Originally Posted By: jgallant This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
For anyone who’s been considering trying out ReportHost for writing their inspection reports, please be advised that we’re changing our policy for giving out free reports when you register with us as of September 15th. To date we’ve been giving away 25 free reports when you sign up (30 if you’re a NACHI member). After September 15th we’ll be giving away 10 reports to non-NACHI members rather than 25, and 15 to NACHI members rather than 30.
So if you've been comparing report writing software, we encourage you to sign up before the 15th. There's no sign up fee and no software to buy since we're web based. For more information visit:
Originally Posted By: jgallant This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
hgordon wrote:
Jim,
I was at your site(www.allpointinspections.com)...and while looking around I read this: "* ASHI - American Society of Home Inspectors. North America's largest, oldest and most recognized organization for home inspectors. "?
Frankly I am somewhat confused at this statement...could you please elaborate?
Harvey,
Thanks for pointing that out. I removed the three organizations' descriptions on the All Point website this morning. The descriptions were simply copied from the organization's websites. I was only repeating what the organizations were claiming. The claim for "largest" organization seems to be in debate currently (witness the recent discussions on the NACHI message board). I'm not aware of any organization for inspectors that's older than ASHI, are you? Do you believe that NACHI or NAHI is more recognized than ASHI? I'm not trying to knock NACHI, in fact I feel a lot better about my relationship (as an inspector) with NACHI than I do with ASHI these days.
Originally Posted By: hgordon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
…I understand your desire to play all fields as a vendor…but you can see it just like everyone else can…ashi is slip sliding away…and NAHI will always be second best at best.
Much luck to you Jim...I mean it. I am not trying to attack you. You are a vendor and we, NACHI, appreciate you.
Originally Posted By: loconnor This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
This thread is an example of major thread drift.
Harvey, why not Pm or email Jim about this particular item?
I for one feel this type of thread drift takes away the look of professionalism
from those particular members and NACHI in general.
Yes, I know, this is a public forum, but why not maintain a sense of
professionalism here and stick to the topic .
I know, I'm guilty of thread drift as much as anyone, but I don't use it
to question the integrity of a NACHI member in public, unless it is a major concern.
Maybe it's me, but I just see too much of this lately, and wondering why??
Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I think it’s on topic.
I push ReportHost's product. I had Jim speak at the Bellingham NACHI Chapter meeting. He is welcome at all http://www.nachi.org/events.htm His press-releases are on our site. His stuff is at our meetings. I like his product and tell people so. He uses this board to advertise. All good. But we are the largest home inspection association in the world and now insist that no one falsely claim otherwise. Least of all one of the vendors we work with so closesly. We let ASHI have that title for many years because it was true. Now we have it and it is only fair that SPREI, ASHI, or the Inspectors Association of Mayberry, USA stop saying otherwise.
Originally Posted By: dfrend This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Now that I have to pay for the product, I still use it. I’ll be honest Jim, at first I signed up because it was free, so I figured to give it a shot and then I could spend some time deciding which product out there to buy. Then I used it. My first client that got the report loved it. My first testimonial! Then I got a referal from my next ustomer based heavily on the report.
To be honest it was a little difficult to get the way I wanted, and had a big learning curve. But most software does. Oh well, I got used to it. I would only add one feature, but that's probably not do-able.
Point is, good product Jim. I was wondering how you made any money with the free reports, but I think I know now. If you are not making much you will be. You entice me in with freebies, then I can't leave cause it makes my clients happy and I am thrilled with it.
Keep it up.
PS....The customer service? Come on, can't be beat. Only company I have seen that will change major things the next day at request of one or two.
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I am now completed with the free reports also. Have gotten many compliments on my reports.
Will stick with it but wish there was a way to make if a little faster to use. On average it takes 2-3 hours to complete a report, and I have a fast internet connection. Usually takes 1/2 hr to upload photo’s, 1/4 hr to write photo descriptions.
Takes at least 45 min overall time to pick photo’s to use and insert them. A couple of suggestions would be the ability to batch upload photo’s instead of having to go and pick each one and place it to be batch uploaded.
Another would be to use thumbnails instead of the full photo’s on the “photos” link page. That way all the photo’s would be visible and one wouldn’t have to scroll down to see what number a photo is to insert into the report.
Customer service is excellent, and they even spent time helping me out with my own website.
Originally Posted By: jgallant This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Thanks for the thoughts on thread-drift. Given how old the text on my All Point site was, it’s likely that the comment about ASHI being the largest was accurate when I added that text. Thus the term “cob-website”.
Regarding the time it takes to write reports. Funny, I just PM'd someone to give them a link to a report that I *just* finished writing. It took me 40 minutes to write this report:
That includes uploading the digital pictures. (note that the client's name and property address have been X'd out. I'm on DSL, just so you know. Some tips on speeding things up with ReportHost:
1. Put your pictures in-line and compose them well so you don't need to write picture captions.
2. Take time to customize your data. I know, it takes a while, but it does with all software and it pays off.
3. Don't copy your digital pictures to your computer from your camera before resizing them. I point the Irfanview picture resizing program write to my camera as removable drive when resizing pictures.
Please email us at ReportHost at any time if you have questions or feature requests. So what features do you want? Just tell me.
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I think I sent this to you before, but I’d like to see the availablility of including new sections in the boiler plate report from items you’ve actually added in a report. Sounds confusing, but it’s not meant to. Not sure if the technology is there or not.
What I’m saying is say you are writing up a new statement in the actual report and would like this new statement to be included in your boiler plate items in the section you’re in. Click a check box and bingo, it’s added to your boiler plate automatically for use the next time you write a report.
In this way you’re boiler plate can grow as you come up with new deficiencies.
Originally Posted By: loconnor This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Great idea Kevin. But can’t we do that now?
I thought we could add our own comments and save them
on our reports. I must be mistaken. I have not worked with the
program in a while and need to get back there.
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Maybe Jim could correct me if I am mistaken, but I don’t think so.
Right now, in order to change anything in the boilerplate, you have to go into the boilerplate section and add them as a seperate step apart from your report.
I mean you can make comments and add different sections to a report, but it doesn’t get saved for future use.
Originally Posted By: loconnor This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Kevin
When you say "boilerplate" section, do you mean going into the main sections of the report.? I thought that was where we could make our "comment" additions.
I'm going back to the site tomorrow and and experiment a little.
Originally Posted By: rsummers This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Wow Jim 40 minutes is amazing it takes me 2-3 hours to do my Reports. I don’t use very many of the concerns that are in the concern sections though. I don’t want all my Reports to look the same Realtors pick up on this if they see the same exact wording on each report that is done. I wright mine in Word and copy and paste them in to the reports then add the pictures. I don’t always use Report Host but have to with some of my clients they insist on it.
Originally Posted By: jgallant This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Kevin,
We may want to take this discussion off-line, but the main reason that we haven't implemented what you suggest is the problem of how to assign field notes line numbers and horizontal positions to the new concerns when you save the report section while writing the report. IT's already a pretty heavy page, and to add yet more controls would be at least confusing if not more likely to make the page slow to render. Got any ideas on reasonable ways to solve this user-interface-wise?
Personally I tend to have a text file always in progress with an icon for it on my desktop. I tend to copy these "new" concerns to it while writing reports, or reviewing existing reports. Then every once in a while I go edit my report information, and sometimes the default ReportHost information.
Rolland,
I don't hesitate to use the same text for the same problems I find at different properties. I like to try to specifiy how many and where if possible of the given problem, but if the text is accurate, meaningful and helpful, then why purposely reword it every time? When you say "realtors pick up on this", I'm curious, what comments have you gotten in these regards?