Inspection Report Writing Fundamentals Online Course

The first section of this course discusses the objectives of a commercial property inspection report in terms of understanding the Standards, the client’s needs, and an inspector’s duty. This is the framework for the primary differences between residential and commercial inspection report writing. It also discusses the qualities of a successful commercial property inspector.

The following sections provide practical information for effectively communicating findings in writing, as well as designing and structuring reports and organizing the details within them. The main topics include:

Writing Composition
The course reviews how to master writing composition skills for inspection report writing. It teaches students how to report findings using proven techniques to achieve simple comments and digestible reports. It also highlights specific practices to avoid confusion in reporting.

Report Features and Layout
The course introduces several standard reporting techniques to provide clarity and to avoid confusion. It also reviews the report’s anatomy, structure, and required components according to the Standards. Students receive a commercial property inspection report template for structuring reports.

Inspections and Special Cases
The final section discusses how to take sufficient field notes and route inspections to efficiently collect information and supporting photographs for the report. Additionally, it covers different reporting styles and how to handle special cases such as multi-family properties, multi-building properties, and the presence of multiples of the same system (i.e., 15 RTUs).

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• effectively communicate findings in writing
• use a variety of techniques to clearly present information
• design and structure inspection commercial property inspection reports
• prepare cumulative and summary style reports for multi-family properties