How do you enter data on site?

[Jeff Knight]

Originally Posted by rcooke

Two things I notice
(one) You are not a member of NACHI
(two) You only put your company name on your first post.

Most if not all who come to the NACHI site make sure the information of their company is on all post's so that the HIs know they are dealing with a person who is pushing their product.
Most who come to push their product take out a membership so we all know they are not here for a free ride.

...Cookie

Roy,
I am NOT trying to push my product since the discussion we are having has to do with an electronic report versus a paper report and you saying that using an electronic report causes more litigation...there are a lot of other inspection software companies and I guess I am defending them all...plus inspectors that are using just plain Word to create their report. I was just relaying my opinion based on the 11 years I have been involved in this industry.

Our company has been a InterNACHI member and even offers a $100 discount to all InterNACHI members.

http://www.nachi.org/knightssoftware2007.htm

Jeff Knight
Knights Software Solutions, Inc.
www.knightssoftware.com

[relliott]

Jeff , you are trying to push your product , as is every other vendor.
No problemo with us if it is subtly mixed in with educational knowledge.

[Rick K. Kie]

I use a Samsung Q1 Mini Tablet PC to write down the Heating System Information,water heater and AC model and serial numbers. I use a camera to do the rest of the Inspection and fill out the report when I return to the office.
I do have the ability to do the report on-site; it's just more comfortable in the office.

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by bking

Jeff,

You will find a huge difference in report writing time due to the different levels of thoroughness during the inspection process and during the reporting.
The state required data has a huge impact on reporting time too.

.

Time doing the report also depends on typing skills, level of experience as an inspector, familiarity with software/hardware, ambulatory speed, {and my favorite} the need to use an untold number of words to explain the thing you are looking at is broke.

[Bruce Thompson]

Originally Posted by bkelly2

Time doing the report also depends on typing skills, level of experience as an inspector, familiarity with software/hardware, ambulatory speed, {and my favorite} the need to use an untold number of words to explain the thing you are looking at is broke.

I personally would love to say, "it's broken, get it fixed" but that voice inside me tells me, "they'll think you're an idiot if you say that". I may be an idiot, but I'll be a wordy idiot.

[Brian E. Kelly]

http://www.dwellingdoctors.com/

Go to client report pickup in upper left
type in: astro
then : boy



Pretty clean house I must admit but it did go fast.

[relliott]

Looks good Brian , though the bookmarks do not line up with the page numbers for some reason.

[Jeff Orcas]

Interesting discussion - however the multi-part form is dead. Its like comparing a rock and a hammer. Both will drive a nail in but the hammer will do it quicker and the end product will look better. I have not found a Realtor yet who says I really want the 3rd copy of pre-printed form or "can you press really hard so I can read my copy?"

I use 3D with an Ipaq and folding keyboard. I take pictures of all defects and compile the full report back at the office. All reports are loaded on to our website and in the past 200 clients we have printed out hard copies maybe 3 times. We save a ton on ink and paper.

jeff

[Hugo J. Villalobos]

Is there any good in perhaps doing a hand-written report like ITA's Matrix Advantage or other, and then using that to generate a synopsis of the troubled areas with pictures included? I tried that a few times and the total time for the report writing was significantly less, but I am not sure what the perception is. The clients both times liked they got something on the spot and then later, a very brief summary of the findings was emailed along with a copy of the termite report. Realtors were content and it was very efficient use of my time. Only tried it twice...not sure if others have done the same. I prefer using a laptop at home after the inspection and then emailing the results but the time it takes to generate a report that way is often times 2 hours plus that's without a summary. My beta test of the combination yielded a field report provided on-site plus a follow-up electronic summary with pictures that referenced back to the original report and took ~1.5 hours total for the two versus ~2.75 for an electronic combo. I am pretty good with computers and very literate on their use. I like some of computer generated reports like Home Inspector Pro and Home Gauge. Home Inspector Pro seems to be a good choice in both presentation and efficiency – I may end up buying it. However, sometimes, it seems like overkill. Not trying to stir-up anything here but it'd be great to read commentary from guys that use checklist reports and how long it takes to complete a report from them. The key issue here is efficiency - if a paper checklist report is more efficient, why not use it? Reports like the Matrix provide many disclaimers, which many of the electronic reports do not provide, or so it seems. This may lend some credence to some of the other posts I have read that imply lawsuits are more often against inspectors with electronic reports – but I have not seen any hard evidence to validate that position. What is the average time to finish an electronic report versus a pen & paper checklist? I really think iNACHI is awesome because of this forum and the education aspect. Thanks.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by hvillalobos

