The REAC Guru Bulletin Board

Do you follow the same guidelines (always turn right/left) when walking the exterior of a property?

Yes – exactly. You always want to follow some sort of system that allows you to know where you have
been and where you are going – and that assures you do not skip any areas along the way.
I personally inspect in a “clockwise” fashion. I go around the interior of a unit clockwise, which means
I’m following the wall on my left. I go around the outside of a building clockwise, which means I follow
the wall on my right. I go around the entire Site clockwise, as much as I can. This depends on how many
bldgs. you have and how large the Site is.

Oddly, people seem to assume that inspecting is an “easy job.” Like, “anybody can inspect… all you are
doing is walking around looking at stuff.” Actually, inspecting properly is a very difficult job. You have to
be able to look at and see, fully understand what you are looking at, every single square inch of visible
surface of the world as you move through it. This is completely AGAINST the programming and nature
of human consciousness. As human beings, we filter out most of what is happening around us, so that
we can focus on one task at a time.

Most of us have learned, very well, to “turn off” what is happening in our personal lives when we are at
work. We have learned to “turn off” background conversations between other people in the room as
we talk to someone else on the phone. We have also learned to turn off our curiosity as to “why is there
a dark spot on the wall at the third floor level?” as we are walking past a building. We’ve learned to turn
off much of the visual, audio, tactile, and olfactory information that bombards us – and when we are
inspecting, we need to turn all of that back on, while we are walking around, taking notes, maybe talking
to other people, etc. A good inspector's brain is functioning in a very different way than the brain of a
person engaged in some other kind of task.

So – we need to simplify what we can. Following a systematic way of inspecting preserves a tiny bit of
our mental capacity so we can focus on that huge task.