Texas, and essentially nowhere else
Texas is the clear answer and very nearly the only one. The Texas Real Estate Commission publishes a Property Inspection Report Form, REI 7-6, with a fixed section order, a fixed disposition legend and fixed header fields, and requires it. Seven other states — Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Oregon, Massachusetts and Kentucky — prescribe what a report must contain without prescribing the document it is contained in. Every other state either regulates home inspection without reaching report format, or does not regulate home inspection at all.
That distinction sounds procedural and is not. It is the reason two reports on two identical houses in two states can look nothing alike, agree on every fact, and both be fully compliant. It is also why a buyer who has read one state’s report and thinks they know what a report looks like is carrying a false model into the next transaction.
What Texas actually prescribes
REI 7-6 is not a content checklist with a suggested layout. It is the document. Its page-one header fields are set: Name of Client, Date of Inspection, Address of Inspected Property, Name of Inspector, TREC License number, and the Name of Sponsor with the sponsor’s TREC license number.
Below that sit six fixed sections in a fixed order: I. Structural Systems, running from foundations and grading through roof coverings, roof structures and attics, walls, ceilings and floors, doors, windows, stairways, fireplaces and chimneys, and porches, balconies, decks and carports; II. Electrical Systems; III. Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning; IV. Plumbing Systems, including water heating equipment and hydro-massage therapy equipment; V. Appliances; and VI. Optional Systems.
Every line carries the same four-box legend: I=Inspected NI=Not Inspected NP=Not Present D=Deficient. More than one box can be checked for a single component, and the Commission’s instruction sheet requires that the inspector “MUST explain the inspector’s findings for each item under the corresponding section of the form.”
Two edges of the requirement are worth knowing. The form is required even for a single-item inspection — there is no de minimis exemption for looking at one thing. And it is not required “when an inspector reinspects the property that was the subject of the original inspection and for same client.” The reinspection after repairs is the one Texas document that may come back in whatever format the inspector chooses.
The table
| State | Form prescribed? | What the rule prescribes instead |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | Yes — REI 7-6 | The document itself: six fixed sections, the I/NI/NP/D legend, set header fields, and a written explanation for every finding |
| Illinois | No | Inspector names and license numbers, inspection time and weather conditions, significantly deficient items with reasons and correction guidance, and disclosure of systems not inspected with the reasons |
| North Carolina | No | A summary page, mandatory for prepurchase inspections of three or more systems, listing what does not function as intended and what appears not to, on documented tangible evidence |
| Ohio | No | License number, license expiration date, date of the inspection, property address, and a statement addressing the scope of work including services or hazards excluded |
| Tennessee | No | Identification of systems that do not function as intended, and whether conditions require repair or subsequent observation, or warrant further investigation |
| Oregon | No | A record of each listed item and whether it was satisfactory, a recommendation to monitor, evaluate, repair, replace or take other action, the CCB number and certification details, and a disclaimer in bold capitals at 12-point minimum on page one |
| Massachusetts | No | On-site start and finish times, weather conditions, the condition of each inspected component, which designated components were not inspected, and any obstructions that prevented inspection |
| Kentucky | No | A statement of which Standards of Practice the licensee followed, a statement that the report does not address environmental hazards, and all other exclusions listed with specificity |
| Louisiana | No — widely misread | The municipal address, the client, and the date; reports may not be resold. Nothing about format |
Citations, in the order of the table: the TREC REI 7-6 form and its instruction sheet; Illinois Administrative Code Title 68, Part 1410, Section 1410.200; N.C. Gen. Stat. §143-151.58; Ohio Administrative Code Rule 1301:17-1-16; Rules & Regulations of the State of Tennessee 0780-05-12-.10; Oregon Administrative Rules 812-008-0200 through 812-008-0214; 266 CMR 6.00; 831 KAR 2:030; and the Louisiana State Board of Home Inspectors rules as published by the Secretary of State.
Contents without a form: what that produces in practice
A contents rule constrains the facts and leaves the architecture open. Two Illinois reports must both disclose which systems were not inspected and why, and both must state the weather and the time; one can do it in a sidebar on page two and the other in a paragraph on page thirty, and both comply.
The seven contents states are not even prescribing the same facts. Massachusetts is the only one that requires on-site start and finish times. Oregon is the only one that prescribes the verbs — monitor, evaluate, repair, replace. Kentucky is the only one that forces the report to name its own governing standard. North Carolina is the only one that mandates a summary page, and only for prepurchase inspections of three or more systems. Ohio’s requirements are almost entirely identifiers: who, when, where, and a scope statement.
Stack those and a useful conclusion falls out. A report that carries all seven states’ required contents would be a better report than any one state requires, and no state requires it. The union of the rules is a far stronger document than any member of the set.
The Louisiana misreading
Louisiana appears on lists of states with a prescribed report form, and the reason is a single phrase in a renewal rule. Section 115.B of the Louisiana State Board of Home Inspectors rules requires a licensee, at renewal, to “submit a copy of a completed inspection report form from the previous licensing period.”
Read as English, a completed inspection report form sounds like a reference to the form. Read in context, it is a sampling requirement: the board wants to see one of your real reports when you renew, to check it against the rules. The same body of rules prescribes no standard form anywhere, sets no delivery deadline, and defines neither defect nor deficiency nor safety hazard. What it does require of the report itself is minimal — under Section 123.A, the municipal address of the home inspected, the client or clients for whom it was inspected, and the date, plus a prohibition on reports being resold.
