Taking voice notes during inspection?

[cashcatz]

I tried dictating inspection notes as I went along and then running them through Dragon's transcription service for my work file but it's too windy in my area to work reliably on the exterior (admittedly, more than a decade ago and I didn't throw money at windproof microphones at the time) and as Shrub said I didn't like walking around inside nitpicking property defects out loud with the property owner in tow (such as "strong pet odor permeating the dwelling"). With the new UAD 3.6 inspection protocols, however, I might be willing to give it another look.

Seems like several folks are more or less pointing out this concern, makes sense.

 

[Vermonter]

How to you handle details that a picture might now pick up? Do you annotate / label those photos back in the office?

The point is to use additional pics to capture everything one room pic would miss. I don't label them unless going in the report.

 

[TC]

My main issue would be saying something that pisses someone off. Carpet is in average condition...My carpet is not average!!

"This place is a POS, I'll never find comps."

 

[alebrewer]

Yeah, I think appraisers often either forget how intently sellers/borrowers hang on their words - or they don't know in the first place. The appraiser is the person standing between them and a refinance (or WRT sellers - a sale). They listen intently for ANY indication of positive or negative characteristics noted. Had a seller accuse one of our appraisers last week of bias - simply because the appraiser said home prices are getting so high renters can't even afford to live there. Of course, the appraiser should NEVER have made that comment, but nonetheless - in the seller's eyes they were/are biased against the neighborhood for prices being too high. Can't make this stuff up.

 

[Zoe]

A guy I worked with would use a voice recorder in his car and would record comments when taking pictures of comps in his car. He would also use it in his office to dictate comments and give the recorder to his secretary when she was typing the narrative report. He would do section by section in the report and the secretary would put ear plugs in and type the report for draft copy for him to review and make changes for her to make.

 

[cashcatz]

Which iPhone models does everyone have? (sorry android users, tell google to step up their chip game)

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Which iPhone models

My phone is a phone. My camera is a camera. Never the twain shall meet. I am going back to a folding dumb phone the moment I retire. A phone is a poor excuse for a computer.

And I use a small video/voice recorder that clips to my pocket protector. I use a nerd pocket because it stiffens the shirt pocket and gets a better picture. I can also clip it to my cap and rotate the lens out to view ahead. A GoPro would work as well.

 

[cashcatz]

My phone is a phone. My camera is a camera. Never the twain shall meet. I am going back to a folding dumb phone the moment I retire. A phone is a poor excuse for a computer.

And I use a small video/voice recorder that clips to my pocket protector. I use a nerd pocket because it stiffens the shirt pocket and gets a better picture. I can also clip it to my cap and rotate the lens out to view ahead. A GoPro would work as well.
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That's pretty neat - what device is this? What do you do with the photos and voice/video recording after the inspection?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

That's pretty neat - what device is this? What do you do with the photos and voice/video recording after the inspection?

It goes into the file of the assignment. I have a digital file for each assignment so it is there for verification and if any post-report issues come up. Amazon sells that one cheap now - under $20, I think i gave about $35 a few years ago.

 

[cashcatz]

It goes into the file of the assignment. I have a digital file for each assignment so it is there for verification and if any post-report issues come up. Amazon sells that one cheap now - under $20, I think i gave about $35 a few years ago.

I'm curious about your opposition to using a phone for photos and voice recording? Would you be willing to try a property inspection app that does both in one (voice notes and photos), and also transcribes what you spoke and automatically identifies the images (quality, condition, materials, appliances, including which room they are part of, etc) - and put it all on a timeline that you can scroll through and easily edit/update notes and details via voice or touch (select condition, etc if the classifier got it wrong) - then ability to download into your work file and report (including pre-filling a lot of the time-consuming UAD 3.6 inspection-related fields)?