Inspection industry unifies report delivery and creates added value for inspectors.

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.nachi.org/fetchreportfriendlyseal.htm

[John McKenna]

I'm sold on FetchReport.

Works very good, saves me time and provides a password protected
report for my clients... all free of charge. Not a bad deal, indeed.

I understand there will be some neat things to come that will
enhance the home inspector even more. Thanks NACHI.

[Russell Spriggs]

Nick-
This line confuses me; should that be "anyway"?:

Inspectors can provide added value (in terms of third party discount coupons and gift certificates*) to their inspection reports. FetchReport hopes to soon provide so much added value to uploaded reports that consumers who have no need for an inspection order one anyone to acquire the downloadable gift certificates.

Looking good, as a system.
Still not real user-friendly to us HIs with slower connections, as emailing the attachment (as I've done for years) directly to the client is much faster. I'll need to play with it some more!

[Nick Gromicko]

Thanks Russell, fixed.

[Michael W. Gault]

Use it, Love it,

I actually find my self checking it to see if they get downloaded, so I can be sure it was received.

So many clients really never bother to click 'yes' on the delivery verification in Outlook.

If I find someone that has not downloaded it, I call and ask again to be sure they got it and have no questions...

Another excellent NACHI benefit...

[John McKenna]

Originally Posted by rspriggs

Nick-
This line confuses me; should that be "anyway"?:

Inspectors can provide added value (in terms of third party discount coupons and gift certificates*) to their inspection reports. FetchReport hopes to soon provide so much added value to uploaded reports that consumers who have no need for an inspection order one anyone to acquire the downloadable gift certificates.

Looking good, as a system.
Still not real user-friendly to us HIs with slower connections, as emailing the attachment (as I've done for years) directly to the client is much faster. I'll need to play with it some more!

It is becoming more difficult to continue the practice of sending
large file reports directly to the client's email now a days. More and
more of your ISP's are blocking large files.

Mr Spriggs, have you thought about satellite or wireless broadband internet providers?

[Russell Spriggs]

Originally Posted by jmckenna1

It is becoming more difficult to continue the practice of sending
large file reports directly to the client's email now a days. More and
more of your ISP's are blocking large files.

Mr Spriggs, have you thought about satellite or wireless broadband internet providers?

Good to know, John, thanks.

I have Verizon wireless. When I do work from the Chamber office, in Spirit Lake itself, it's pretty fast - stronger signal, I guess.
When working from home (99%), it's pretty pokey out here in the mtns.

[John McKenna]

Russell,

If you order satellite, it will cost approx. 50-60 dollars p/mth and it
works about anywhere in the US, as long as the trees don't block the
southern sky. It is much faster than dial up, but not as fast as broadband.
Sometimes a storm can hinder your signal.

Verizon wireless internet cost about 60 dollars a month, for unlimited
service.

I use Verizon wireless and only have about a 1-2 bar reception on my
cell phone. But when I turn on the wireless connection to my computer
(easy hook up), I get good internet service about 99.9% of the time.
Every couple weeks, I might loose my signal and have to reconnect,
but not bad. They recently upgraded the towers here and I get full
Broadband speeds and better reception. I'm happy as a puppy now.

Verizon has two speeds of internet. The fastest is called Broadband.
(it's not as fast as regular broadband, but very fast compared to
your present dial up connection). The other speed is called National
Access (still about 5 times faster than a slow dial up connection).

It's all one plan with Verizon, but the two speeds depend on what
the local tower can deliver to your area. I like it because I can
travel anywhere in the US and still connect to the internet, even
while riding in the truck (sometimes I upload reports while on the
road).

As you put more photos in your report and thus create larger
files, it creates a problem with slow dial up connections. Plus,
more ISP's will no longer accept large email files. Besides, uploading
to a server is faster than trying to directly email the report. So the
FetchReport system is faster than email, and does not risk the
undeliverable email problems. Plus your report is password
protected and available to several parties, all from one click on
a link.

You can also get antenna boosters for your cell phone reception,
and thus overcome a marginal signal for your wireless internet.
They don't cost much.

I hope this helps.

[Russell Spriggs]

To clarify, I have Verizon National Access Broadband for internet access, not dialup.
It's faster at the Chamber office than at home, and the signal occasionally gets dropped at home / goes red.

And, that's with $150 worth of additional antenna stuff!

But, thanks for the post, John.

[John McKenna]

Originally Posted by rspriggs

To clarify, I have Verizon National Access Broadband for internet access, not dialup.
It's faster at the Chamber office than at home, and the signal occasionally gets dropped at home / goes red.

And, that's with $150 worth of additional antenna stuff!

But, thanks for the post, John.

Wow... you are really out there.

[wforsyth]

There is a satellite system for boats that runs in other places as well. I don't have the name of it, but it is very good. The yacht club club I go to uses it. It has a minimal equipment investment and a 2-3 mile range for it's hotspots. It runs only $25-$30 a month, so it's very affordable. I'm going to be investing in it soon.

[John McKenna]

Originally Posted by wforsyth

There is a satellite system for boats that runs in other places as well. I don't have the name of it, but it is very good. The yacht club club I go to uses it. It has a minimal equipment investment and a 2-3 mile range for it's hotspots. It runs only $25-$30 a month, so it's very affordable. I'm going to be investing in it soon.

Let me know about it when you get more info.
Thanks.