This is the kind of error that propagates because the correction is less quotable than the mistake. If you are checking a claim that your state prescribes a form, read the rule that the claim rests on, and read what it is actually regulating — the report, or the licensee’s renewal file.
Why it matters when you compare two reports
Buyers compare reports constantly: the one on this house against the one from the last house, or a friend’s report from another state, or a sample report an inspector supplied. The comparison assumes a common yardstick that does not exist.
A Texas report will look rigid and sparse to someone used to a narrative report, because the form controls the order and the inspector’s judgment shows up only in the explanations. A Massachusetts report will carry a start and finish time that no other state’s report carries, which makes it the one report in the country from which you can read how long the inspector was actually on site. A North Carolina prepurchase report of three or more systems will open with a summary page that a Kentucky report of the same house will not have.
None of those differences is a quality signal. They are format signals, and reading them as quality is how buyers end up thinking a thin Texas form is a thorough inspection or that a long narrative report is a rigorous one. The federal government’s own buyer notice makes the reasonable suggestion: ask an inspector for “their Standards of Practice (SOP) or for a sample home inspection report” before you hire, which at least lets you compare the format in advance rather than on deadline. The notice is Form HUD-92564-CN, revised February 2023.
North Carolina has named the generic template a compliance failure
The sharpest consequence of a state prescribing contents rather than a form falls on inspectors, and North Carolina has written it down. The North Carolina Home Inspector Licensure Board publishes a list of the five most common contract and report compliance problems. Item four reads: “The written report is an industry standardized or franchise report format not specifically tailored to comply with the North Carolina Standards of Practice.”
That is a regulator stating, in its own guidance, that using a national template out of the box is itself a violation. It is an unusual thing for a board to say and a useful thing for a reader to know, because it inverts an assumption buyers hold — that a report produced by well-known national software is more likely to be compliant than one produced locally. In North Carolina, the opposite is the documented failure mode.
The other four items on that list belong in any assessment of a report’s quality, and we work through them as a checklist in how to read a home inspection report.
What to do with this
If you are reading a report now, find the governing rule before you judge the format. In Texas, the structure is not the inspector’s choice and criticizing it is criticizing the Commission. In the seven contents states, run the state’s required contents against the document and see whether each item is present — that is a compliance test you can perform yourself in ten minutes, and it is a far better quality signal than page count or photograph count. Elsewhere, there is no rule to check it against, and the inspection agreement is the only document setting expectations.
If you are commissioning one, ask which standard the report will be written to and ask for a sample before the inspection rather than after. That is the only point at which format is still negotiable. The same logic applies to delivery timing, which is governed even more thinly — see when do you get the report — and to the vocabulary the report will use for problems, which is covered in severity language across the states.
One caution on currency. Report rules are amended more often than standards of practice, and form revisions carry letters: REI 7-5 preceded 7-6. Before you rely on a form requirement in a transaction, confirm the current revision on the Commission’s own instruction sheet, which carried a 2025 revision date when this page was written.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states require a specific home inspection report form?
Texas, in substance alone. The Texas Real Estate Commission prescribes form REI 7-6 and requires it even for a single-item inspection. Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Oregon, Massachusetts and Kentucky each prescribe required report contents without prescribing a form, and no other state reviewed for this page prescribes either.
Does Louisiana require a standard report form?
No. The misreading comes from a renewal rule requiring licensees to submit “a copy of a completed inspection report form from the previous licensing period.” That is a sampling requirement for the renewal file, not a prescribed format. The Louisiana rules prescribe no form, set no delivery deadline, and define no severity terms.
Is the Texas REI 7-6 form used anywhere else?
No. It is a Texas Real Estate Commission form governing Texas inspections, and its I/NI/NP/D legend is a Texas scheme rather than an industry convention. Reports in other states may use similar shorthand by choice, but no other state’s rule imposes it.
Does a longer report mean a better inspection?
There is no sourced basis for that. No state rule reviewed sets a minimum or maximum report length, and no government, academic or standards-body source establishes a typical page count. North Carolina mandates a summary page and Texas mandates a form structure; neither specifies length. Judge a report by whether it carries the contents its governing rule requires.
My inspector used national franchise software. Is that a problem?
In North Carolina it can be. The state licensure board lists among its five most common compliance problems a report that is “an industry standardized or franchise report format not specifically tailored to comply with the North Carolina Standards of Practice.” In other states the template itself is not a violation, but it still has to produce every item the state requires, and a generic template is exactly where omissions tend to occur.
Does Texas require the form for a reinspection?
No. The Commission’s instruction sheet states the form “is not required when an inspector reinspects the property that was the subject of the original inspection and for same client.” The follow-up visit after repairs is the one Texas report that may take any format. The original inspection, even of a single item, must use the form.
How do I check what my own state requires?
Find the state agency that licenses home inspectors and read its standards of practice and its reporting rule directly — these are short public documents, usually a few pages. Note which agency it is, because it varies: a real estate commission in Texas, a construction contractors board in Oregon, a department of commerce in Ohio, a fire marshal’s office administering the licensure board in North Carolina. If no state agency licenses inspectors where you are, no report rule exists and your inspection agreement is the only governing document.