Read the not-inspected entries first
Open the report and find every place it says a system or component was not inspected, was inaccessible, or was obstructed. Read those before you read a single finding. The defects the inspector found are now known problems with known locations, and known problems are negotiable. The components nobody could see are unknown problems, and an unknown problem cannot be priced, scheduled or argued about.
Three states make this easy by requiring it in writing. Illinois requires reports to disclose which systems were not inspected and the reasons. Massachusetts requires inspectors to “Indicate which systems and components that are present and designated for inspection… which have not been inspected” and to “Record the existence of obstructions and/or conditions that prevented the inspection.” Texas gives it a checkbox: NI on the prescribed form means a component “is present but is not inspected.” The rest of this page works outward from there.
What the not-inspected entries actually mean
An NI entry, or its equivalent in a narrative report, is a boundary marker, and the boundaries come in three kinds that sit very differently on a decision.
The first is physical obstruction, usually the seller’s stored property: a panel behind shelving, a crawlspace entry behind boxes, an attic hatch under hanging clothes. These are worth acting on because they are reversible — the obstruction can be moved and the inspector can return. Note how narrow the access standards are. The Massachusetts definition of readily accessible excludes anything requiring the inspector “to resort to portable ladders,” which is materially narrower than the ASHI and Illinois definitions, neither of which mentions ladders.
The second is a scope exclusion, meaning the standard never required the inspection in the first place. The flue interior, the inside of a chimney, anything buried, hidden, latent or concealed, and — across every standard reviewed — the remaining service life of anything.
The third is a conditions call: the roof was wet, the unit could not be run without risking the compressor, the utilities were off. These expire. A system shut down at the time of inspection and never operated is a system nobody has confirmed works, which is a different thing from one that was tested and passed.
North Carolina’s licensure board treats the failure to explain these as a compliance problem in its own right, listing among the five most common failures a report that “did not state the reasons systems and components designated for inspection by the Standards of Practice were not fully inspected.” A report that marks a component not inspected and gives no reason has not just been unhelpful. In North Carolina it has fallen short of the rule.
The summary page, and what it is not
Most reports open with a summary — a short list of the findings the inspector considers significant. One state requires it. North Carolina mandates a summary page for prepurchase inspections of three or more systems and specifies what goes on it: systems and components that “do not function as intended” and those that “appear not to function as intended, based upon documented tangible evidence.” Everywhere else it is a convention, which means its contents are the inspector’s selection.
Two consequences follow, and both cut against reading the summary as the report. It is a filter somebody else applied to your decision, and outside North Carolina nothing governs what gets promoted and what stays buried in the body. And even the mandated version is a list of malfunctions rather than a list of risks — the components nobody could see do not appear on it, because they produced no finding to summarize. The summary is the right place to start a conversation and the wrong place to end one.
North Carolina’s board also records the predictable failure: a summary page that “did not include all of the items that did not function as intended and/or required subsequent investigation.” If your report is a North Carolina prepurchase report, reading the body and checking that every malfunction in it reached the summary is a test you can run yourself.
The disposition markers
If the report uses letter or box markers against each component, find the legend before you read any of them, because the scheme is not national. Texas’s prescribed form uses four: I=Inspected NI=Not Inspected NP=Not Present D=Deficient. The Commission defines each one — I “when any portion of a component or system is inspected,” NI when it “is present but is not inspected,” NP when it “is not present in the dwelling,” and D when it “exhibits a ‘Deficiency’.”
Two details of that scheme change how it reads. More than one box may be checked for a single component — a system can be both inspected and deficient, or partly inspected and partly not, and the combination carries meaning the single boxes do not. And the mark is never the finding. The Texas instruction sheet requires that the inspector “MUST explain the inspector’s findings for each item under the corresponding section of the form,” so a D with no narrative beneath it is an incomplete report rather than a mild one.
Outside Texas, the markers are whatever the report software supplies. Color-coded severity ladders are especially worth treating with care: of the nine state rules and two national standards reviewed for this site, none establishes a three- or four-tier severity scale, and only Tennessee defines two tiers, by naming cosmetic damage alongside significantly deficient. The ladder is a presentation convention. The governing definition is in the rule, and we set the definitions side by side in severity language across the states.
The recommendation verbs
One state prescribes what the inspector may tell you to do about a finding. Oregon’s rules require the report to “State the inspector’s recommendation to monitor, evaluate, repair, replace or other appropriate action.” That four-verb set is the clearest vocabulary anywhere in this subject, and it is worth applying to any report regardless of where the house is, because it forces each finding into a decision.
Monitor means nothing is required now and the condition may change. It is the verb that most often gets mistranslated into a repair request, and the mistranslation costs credibility in a negotiation.
Evaluate means the inspector has reached the end of their scope and someone with a different license needs to look. This is the most consequential verb in a report and the easiest to skim past, because it does not describe a defect — it describes a question the inspection could not answer. Treat it as an open item, not a closed one.
Repair and replace are the only two verbs that assert a defined piece of work, and even then no standard requires the inspector to price it. Arizona’s board states the exclusion in as many words: inspectors need not report on “the methods, materials and costs of corrections.” A report that carries repair costs is doing something optional, and the numbers in it are an estimate from somebody who is not bidding the work.
The photographs
Photographs are not required by any state rule reviewed for this site. Not Texas, not North Carolina, not Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Oregon, Massachusetts, Kentucky or Louisiana. Massachusetts requires weather conditions and on-site start and finish times in the report; none of these jurisdictions requires an image.
