TREC's REI 7-6 Form, Explained (Texas Inspection Report)

Texas is the strictest large market for home inspectors in the US: the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) licenses inspectors, publishes its own Standards of Practice, and — uniquely — mandates the report form itself. That form is REI 7-6. If you inspect in Texas, you do not get to choose your report layout; if you are searching for the form PDF, it is on TREC's website, and this article explains how it works.

What REI 7-6 is

REI 7-6 is TREC's Property Inspection Report Form — the standard document every Texas-licensed inspector must use for residential inspections performed under TREC's Standards of Practice (found in the Texas Administrative Code, §535.227 through §535.233). The current form and its official PDF are published on trec.texas.gov, and TREC updates it periodically, so always pull the live version rather than a copy from a forum.

The I / NI / NP / D system

The form's signature feature is its four-checkbox rating for every item:

• I — Inspected: the item was inspected
• NI — Not Inspected: the inspector did not inspect it
• NP — Not Present: the item does not exist at the property
• D — Deficient: the item is deficient as defined by the SOP

"Deficient" has a specific TREC meaning: a condition that, in the inspector's reasonable opinion, adversely and materially affects performance, or poses a safety hazard. An item can be both Inspected and Deficient — the checkboxes are not mutually exclusive — and every D needs an explanation in the comments.

The report sections

REI 7-6 fixes the structure: Structural Systems; Electrical Systems; Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning; Plumbing Systems; Appliances; and Optional Systems (pools, sprinklers, outbuildings, and similar). Within each, TREC's SOP dictates the items and the minimum matters the inspector must report — including specific deficiencies the SOP calls out by name, like missing GFCI protection in required locations.

Working with a mandated form

The practical challenge of REI 7-6 is not filling in checkboxes — it is producing the supporting documentation efficiently: photos paired with every Deficient item, comments that justify the rating, and a clean final document. Most Texas inspectors use software that outputs the TREC form directly; whatever tool you use, the discipline is the same one every good inspection shares — each finding needs its photo, its location, and its severity captured at the moment you observe it.

InspectPro Solo does not generate the REI 7-6 form itself — Texas inspectors need TREC-format output for the deliverable. Where Solo fits in a Texas practice is everything around that form: photo-documented walk-through records, ancillary inspections that fall outside TREC's mandate (like a 4-point for an insurer or a rental condition report), and jobs in states without a mandated form. We would rather tell you that plainly than sell you the wrong tool for a Texas pre-purchase inspection.

Key takeaways

• REI 7-6 is mandatory for TREC-licensed residential inspections in Texas
• Download the current form only from trec.texas.gov
• Every item gets I / NI / NP / D; every D gets an explanation
• TREC's SOP (§535.227–233) defines the items and named deficiencies
• For non-TREC work — insurance, rental, commercial — you choose your own format