Is there any good in perhaps doing a hand-written report like ITA's Matrix Advantage or other, and then using that to generate a synopsis of the troubled areas with pictures included? I tried that a few times and the total time for the report writing was significantly less, but I am not sure what the perception is. The clients both times liked they got something on the spot and then later, a very brief summary of the findings was emailed along with a copy of the termite report. Realtors were content and it was very efficient use of my time. Only tried it twice...not sure if others have done the same. I prefer using a laptop at home after the inspection and then emailing the results but the time it takes to generate a report that way is often times 2 hours plus that's without a summary. My beta test of the combination yielded a field report provided on-site plus a follow-up electronic summary with pictures that referenced back to the original report and took ~1.5 hours total for the two versus ~2.75 for an electronic combo. I am pretty good with computers and very literate on their use. I like some of computer generated reports like Home Inspector Pro and Home Gauge. Home Inspector Pro seems to be a good choice in both presentation and efficiency – I may end up buying it. However, sometimes, it seems like overkill. Not trying to stir-up anything here but it'd be great to read commentary from guys that use checklist reports and how long it takes to complete a report from them. The key issue here is efficiency - if a paper checklist report is more efficient, why not use it? Reports like the Matrix provide many disclaimers, which many of the electronic reports do not provide, or so it seems. This may lend some credence to some of the other posts I have read that imply lawsuits are more often against inspectors with electronic reports – but I have not seen any hard evidence to validate that position. What is the average time to finish an electronic report versus a pen & paper checklist? I really think iNACHI is awesome because of this forum and the education aspect. Thanks.

On the comment of overkill, don't forget when using Home Inspector Pro, or HomeGauge, the templates you see are just examples. You can rip any section you want, create your own, do whatever you want. The defuault report on our system is about 30 pages, but if you look at some of the sample reports on our website and our message board you'll see guys you have 15 page reports and I've seen guys all the way to 99 page reports (that would be Ben Kelly with 400 photos on an early 1900's house in Tennessee).

I go on ride alongs with inspectors at least once a month. There are many inspectors (at least out here in California) that print on the spot. They spend about 20 minutes when they finish the inspection annotating photographs and printing up the report and looking it over. It really just depends on personal preference & style.

[Hugo J. Villalobos]

Thanks Dominic. Appreciate your input. On your templates are there "canned" disclaimers? Not sure what value they offer in terms of preventative-litigation but it seems that canned disclaimers like those in the Matrix or Hallmark reports are a good idea. It won't prevent one from being sued but it provides another, albeit thin, layer of defense or even an “ounce of prevention”. Any thoughts on this would be great. Thanks again in-advance.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

There's some canned stuff included and NACHI has a list of more. The reality is though that you have to customize the narratives and disclaimers from any program for your particular area. Our software is now in 10 countries and used in 5 languages. Our templates are generic as a starting block that people can take and run with. For example. Bill DeVries and Mario did a 24 condo inspection a few weeks back with 1000 pictures (they posted about it in the Canadian section). They created a different template for the inspection as it was different from a normal residential. A lot of guys end up with 2-3 templates, some more. I'm sure some of the other guys will speak up though. If you want, post in one of the Home Inspector Pro threads on the site like http://www.nachi.org/forum/f13/5-stars-homeinspectorpro-22823/ or post on our forum as I'm not sure how many guys are checking this thread.

[Jeff Knight]

Originally Posted by hvillalobos

Is there any good in perhaps doing a hand-written report like ITA's Matrix Advantage or other, and then using that to generate a synopsis of the troubled areas with pictures included? I tried that a few times and the total time for the report writing was significantly less, but I am not sure what the perception is. The clients both times liked they got something on the spot and then later, a very brief summary of the findings was emailed along with a copy of the termite report. Realtors were content and it was very efficient use of my time. Only tried it twice...not sure if others have done the same. I prefer using a laptop at home after the inspection and then emailing the results but the time it takes to generate a report that way is often times 2 hours plus that's without a summary. My beta test of the combination yielded a field report provided on-site plus a follow-up electronic summary with pictures that referenced back to the original report and took ~1.5 hours total for the two versus ~2.75 for an electronic combo. I am pretty good with computers and very literate on their use. I like some of computer generated reports like Home Inspector Pro and Home Gauge. Home Inspector Pro seems to be a good choice in both presentation and efficiency – I may end up buying it. However, sometimes, it seems like overkill. Not trying to stir-up anything here but it'd be great to read commentary from guys that use checklist reports and how long it takes to complete a report from them. The key issue here is efficiency - if a paper checklist report is more efficient, why not use it? Reports like the Matrix provide many disclaimers, which many of the electronic reports do not provide, or so it seems. This may lend some credence to some of the other posts I have read that imply lawsuits are more often against inspectors with electronic reports – but I have not seen any hard evidence to validate that position. What is the average time to finish an electronic report versus a pen & paper checklist? I really think iNACHI is awesome because of this forum and the education aspect. Thanks.

