HomeGauge's Create Request List (CRL) feature is a powerful tool designed to streamline the process of building a list of requests based on the findings in your inspection report. While it primarily benefits real estate agents and home buyers, home inspectors can also use CRL to enhance their services and improve client satisfaction. In this article, we will explore how home inspectors can optimize the use of CRL, troubleshoot potential issues, and leverage it as a marketing tool.

Understanding CRL

The Create Request List feature was initially developed for real estate agents and home buyers to facilitate collaboration and transparency during negotiation. With CRL, agents, and buyers can build a list of requests based on the inspection report findings, helping to ensure that important issues are addressed before the property sale is finalized.

For home inspectors, CRL offers several advantages

• Preserving Inspection Report Integrity: CRL allows agents to add their comments and requests, but your original inspection report's comments and findings remain unchanged. This helps maintain the integrity of your report and prevents any misinterpretation of your observations by others involved in the transaction.

• Time Savings: Real estate agents appreciate the efficiency of CRL as it saves them time and effort in compiling the request list manually. Using CRL, they can quickly generate a standardized list of requests based on your report.

• Marketing Tool: CRL can be a powerful marketing tool for home inspectors. Providing agents with a custom CRL marketing link showcases how easy it is for them to create the request list directly from your report. This can increase referrals and establish your reputation as a reliable and tech-savvy inspector.

  • From your Dashboard, click More Tools and Resources to find your custom CRL marketing link. This link can be shared in your marketing materials. You can try a live demo of the CRL to get a better idea of what the customer and real estate agent will see. Click here for the demo.

Turn On/Off CRL

For home inspectors who want to make use of CRL or turn it off, follow these steps to turn the feature on or off:

1. Log into your HomeGauge Dashboard
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Then click Company Options
   
4. Scroll down to Create Request List Feature
5. Click the Edit settings link
6. On the right-hand Settings list:
   1. Checking the box next to Enable Create Request List (CRL) will enable it. Unchecking the box will turn it off.
   2. Checking the box next to Receive Email Notifications On Buyer or Agent Creation will send you an email when someone uses the feature.
   3. Checking the box next to Disable CRL Reminder Email will prevent Agents from receiving an email about CRL if they have yet to use it before.
7. Click Save to save the settings
   

Troubleshooting CRL

If your customer or REP is not able to create a CRL from your report, there are a few possible causes:

• PDF reports. Only HTML reports will work with CRL.
• Summary-only document. Only full reports work with CRL. A summary-only document will prevent CRL from functioning correctly.
• Incorrect document type. If your document isn't classified as an Inspection Report, CRL may not function. To check the classification of an uploaded document, you can click Manage Rename above the report and make sure that Inspection Report is the selected document type, then save your changes. Note: If all your uploaded reports show the wrong document type, you must change this in your software. Go to File Printing Options, click the document setting you usually use to upload to select it (click the text to highlight it blue), then click Edit. On the following screen, click the drop-down in the top right to ensure your document setting is Inspection.

CRL Numbering Doesn't Match Report Numbering

If the Inspection Items in your report have a different number than what is displayed on the CRL (For example, Item 2.2 Windows on the report shows as item 1.2 in the CRL), follow steps 1-3 below. 

The following solution will work for all reports in the future but not the current report.

1. In the Desktop software, from the top-level menu, click Template Options
2. Check the box labeled Renumber Sections/Items When Excluding
3. Click OK

The problem happens because having the option off causes Desktop software and the CRL system to count the items differently. The CRL system ignores the numbering from the report and does its numbering on its own - missing excluded items.

In this example, the 3rd item, Garage, has been excluded from the report.

With the option turned on, the problem is corrected because the report numbering changes to match the CRL numbering.