I’m working on starting a home inspection business and am having trouble finding software compatible with my MAC. Huge fan of MAC and not willing to go to PC. Any help? By the way, I’m in Texas so I need software that uses the TREC standard inspection form REI 7A-1.
Bob Elliot…you have a phone call.
Hi Carl,
Like Mike said, our software is the only program that runs on Mac, Windows & Linux. All files are cross compatible as well. It’s also has the TREC 7A-1 form 
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks Guys
No problem!
Carl,
You can also use our software if you want. Because our software is a standalone application on a PocketPC it does not matter what PC or Mac you use in the office. Our software is designed to be used AS you are doing your inspection and then at the end of the inspection you create an RTF (Word) document onto the PocketPC. You can then copy that RTF file onto an SD card or CF card and put it into your Mac or PC and when you open it on your PC or Mac it opens into your default word processor with all the data you collected in the field in a completed report…no reentering of data…no spending nights at home creating your report…and we have been doing the TREC form for over 10 years.
What is also unique with our software is that you do the inspection the way you want to by entering all the data in each room and then the data is mapped to where it needs to go in the TREC form…no flipping between sections of the TREC form to enter your data.
It is worth your time to at least ask for a demo CD and we can send one out to you.
Jeff Knight
Knights Software Solutions, Inc.
www.knightssoftware.com
715-381-1433
sales@knightssoftware.com
The only one for Mac and Linux?
We have Mac TREC 7A-1 compliant reports. We have had inspection software for Mac, Linux and Windows for many years.
Hi George. I didn’t know that and wouldn’t have made the statement if I’d know otherwise. How do you get your software to run on Linux if it requires Microsoft Office and Office won’t run on Linux (I do know they could purchase Office for a Mac). Unless you have a different version, what you showed me previously required Office.
There was a time when this message board was a place where inspectors could go for good reliable accurate information. There was also a time when the board’s etiquette was that the board was here for inspectors to help other inspectors. Now it seems that the board has become a place for vendors to hawk their wares and to disseminate misinformation.
At MSI, we develop applications (including inspection report software) for multiple platforms, not only MS Office. I was developing project management, accounting, and engineering applications for a variety of platforms since long before we started doing applications for MS Office and, for that matter, since before we formed MSI in 1992. We did not develop our first MS Office based applications until well into the 1990s.
When we started doing Texas reports, the only other company that I am aware of with Texas report software was Whisper Solutions. We developed Texas reports for the PDF and Star Office platforms 1999 and began selling them that Winter (We didn’t sell many PDF reports because hardly any inspectors had heard of PDF).
We sold our first home inspection reports in Florida, California and Texas in February 2000. We had already been doing commercial software for many years.
Five or six years ago, Nick Gromicko and I were speaking at an event where several other (now defunct) inspection software publishers had displays and were doing presentations. Nick, Lorne Steiner, another software fellow (whom I don’t remember) and I were standing around talking. Nick asked Lorne and the other fellow why they didn’t have software for Texas. He pointed out to them that I had Texas software. The one fellow was not even aware that Texas had their own format. Lorne said it was too much trouble to do Texas report software.
Contrary to statements made on this board, MS Office is a platform that works with multiple programming languages. Among them are VBA, C++, C#, VB, VB.net and VSTO. VBA is built into MS Office and the others are integrated into Office via Visual Studio. We develop applications for the MS Office platform because it is what our customers want. Also, It is the standard in the business world, economical, flexible, and powerful. However, we have also been developing inspection report software for other platforms since the beginning. PDF and Star Basic for example run on Linux and Mac just fine. We also develop applications in VB, Access (which does not require office), Lotus 123 and others.
I am a construction guy, not a programmer but I enjoy writing programs as a hobby. My early programming experience was almost exclusively in Boolean (TI 5TI, Fanuc, TRS, etc). I also did a fair amount of PLC (A-B, etc) and DCS (Honeywell, etc) programming in the 1970s and early 1980s when I worked as an electrician. I had co-developed preventive maintenance, project management, and electrical engineering applications in the 1980s for CP/M in FORTRAN, and COBOL on the side because I was doing project management consulting and training skilled trades at the time and I used the applications in my consulting business. We also worked in Microsoft DOS and Microsoft Xenix and wrote programs in Symphony and Pascal. Whenever possible we gave the customers what they wanted.
MS operating systems and later MS Office became the dominant platforms in MSI because that’s what our customers asked for.
George,
I’ve talked to you a few times and I have a lot of respect for you. I was not misrepresenting anyone. I think you need to look over the 4600+ posts that I made on this board. 99.9% of them have nothing to do with out software. I post on here to help inspectors with computer and website questions. I do not “hawk my wares” as any member on here can tell you. I was not stating we were the only Mac program as I know other programs work with Office. I stated we were the only to run on all 3 (which you have informed me is inaccurate).
