What information should accompany a referral to a specialist?

A referral is a handoff, and its value depends on how much the specialist can act on without repeating the inspector's work. What transfers usefully is the observation and its location: what was seen, where it was, and what conditions accompanied it. That lets the specialist go straight to the right place with the right expectation. What does not transfer usefully is a conclusion about cause, because the whole reason for the referral is that the cause is beyond what a visual inspection can determine — asserting one both exceeds the inspector's role and risks anchoring the specialist to a wrong hypothesis. Cost estimates are outside the inspection scope and belong to whoever will do the work. Naming preferred contractors introduces a referral relationship the standards discourage and clients may misread as an endorsement.

The referral carries what was observed and where, which lets the specialist locate the condition and evaluate it efficiently. That is the information the inspection actually produced.

Home inspectors report observed conditions and refer conditions requiring evaluation beyond the visual scope. Effective referrals describe the observation and its location; cost estimation, cause determination and contractor selection lie outside the role.

What You Saw and Where. That is the whole handoff. Cause, cost and contractor all belong to somebody else.

Say what you could not determine as well. 'Concealed behind finishes' or 'no access panel' tells the specialist what work the evaluation will require.

• •Asserting a cause the inspection could not establish
• •Attaching a cost estimate to a referral
• •Naming specific contractors rather than the trade required