What belongs in a report narrative — and what never does

Every comment in an inspection report answers three questions and stops. What was observed, why it matters, and what to do about it. The discipline is not a house style — it is what keeps a report on the right side of a line that matters to your insurer.

The three-part comment

A finding that says only what was seen leaves the reader to work out whether it matters. A finding that says only that it matters, without saying what was seen, is an opinion with nothing behind it. Both get questioned later, and the person answering the question is you.

So the shape is fixed. The observation is what the camera and your eyes recorded. The significance explains the consequence in plain terms. The recommendation is one of four.

What the narrative never contains

Not the method. Not the materials. Not the cost. A comment that names how a defect should be corrected, or what correcting it should run to, has crossed into a different trade — one with a different licence and a different insurance policy behind it.

This is the most common way a report written in a hurry creates a problem months later. The sentence reads as helpful at the kitchen table. It reads differently in a demand letter, where it is evidence that you advised on work you were not engaged to price.

• Observed — what is in the photograph and in front of you.
• Significance — the consequence, stated plainly, without alarm.
• Recommendation — one of the four, and nothing beyond it.

Why the draft stops where it does

PixIntel suggests a comment per finding, in that three-part shape, from the photographs you upload. It fills the address from photo GPS and county parcel data, and the weather for that place and time. What it does not do is decide that a finding is minor, or that a comment is finished.

That is not a limitation we are working around. A draft that arrived signed would be worth nothing to you, because the signature is the part only a licensed inspector can supply — and the part the whole document rests on.

PixIntel drafts. A licensed inspector reviews and signs.

Parcel lookup covers New Jersey today, with more counties added as the data is verified rather than as it is scraped. Where a lookup has nothing, the field stays empty and waits for you, which is the honest failure mode.