by 
The other day I attended an InspectVue users group meeting. The author of the program Lorne Steiner was there explaining the in’s and outs of his program and awnsering questions. As with most meetings of this sort “Lorne” went into a standard speech that lasted about 20 – 30 minutes on just why the software was so great.
One of the most interesting aspects of the speech was that home inspectors should be paid more, and that an illusion or perception of being overpaid, was held by most realtors and clients. Lorne then went on with a solution to this problem by explaining that if you were to finish your reports back at the office, no one would know how long you worked for your money. Interesting thought.
In my opinion, and do about 600 inspections personally a year, this is not a good idea unless you just don’t enjoy maximising your earning potential and free time at home with the wife and kids. For me, it takes an extra 20 minutes on site to get the report printed and handed over to the client. Off I go with check in hand. How many things can go wrong if you don’t finsih up then and there, plenty. One of my greatest benefits to my realtors who use me regularly is that were all done when we leave. No loose ends.
It may be better to educate the general realtor population as to the true costs of scheduling, expenses, liabilities and total hours worked per day rather than altering what you do to fit there present perceptions. For instance, go to www.inspectorsuccess.com and download the Profit Calculator. Using the Profit Calculator showed me that there is a cost of $140.00 in expenses for each inspection booked. The parameters used were; I wanted to do about 350 inspections a year and make $50,000.
I think what was really going on was that Lorne has had unfavorable remarks made as to how long it actually takes to input an inspection on site with his software. An average on site inspection time of two hours or less is expected and generally sought out by busy realtors. If your taking more time than this at an average inspection you may well want to finish at home to keep your realtors happy. Taking your work home to finish, sort of masks the input time drawback. Nice spin don’t you think?
Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com