Two guys on my team, one talks the whole way through, the other barely speaks until the report

Buyer wants the talker and the file wants the writer. I've had eleven units inspected over six years and the only inspector I still call is the one who explained the boiler to me in the basement for twenty minutes. I learned more in that basement than in any report. But I also once got a verbal "that's maybe two grand" on a sewer line that came in at $7,800 from the actual plumber, and that number followed me into the negotiation because I'd already anchored on it.

Cobalt, is the talker's report actually worse, or just less careful in the spots where he already said something out loud? That's a different problem than being a bad inspector and it's fixable with a rule about estimates.

What strikes me is that you're pricing them the same. If one of them is producing a walkthrough plus a report and the other is producing a report, those aren't the same product. Buyers who want the education would probably pay for the education.

The reviews are not a vanity thing, they're your lead source, and after five years running a service business I'm sure of that. The writer keeps you out of trouble and the talker keeps you in business. I'd rather train the talker to stop giving dollar figures than train the writer to become a personality.

Construction side here. The verbal estimate is the whole problem, not the talking. I can describe a failed flashing detail for ten minutes without ever saying a number, and the buyer walks away understanding it better than a photo caption. The second you say "about three thousand" you've taken on a job you didn't get paid for. Numbers come from trade bids.

I want the writer. I don't retain anything anyone tells me on a driveway and I do read the whole report, twice, with a notepad. But I know I'm not the average buyer.

The thing that decides this for me is what happens when the report and the conversation disagree. If a buyer heard "roof looks fine to me" and the report says end of serviceable life, you now have two records of the same inspection and one of them isn't written down anywhere. That asymmetry always resolves badly for the inspector.

Cairn's anchoring point is the sharp one. The verbal number sets the ceiling on the credit request before anyone has a bid in hand. I've watched that cost more than the inspection fee.

Management side. Every inspector I've hired who talked a lot on site also gave me a better handle on what to defer and what to do this year, and that's most of my job. The report tells me the condition, the conversation tells me the sequence. I'd pay extra for the conversation and I don't think I'm unusual among owners.

The walkthrough is the only reason I'd want to be there at all, six months of reading and no deals yet. If the guy isn't going to talk to me I'd just as well stay at work and read the PDF.

Trades background, so I'll say the quiet one probably isn't quiet because he's careful. Some guys just don't like being watched while they work. Worth finding out which it is before you build a policy around it, Cobalt.

Thatch and Girder together are the answer, aren't they. Talk as much as you want, describe the condition, never say a dollar amount, and put anything you said out loud into the report the same day. That's a training rule, not a personality difference. I don't see why you have to pick a type of inspector at all.