originally Posted by dnasser

How many digital photos should I take on average for each home Inspection ?
1500 to 2000 home.

David

David, Do you mean a 1500 sq. ft. to 2000 sq.ft. home?

I usually take between 100-150 pics

Chris

[ROBERT W. NEWLAND, JR.]

Originally Posted by dedwards

Im sorry but these kinds of questions make my butt want to crochet a doilly!

LOL!!! Im going to use that one tomorrow

Oh, I did a 1900 sq ft yesterday and took 96 pix. About 20 were actually in the report.

[James H. Bushart]

100 to 125. Most go on the CD for future reference. About 35 to 40 in the report.

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by dedwards

Im sorry but these kinds of questions make my butt want to crochet a doilly! Take as many as it takes or as many as you want cause no one is checking or gives a damn.

Yeah, well don't take them all, please save some for me.

The real question is how many people really know what a doilly is?

[thirst]

I wil take pictures of every issue that I find with the home, could be 1 could be 50, but I don't think I have ever taken nearly as many as even 100 pictures. I don't think any one really cares about that many and the only thing that they are really looking for any way are the things that are wrong with the home. Just my .02

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Originally Posted by thirst

I wil take pictures of every issue that I find with the home, could be 1 could be 50, but I don't think I have ever taken nearly as many as even 100 pictures. I don't think any one really cares about that many and the only thing that they are really looking for any way are the things that are wrong with the home. Just my .02

Usually never give pictures to the client .
They all now take their own pictures.
Those from out of town normally are the only ones who get the pictures .
Most pictures I put on a disk to CRA for future.
Hope to never need them .
Never have needed them yet ..
(CRA) ( cover Roys ***** ) .
I tell that to my clients always get a laugh.
Always happy clients leave the inspection satisfied.

...... Cookie

[David Nasser]

Thanks everybody.....I ment a 1500 to 2000 squ. fr home

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by dnasser

Thanks everybody.....I ment a 1500 to 2000 squ. fr home

I knew that, which caused me to laugh at some of the other posts here.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my first legitimate complaint since March 2003. Let me preface this by saying that I take pictures of absolutely everything, appliances, rooms, absolutely everything. Since there's no film involved, it's just time to me, and how long it takes me to do an inspection once I had all my inspectors on site was never a concern since, if we were running late, I could always send an inspector off to go start the next inspection and we would show up as soon as we finished with the first inspection. Leapfrogging, we called it.

So for a 1500 to 2000-SF home, I'll come back with around 200 pictures, of which only about 10 might make it into the report. The others are kept for posterity (as if I'll ever have any. Ha!). So my Client from January 2005 calls up. He's selling and his buyer's inspector, a guy that I know, found a 6-inch stain on the dining room ceiling. My Client was infuriated that I had missed the stain in January 2005. In fact, he said that he had a picture of the ceiling from February 2005 when the renovated the kitchen, which was next to the dining room. I asked him to email me the picture. Then I compared it to my picture of the exact same area, almost from the exact same angle. My picture showed no stain, his did. My picture also was of better quality (amateurs!).

The next day I went out to help him out, showed him the two pictures, and explained that (1) the previous sellers might have unknowingly caused a leak during the move-out process, which often happens when people are trying to get all the stuff out that they crammed into the sink cabinets, or (2) they had a leak and didn't disclose it, choosing to paint instead, at which point the leak stain reappeared between the time of my inspection and their kitchen renovation, or (3) the leak simply happened sometime between when they closed escrow on January 28, 2005, and when they started doing kitchen remodeling.

The stain was moist according to the buyer's inspector, but was not moist eight days later when I was there. That led me to believe that it was not a plumbing leak from a sink, toilet, or bathtub that got used regularly. I helped them track it down to the laundry room, where the washer standpipe drain was clogged, so every time they washed, the standpipe would overflow some and leak onto the dining room ceiling. My Client was quite happy with my pictures and my follow-up HELP. The buyer, however, wanted to open up the ceiling to look for mold. I told her that with intermittent moisture, there would be no mold. She didn't/wouldn't believe me until after they had a hole in the ceiling and perfectly white drywall. Alas.... Since that time, the buyer, a Realtor herself, has given me one inspection on a small house for a property investor (she learned of my property investment experience through my explanation that she wouldn't find any mold in the ceiling).

Moral of the story: Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. They are digital and cost you nothing. Save those pictures for posterity (as if I'll ever have any. Ha! Wait! I already said that. Onward, then.). HELP your Clients resolve problems.

[mporras]

I inspected a home a few days ago, and I took a lot of pictures. But I got caught and they made me give them back. Sigh....

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by mporras

I inspected a home a few days ago, and I took a lot of pictures. But I got caught and they made me give them back. Sigh....

So maybe we need to amend the NACHI Code of Ethics: Thou shalt not take pictures.