I’ve Google’d Linux and Mac software many times and the only other software that has ever come up was InspectMaster (which stopped supporting Linux). Looking at older versions of your site (this is the latest Archive.org has): http://web.archive.org/web/20080123121234/http://www.bestinspectors.net/ there is no mention of Mac or Linux on your home page or http://web.archive.org/web/20080124020801/http://www.bestinspectors.net/products-reports.htm on your software page. I have no doubt your software runs on it, I’m just saying I was not aware of it.
Also, looking at your software page today: http://www.bestinspectors.net/products-reports.htm none of your products list Linux (though I see Mac is now listed). I see you added it to your home page now, but it was not there previously.
I am one of the many that “can tell you” it is as Dominic stated above!!!
That may be the case here, in general, but does not apply to Dominic. He’d written a ton of free articles to help inspectors with SEO, offers customer service nearly 24/7 (with all kinds of software, programs and web issues - not just his own) and is widely considered our “expert” in computer stuff.
I would bet if you asked 100 inspectors here, 99 of them would speak highly of Dominic, his service and his business practices. The 1 that wouldn’t simply wasn’t paying attention.
From Dominic’s reply, seems he researched first - your own sites didn’t even promote your LInux software - before stating what he though to be accurate (using the information on your own site).
IMO you owe Dominic a public aplology.
You must have been looking in a mirror when you wrote this. Dominic has been nothing but helpful to the membership of this organization. Whether it was in regards to website SEO, computer problems not related to inspection software or attempting to answer questions about a competitors program when their customer service disappeared, he has stepped up.
For you to allude that he is here to “hawk his wares and disseminate misinformation” says volumes about your own company and character, not his.
Well I am not a vendor so let me say this. BUY HOME INSPECTOR PRO. Quality product and customer service with no need to put up with a jerk.
George I had a good opinion of you till now.
I hope you keep that opinion on the good side by redefining what I just read ,as I will assume you are just having a bad day.
You should know better than to attack one of the most respected members of this Association.
I see no place where he went after you or belittled your software system.
I looked and Looked for a Sample Report on these site links and on the Home Page of the website and did not see a LINK POP out at me doing a search of the website for a few minutes, seems ODD there are not Sample Reports right on the home page to view this software with a completed report…But I could of certainly MISSED the “Sample Reports” which I would be VERY interested in seeing.
[quote=“dmaricic, post:11, topic:41300”]
George,
I’ve talked to you a few times and I have a lot of respect for you. I was not misrepresenting anyone. I think you need to look over the 4600+ posts that I made on this board. 99.9% of them have nothing to do with out software. I post on here to help inspectors with computer and website questions. I do not “hawk my wares” as any member on here can tell you. I was not stating we were the only Mac program as I know other programs work with Office. I stated we were the only to run on all 3 (which you have informed me is inaccurate).
Dominic,
I wasn’t thinking of you with my comment regarding vendors hawking their wares. I was venting my frustration and I can see where anyone reading the post would reasonably interpret it as being a comment directed at you and referring to you.
I apologize if you or anyone else took my comments to be a slam against you.
I was, however, thinking of several specific individuals when I made my comments.
For example, I learned the other day that an InterNACHI member sent spam e-mail to a large number of InterNACHI members hawking inspection software using descriptions that are almost identical to many of my ads.
He has also blatantly violated several (or many) of our copyrights by incorporating our copyrighted features in his software. Then he got on this message board and started giving away copies of software that is in violation of our copyrights. I have no doubt at all that we will prevail in court but the damage he has already done cannot be calculated.
Most casual MS Office users are completely unaware of what Office is. VBA, VB, VB.net, C++, C#, and VSTO collectively comprise the most powerful suite of programming languages ever.
As I said, I am not a programmer. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the development of our applications. The money isn’t all in programming. A large chunk is spent on research.
I do not promote the fact that stuff runs on Linux because we believe it is better for small businesses to use mainstream operating systems and platforms. Apple has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. That’s great for them and for people who like Apples. We recently started mentioning the fact that we have Mac compatible stuff because Apple is again becoming mainstream.
Microsoft had decided to remove VBA from Mac Office because the Mac user base had dwindled to almost being non-existent. Microsoft recently made the decision to continue developing VBA for Macs for the same reason we decided to again start mentioning Mac compatibility.
I am frustrated by the fact that the conversations on this board have little to anymore with actual report writing. More and more, it is about the software.
I’d like to see all vendors completely stop promoting the stuff they sell. It used to be that selling stuff on the message board was not tolerated. Now it is commonplace.
When it gets to the point where pirates and spammers are using the board to hawk their wares, I get frustrated and I’m going to speak up.
As I said Dominic, I apologize to you personally. I should have been clearer.
Bob,
I did not mean to attack Dominic. I apologized to him on this thread. I was - and am - frustrated by stuff that has been going on. I was not clear in my original message. I was trying to express my views without naming names. In trying to not name names, it came across as an attack on Dominic. That was not at all what I intended.
No problem.
I understand. I’ve seen other programs being copied closed to verbatim. I’d be extremely pissed off too. I don’t work 20 hours a day for someone to copy our software! Good luck with the lawsuit.