Inspection reports are essential records that offer information about a property's condition, compliance, and quality. They can also be dense, full of technical shorthand that's second nature to an inspector but unfamiliar to almost everyone else.
A few terms show up constantly. "Material defect" refers to a condition that significantly affects the value or safety of the property, the kind of item that genuinely changes a buying decision. "Deferred maintenance" describes routine upkeep that's been put off, cosmetic or functional wear rather than a structural problem.
"Not inspected" or "unable to inspect" doesn't mean something's wrong. It means access was blocked, unsafe, or outside the scope of a visual inspection, think a locked attic hatch or an area behind stored furniture.
The best way to actually use your report is to sort findings into three buckets: safety issues, material defects, and maintenance items. That's exactly how we organize ours, and it's why we walk every client through their photos and findings instead of just emailing a PDF and disappearing.