Trying to decide - need your input.

[Bill Kibbel]

"Boilerplate is good - it is tried and proven, bulletprrof, if you will".

Maybe yours is, but in my experience, a large majority of it out there is worthless nonsense. Most software generated reports I've read are full of nothing but general descriptions of building products under a topping of CYA, finished off with "Appears serviceable". How many HIs are still handing out 2-3 reports a day, generated by one of the most popular reporting systems, that include "climactic conditions"?

"Not only are you wasting time, you're increasing your risk: if you describe the same problem different ways, you are giving potential plaintiffs (read - dissatisfied clients) a weapon - either through mistakes or by giving them an opportunity to make you look bad".

I disagree. Each building is unique. Each client is unique. I don't reiterate canned speeches on-site, so why would I reuse canned text in the report.

My clients get a customized report to suit their needs that precisely documents the actual building. I think that is a much better method of eliminating "potential plaintiffs - dissatisfied clients".

It takes more time, but it's not a waste of time. I'm well compen$ated for the extra effort.

[rjw]

Originally posted by inspecthistoric

"Boilerplate is good - it is tried and proven, bulletprrof, if you will".

Maybe yours is, but in my experience, a large majority of it out there is worthless nonsense. Most software generated reports I've read are full of nothing but general descriptions of building products under a topping of CYA, finished off with "Appears serviceable". How many HIs are still handing out 2-3 reports a day, generated by one of the most popular reporting systems, that include "climactic conditions"?

"Not only are you wasting time, you're increasing your risk: if you describe the same problem different ways, you are giving potential plaintiffs (read - dissatisfied clients) a weapon - either through mistakes or by giving them an opportunity to make you look bad".

I disagree. Each building is unique. Each client is unique. I don't reiterate canned speeches on-site, so why would I reuse canned text in the report.

My clients get a customized report to suit their needs that precisely documents the actual building. I think that is a much better method of eliminating "potential plaintiffs - dissatisfied clients".

It takes more time, but it's not a waste of time. I'm well compen$ated for the extra effort.

I agree about uniqueness, but my experience is that most the problems I see aren't.

The term "boilerplate" has two different meanings.

Many (most?) people think it's just any canned jive. As in your "climatic conditions." {One of my pet peeves is "Due this, then that." Sorry folks, "due to" means owed to, at least to this language lover)

But the term is derived from clauses used in contracts over and over because it has been tried (literally) and found to be impervious to challenge.

I use the term in that sense: tried and true.

It is "boilerplate" because it is good.

Of course there are a lot of issues in homes that aren't addreesable with stock phrases and there is no "available" boiler plate.

When I first started using one of the SW packages, it had a lot of canned nonsense which I immediately eliminated - extremely poor grammer, sentence fragmentsm ambiguities, etc.

In my opinion, that wasn't boilerplate, it was simply canned crap.

[hausdok]

Man Rob,

You're on here pretty late for an Ohio guy. It's almost 1:45 PST and you posted on here just a few minutes ago. Either you keep the longest hours in the world or you get up pretty darned early in the morning. Phew! Hell, even Katen doesn't post on here that late. You're not on vacation in Europe, posting from a beach on the Mediterranean are you?

OT - OF!!!

M.

[paul burrell]

Originally posted by hausdok

Hi Paul,

I don't get it. Did you want to add something to what you'd said earlier or did you just want to repeat what you'd said?

OT - OF!!!

M.

Sorry Mike my computer has been acting up as in odd lately. I think I will either call a geek out to fix it or most likely get a new one. I have McAfee but it will not operate like it should either. My computer is an HP 2000 ME so it is a victim of planned oblesence.

Paul B.

[Chris Bernhardt]

I was waiting for Bill to chime in. In the beginning of my career I went the broiler plate route and had this elaborate custom made library in both english and spanish and had written a report system that built an english and spanish report simultaneously. After 911 I stopped producing reports in spanish. I was never satisfied with what was in my library and found myself constantly editing it as my experience and education grew. After a while I was spending more time trying to hunt down the approprate broilerplate then it did for me to simply type out my thoughts on the matter. I finally gave up and just went to full narrative about 3 years ago. I still have some broiler plateing but just a little.

Now here is the interesting thing, when I dropped the broiler plating my call backs dropped off significantly and I started getting more comments from my clients on how they thought my reports were better then the last guy who did an inspection for them.

I still to this day will type out that dam unprotected NM cable to the garbage disposal. I might have written it up 20 different ways. throwing off the broiler plate mentality allows you to focus on the house.

As for liability, crap my liability went down after I went to pure narrative. Writing narrative forces you to think about the actual facts and evidence that that house had. using broiler plating tends to force you to think in terms of some other imaginary house.

I can concede that your can probably get away with broiler plating newer homes but the older stuff, NO WAY! There is so much funky sh*# out theres just no way any library can adequately describe it. And who made those librarys? Theres so many diffent opinions in this business and the laws and practices from state to state to make any general library useless causing one to start all over and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite it. The only practical way for an evolving professional to capitalize on their continuing experience and education is to write narrative. That way you are always up to date.

Chris, Oregon

[kurt]

Boy, that's what I've found out. I'm not anti-boilerplate; I often wish I looked @ stuff that would let me hit little buttons & have a report pop out.

Honestly, if there was some way to magically input some computer stuff into a handwritten page form, I'd go back to walking around w/carbonless copy forms again.

Writing a few simple complete sentences works pretty darn good.

[compass]

Hi,

I have been using AHIT Inspectit software for about 1 1/2 years. I did purchase the Palm version of the software. I was frustrated and gave up using it. It basically replaces an inspection checklist.

You cannot produce a finished report from the Palm. You have to link the Palm with your laptop and then add photographs on your laptop.

I am actively looking for a better inspection reporting system. I find that Inspectit is very time consuming when you try to add pictures or illustrations.

[Chris Bernhardt]

Rob, now that I am aware that you have a legal background I met no disrespect by my comments concerning broilplating by your definition vs. canned jive which is what I am talking about. However it would seem to me to write real broilerplate would require the assistance of a lawyer since our laws and practices vary state to state and even then like I said it would be hard to write real broil plate to cover more than half of what we might report but maybe I am not seeing it the way you are considering it.

Do you believe that a universal broilerplated report system is possible that would span laws across the states?

Chris, Oregon