Sample home inspection report
- Intakez Pro, $99 a month for the whole firm
- $1,188
- Spectora, $109 a month plus $99 a month for each further inspector
- $1,308
- HomeGauge, $89 a month after the trial, one subscription as listed
- $1,068
Every figure here comes from the figures you enter and the method stated beside it: what your instruments cost, how many inspections you do, how many inspectors you have. Where a worksheet borrows a public figure, a vendor's listed monthly price for instance, the page names the pricing page it was read from and the date it was read, and the claim is on record in the estate's claims ledger.
A sample home inspection report is the document the client is really buying, and the summary page is the part they read: how many items were inspected, how many were deficient, which were safety items, and which systems were not inspected and why. Those four things are what the published standards of practice say a report must state, and they are the four things a report written from memory at night gets wrong. Intakez takes the findings in on site against the system they belong to, so the summary is counted from the findings rather than typed, the body agrees with it, and the report goes out branded with the firm's name and licence number. The sample on this page is the shape every Intakez report takes; the worksheet beside it costs the software that produces it for your firm.
Open the Best home inspection software, costed for your firm Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Walk the checklist and take the findings in on site
The checklist follows the ten systems the standards of practice list: roof, exterior, structure, heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical, fireplace, attic and interior. Each finding is entered against its system with its photo and whether it is a deficiency, a safety item or a note, before you leave the property.
Mark every item one of three ways, and record the reason for a fourth
Beside each item on the checklist there is one of three marks: a deficiency, meaning the component is not functioning properly or is significantly deficient; a safety item, meaning a hazard to the occupants; or a note, meaning something the buyer should know that is neither. The fourth mark is not a finding but a reason: present, not inspected, because of the snow, the locked door, the standing water. The report cannot state what the standards require it to state unless those four are recorded at the house, and the summary counts them from the record.
Let the summary total itself
Items inspected, deficiencies, safety items and systems not inspected with their reason are counted from what you entered. The summary page the client reads first and the body the agent skims agree because they come from the same findings, not from two sittings at a keyboard.
Write the finding in four sentences, with its photo beside it
What was observed and where; what it means for the buyer; what to do about it, whether to correct, monitor or have a specialist evaluate; and, where it is not obvious, why. The photo attaches to the finding as it is entered, captioned with the location, so the report places it beside the narrative rather than in an album at the back. Your wording for a defect is saved as yours, so the same double-tapped breaker reads the same way on the next house.
Brand it, send it, keep it against the property
The report goes out with your firm name, logo and state licence number on every page and is filed against the property and the client with the date it was sent. Two years on, the question about that furnace is answered from the record rather than from a search of sent mail.
Answer the question two years later from the record
The client's question is never about the report as a whole; it is about the furnace, the crawl space or the receptacle, and it arrives long after the inspection. The report, the checklist it was counted from, the photos against their findings and the instrument that took each reading are kept against the property and the date, so the answer is the record rather than a reconstruction. That is the part of the product the client never sees and the inspector relies on.
Will it hold your inspections, beyond the Sample home inspection report?
Tell us how you write reports today: how many inspections a month, how many inspectors, what you write in now, and what goes wrong between the last photo on site and the report reaching the client.
What the inspector asks before using the Sample home inspection report
What does a sample home inspection report have to contain? The published standards agree on the substance: the systems and components inspected that are not functioning properly, deficient, unsafe or near the end of their life; a recommendation to correct or monitor each; the reasoning where it is not self-evident; and the systems present but not inspected, with the reason. Intakez counts those from the findings so the summary states them.
Can I use my own report layout and wording? Yes. The sections follow the standards' system order and the summary counts are fixed, but the narrative for each finding is yours, saved as your own wording so the same defect is described the same way on the next house.
Is the sample report on this page a real inspection? It is a worked example built from a typical set of findings so the shape is visible: the summary, the system sections, the photo placement and the closing. No address, client or inspector on it is real.
Does the report follow a state form where one is required? Where a state promulgates the form, as Texas does with REI 7-6, the findings taken in on site are rendered onto that form and its boxes rather than onto the standards-based layout on this page. The intake is the same; the document is the state's.
Intakez Pro
Keeping the inspection on record after the report goes out
Upgrading turns the worksheet into the record. The checklist you walked becomes an inspection with its defects and safety items counted; the report you wrote becomes a document filed against the property and the client with the date it went out; the kit you costed becomes the list of instruments your readings came from. Nothing is retyped: what the worksheet computed is what the record keeps.
- Download the report summary or the checklist as a file to send to the client
- Your reports and checklists without our name on them
- Save a walked checklist and open it again when the re-inspection is booked
- Your firm name, logo and licence number on every printed document
- Take every inspection, finding and report out at once
- Send the report to the client and the agent from inside the record
$99per month, whole team
Start Intakez Pro PricingIntakez Pro is $99 per month for the whole firm, billed monthly, and renews each month at that price until you cancel. The price and the renewal date are shown before you check out and on every receipt.