Just a short introduction. My name is Jeff Collins and I have been a Building Inspector for a little over three years. I have been in the construction industry for about 20 years now. I have been talking about starting a home inspection business for a little over a year and with the new laws here I am. I just got word back on my license yesterday, HI1811.
I have been looking at the options for software for months. I guess I am stuck between Home Inpsector Pro and Home Guage. Does one have better templates than the other. One of the things that I like about Home guage is the way that the pictures are wiht the comments.
Jeff, you have the two top choices in software that you are talking about. Both programs do the same thing, so it is best to pick which one you are comfortable using. I prefer HIP, but there will be others that will chime in and give reasons for using HG.
The best thing to do is to get trials of each and use them on an inspection, then you will choose HIP with confidence.:mrgreen::mrgreen:
The reason I posted this under Florida was to see what the local inspectors are using. Which one would have better templates available.
Hey Jeff. HG has about 40 templates, out of the box, including a NACHI template that follows the SOPs. You can create your own templates too and tweek/edit the pre-installed ones to meet your needs. Both HIP and HG are highly customizable. I’m with you on the picture feature though. Just download them both and see which one you like.
Only if you really didn’t test them both:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Wait till you see all the “great (needed) support” comments for HIP:p (Just messin with the Hippies ;-))
Jeff, NEVER lump yourself in with everyone else! That is how guys go out of business fast. Try them all out and decide which one you like. This applies regardless of whatever rhetoric I, Bob E., or Robt. Newland throw at you. The best software is the one that produces the report that you want to throw out there.
Beta… Hmm, HIP will be HG… some day:p
(Jeff, sorry for the side show. Hopefully the FL inspectors will help you out. Good luck.)
Jeffery,
Not meaning to muddy the waters, but I have been using Inspect Express since the summer of 2006. The big reasons being because I hate check list or quasi-checklist style reports and because at the time it was one of the few programs that allowed you to place pictures anywhere you wanted within the report with little effort.
Thanks,
Jeff, I live in Fl and use HIP.:mrgreen: Very easy to customize and the service is the best. Where in Fl are you located
Jeff,
I believe HG out of the box has the shortest learning curve… If I was just starting out that would be the product I would choose.
Jeff,
Are you looking for software that runs on a handheld type of device ? We have a lot of Florida inspectors using our software including past FABI presidents. We also have Wind Mitigation and 4-points to go with Florida. Call us and we can give you many home inspector references there in Florida and some even share their templates.
I sure hope not as I prefer it the way it is (faster)(cleaner)(more readable to the client).
HIP Bookmarks are the Bomb and far superior.
One day you will leave the evil and join fellow Hippies hand in hand.(Kum bay ya)Brother (Kum Bay Ya)
Keep it in the box.
HG by far has an easier learning curve. They have forms for wind mits, four points, and WDO. The templates are great. The biggest item(that I can tell) is HIP allows almost complete control over layout. HG works with hand held computers. They are going to allow changes to printing options, soon.
IMHO
Well it looks like 90% of the inspectors (that’s about 9,000 NACHI Members) prefer Home Guage.
Get and use 3D
We have been using Home Inspector Pro for almost 3 years and by far, it is the best we ever used. Researched and tried about 5 different programs and based on the support that Dominic Maricic provides us with as well as other customizable forms, templates and website options, there was no other option. We use some of the other programs because of requirements of the companies we work for, but always go back to HIP.
I would suggest you download all of the software you can and try them all out. You will have to modify them to your reporting style, and in some cases, will almost end up re-writing the software.
If you are proficient in Microsoft Office, you can integrate Word, Publisher, and Excel to produce the desired results.
You can also use Open Office to do the same thing.
The issue I had with all of the home inspection software programs was that none of them could do everything I wanted them to do.
I have done my forms in Publisher, which I use now and have since the beginning, Word, Excel, and Open Office.
You will have to look around to see what you want the finished product to look like, then find the software to do it. In the early days, I sketched out my logo and did all of the forms by hand. I then took them to a commercial printer friend who made everything look right. Then, I designed everything in Publisher 97. I have modified the program almost every year since.
You can view some sample reports here: Sample reports