Sometimes it really depends upon the actual home itself and how many issues you run into that are actually on the checklist report as to how quickly it is to use it. Since ITA is out of California the Matrix report leans a little towards the warmer climates and less towards the snow areas. If you run into a lot of issues that are not on the checklist report you find yourself spending a lot of timing writing items down and if the house is really bad it can become a very long process and your actual checklist report starts to look very messy.An the other hand...if it is a very clean house and you only run into issues that are actually on the checklist report it can go very quick and easy.

Most software packages have the ability to have disclaimers that can replicate any disclaimers on a checksheet form and can actually elaborate even more since they are not restricted to an actual hard paper form. Saying that electronic forms are more often in litigation because they are electronic is something I don't agree with. It may even mean that more inspectors are actually DONE using electronic forms and would naturally be more common in general then.

Because of my work with ITA and their InspectNOW software, that I actually helped create a couple years ago, shows that it is possible to have software that actual mimics the Matrix form and has the same disclaimers as the paper form. It be fairly quick to transfer the same checkboxes into the software from the form.

But....

I still think the best solution is to be able to use a handheld device that acts like an electronic clipboard that contains all the information you need to gather as you do your inspection as you walk through your inspection. This adds the ability to print right on sight the report plus export to a Word document back at the main office without have to rekey ANY information.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software Solutions
www.knightssoftware.com
715-381-1433
sales@knightssoftware.com
"Leading handheld home inspection software for over 10 years."

[Hugo J. Villalobos]

Thanks for your reply Jeff. Regarding the electronic reports and lawsuits issue, I don't think that to be the case either but some recent posts on the message board elsewhere have implied that when there is a lawsuit, there is an electronic report. But - I have seen other posts that imply lawyers love the checklist because they can find loopholes. All of this with no quantifiable evidence either way. You could rationalize that since more inspectors now use electronic reports there is a higher probability that when litigation is an issue, electronic reports will be represented at a higher corresponding percentage. I will keep reading the message board and looking at the demos to see which software I like. I like the written checklist too - they are very fast - but from an appearance standpoint - they are lacking. My simple question on an average home - which report is more efficient? I can't help but agree with your example of a very deteriorated home - you are better off with the electronic report. But say a 1-5 year old home - can you make better use of your time with the checklist? My simple beta test was with much older homes (1960s) and I was a bit stunned to see how fast I was done. I saved about 1.25 hours total plus the client had something in-hand at the conclusion of the report. It was more use of time. Thanks for your input. I really learn a lot from reading the posts that everyone puts up. I especially like it when no one goes off the deep end trying to interpret every nuance of someone's post and perhaps takes things out of context. Your reply was clear and professional – I like that! THANKS.

[Jeff Knight]

I will say that "data collection" software on some sort of a handheld device is going to be more "efficient" then any checksheet form because you have the ability to customize the library of comments to what you run into in the field the most and put the most common items at the top of the list. On a computer system you can also have many shortcuts that can even default checkboxes by clicking a single button when on a checksheet you have to manually check all the boxes. Of course selecting a comment from a dropdown menu i much quicker then writing it on a checksheet form also.

We discovered a few years ago a pattern with inspectors that had used our system for a couple years. When they first got the software it would take them longer in the field compared to the checksheet forms because of the change and their library of comments had not been fine-tuned yet. Once they had spent time fine-tuning their comment library their time became shorter then when they were using the checksheet form. What we found interesting is that eventually their time started to grow again after a year or more because they were actually adding more items to inspect to their list because they were more efficient and found out that they could inspect more. They could afford to become a more detailed inspector in their time that they felt they had to do the inspection, that was within reason (3 hours or so usually, but varies depending upon geographic area).

You have to be careful as to setting a goal of continuosly wanting to cut down your inspection time since you really want to make sure you manage the expectations of the client and spend enough time at the inspection to give the client the feeling of them getting their moneys worth. Just my 2 cents.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software
www.knightssoftware.com