So photographs are professional practice, and near-universal practice, which makes their absence informative. A nonprofit consumer research publisher ran an undercover test of twelve inspectors in one metropolitan market in 2018 and reported that one “handed off a 10-pager with no pictures.” That is a small, dated, single-market study rather than a government or academic source and should never be read as a national rate — it illustrates only that the floor is lower than buyers assume.
What photographs are good for is locating a finding, and that is nearly all. An image establishes that a condition existed at a point in a room on a date. It does not establish extent, cause or consequence, and the standards relieve the inspector of determining the cause of a condition. Use the images to find the thing; use the narrative to understand it.
A quality checklist, from a regulator rather than a trade body
The North Carolina Home Inspector Licensure Board publishes the five compliance problems it encounters most often. It is written for inspectors, and it works just as well in reverse — as the shortest credible test of a report’s quality that exists in a public document. Run your report against all five.
- Was there a written contract, signed by you, before the inspection was performed? The board’s first listed failure is that there was not. If you signed nothing, or signed after the fact, that is the finding.
- Does the report state the name, license number and signature of the person supervising the inspection? Reports frequently omit it. Ohio additionally requires the license expiration date, which is a detail worth checking in any state because it is the fastest way to establish that the license was live on the day.
- Does the summary page carry every item that did not function as intended or required subsequent investigation? Compare the summary to the body yourself.
- Is this a generic national or franchise template, rather than a report built to the state’s standards? The board names this as a failure in its own words. The implication cuts against the usual assumption that recognizable national software signals rigor.
- Does the report state why any designated system or component was not fully inspected? Back to where this page started. Every not-inspected entry should carry a reason.
The list is published by the board through the North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal as “TOP 5” Home Inspection Contract & Report. The document carries no date, so treat it as current board guidance rather than as a dated publication.
What the report will not tell you, by design
Four things the report is not permitted to settle, because asking for them wastes the window in which you can act.
Whether the house meets code. Texas’s rule relieves the inspector of determining code compliance except where specifically required, and the Commission’s guidance states that it “does not require inspectors to inspect to any of the various building codes.” Arizona’s board uses nearly identical language. What a municipal permit inspection covered is a separate record entirely, and what the city inspected explains how that differs.
How long anything has left. Every standard examined excludes service life: ASHI and InterNACHI both exclude life-expectancy determinations, and Texas and Arizona exclude them by rule.
What is behind a wall. Latent and concealed conditions are outside every standard reviewed.
What the property is worth, or whether to buy it. Market value and the advisability of purchase are excluded by name in both national standards.
What to do with it, in order
Work through the report once in this sequence, before you talk to anybody about it. List every not-inspected and obstructed entry, and separate the reversible ones — stored property, a locked panel, utilities off — from the permanent scope exclusions. The reversible ones are a request you can make while you still have a deadline left.
Then list every evaluate: the findings handed to a different trade. Those are open questions with unknown cost, and they are usually the items that decide whether a deal works. Then read the defects, with the governing definition in mind rather than the English meaning of the word.
Last, check the five North Carolina items against the document itself. If the report fails two or three of them, the problem you have is not the house.
Two companions to this page: what counts as a material defect, before you ask a seller for anything, and when do you get the report, because in most states the only delivery deadline you have is the one you negotiated before the inspection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I read first in a home inspection report?
The entries saying a system or component was not inspected, was inaccessible or was obstructed. Found defects are known quantities you can price and negotiate; the components nobody could see are unknown risk that transfers to you at closing. Illinois and Massachusetts both require reports to disclose what was not inspected and why, and Texas gives it a checkbox.
Is the summary page required?
In North Carolina, yes, for prepurchase inspections of three or more systems. It must list components that do not function as intended and those that appear not to on documented tangible evidence. No other state reviewed requires one. Elsewhere the summary is a convention, and nothing governs what the inspector chose to promote into it.
What do I, NI, NP and D mean on a report?
They are the Texas Real Estate Commission’s four dispositions on form REI 7-6: Inspected, Not Inspected, Not Present, Deficient. More than one may be checked for one component, and the inspector must explain every finding in the narrative under that section. This is a Texas scheme, not a national convention — in another state the same letters may mean something else or nothing at all.
What does the inspector mean by monitor?
That no action is needed now and the condition should be watched for change. It is one of four recommendations Oregon’s rules prescribe — monitor, evaluate, repair, replace or other appropriate action. Converting a monitor into a repair demand is one of the fastest ways to lose credibility in a negotiation, because the report itself does not support the request.
Does a report have to include photographs?
No. No state rule reviewed for this site requires photographs — not Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Oregon, Massachusetts, Kentucky or Louisiana. They are standard professional practice rather than a requirement. Photographs locate a finding; they do not establish its extent or cause, and no standard requires the inspector to determine cause.
How many pages should a home inspection report be?
There is no sourced answer. No government, academic or standards-body document establishes a typical page count or a typical number of findings, and no state rule reviewed sets a minimum or maximum length. North Carolina mandates a summary page and Texas mandates a form structure; neither says anything about length. Any “the average report is X pages” claim online should be treated as unsourced.
The report says further evaluation is needed. Did I pay for an incomplete inspection?
No. That recommendation is the standard working as designed. A general inspection is explicitly not technically exhaustive, and the standards bar the inspector from offering engineering or architectural services, from determining the adequacy of a structural system, and from determining the cause of a condition. When a finding passes those boundaries, naming the specialist is the correct output.
Can I tell from the report how long the inspection took?
Only in Massachusetts. Its regulation requires the report to “Record the on-site Inspection start and finish times,” which makes it the one state where the duration is a documented fact in the report rather than an estimate. No other state reviewed requires it, and no primary source establishes a standard duration anywhere.