InspectVUE vs. HomeGauge

[bwooddell]

I've been watching the software thread and appreciate all the information and posts there. Based on the comments there, and alot of research of various packages, I have come down to InspectVUE vs. HomeGauge - and at this point, am about to toss a coin - If anyone has any comparative thoughts, I would appreciate them.

Some of the points I like about each are:
HomeGauge: CYA area, the smart sentence builder, ease of adding additional components, multiple templates included, multiple reporting formats, specific styles & materials area.
InspectVUE: Ease of use, palm top capability, loaded with narratives, picture editor seems more powerful, customer support hours, purchase price includes upload capabilities and support for a year (HG you have to buy Gold package to get)

Perhaps a poll will help with my coin toss decision Any and all comments are appreciated!

[Ted Allen]

I have NO experience with HG, but I know that PV is the best I have ever used.

If you go with PV you will not be sorry.

[Brian E. Kelly]

InspectVUE

[tneumann]

I just went through the same exact dilemna...

I went with HG for ease of use...I couldn't use IV....everybody thinks, learns, and acts differently and for me HG was easier. I also liked their tutorial videos on their website....that was the clincher.

For me it was also about cash outlay....my wife won't let me use savings to finance this new business so she made me sell stuff to do it....and since that puts me on a budget...the lease program was right up my alley....I created a friggin spreadsheet for the research.....

They are both great programs and there are guys / gals here that use both....I'm sure this poll will not help you It will still be up to you....go with your gut, they are both fine programs.

[jrivera]

Home Gauge

[scosta]

Home Gauge. Don't worry about Customer Support hours, you can post a question on their message board and get an answer quickly. There software is loaded with features, and they take customers suggestions and incorporate them into new versions.

[wmcshan]

HomeGauge is great, easy to modify and pics are easy and everyone loves the upload feature.

[ecox1]

Never use HG Love PV
I also use a book report from AHIT which is also good.

Good news from "HomeGauge", they are working on the "palm" version, and it will be introduced very soon.
Home gauge is the best by far, one thing though, you have to know how to use it.

[Jeffrey S. Campbell]

Last i knew, you could not load on a PALM OS based PDA... only windows or sim based...

[Kevin A. Richardson]

I Have been using PV for over a year now, and I am somewhat happy. It is very easy to use and produces a very professional looking report. However, if you are one who likes conducting inspections by the "Systems" approach, it will be difficult with PV.

PV is set up to do a room by room inspection, and typically takes a bit longer to generate a report (at least for me). I have been looking at HG for some time, and like the smart text.

Not to drift the thread, but I also checked out eInspections at the Convention. The current version 2 is not that great, but the new version 3 is a nice program that can give both PV and HG a run for the money.

-Kevin

[lewens]

I used to use Inspectit from AHIT then I was intruduced to Inspect Vue. The capabilities are limitless and I love the report it generates. The legal verbage is well worth the cost alone.
Larry

[jclark1]

You will have to add to, rewrite and really work on Inspectvue. I find the writing quite a bit over the top, almost as if the writer, Keith Swift, is trying a bit too hard by using a lot of extra words, redundancies and sometimes just plain wrong words. If you would like your reports to be professional to professional clients it will take a lot of work. One of the selling points of the program is the built in narratives and some of them are usable as is, others must be re written and a lot of them will never be used. The general and section narratives in combination with the individual narratives are a lot more than 99% of your clients will want to read. The narratives do seem to provide some legal coverage. Bottom line on the writing is unless you want to burden your clients with reading about things that have absolutely nothing to do with their reports such as an amateurish biology lesson on mold, you will have to put many hours into editing. Most people don't want a 25 page report.
Technically the program has a lot of restrictions on what you can do with it, though I'm sure most do. I don't like the fact you have to pay $250. a year for program updates. If you want technical assistance be prepared to try several times to get a question answered (sometimes with attitude).
If you plan on giving a summary report on site (I do) and then a full report via the web, you will need a pda and a laptop.
If I was to do it over again, I'd go with Homegauge and a good quality tablet PC.
James Clark

[John Onofrey]

What? Are you kidding? HomeGauge all the way!

[Lbisurfcaster]

Just purchased the Homegauge software and think it will work just fine. Very easy to use especially with the Fujitsu tablet PC. Gold package is well worth it when it comes to marketing your realtor's and the support has far exceeded my expectations.