Droid app to follow…one thing at a time. I have kids and other hobbies besides work…not like other people on this message board. 
I do not understand the ways of your people.
You are saying there are things outside of Inspection?
Horizon is compatible with the IPads, and Iphones.
looks interesting, wonder if it email, or website freindly?
You send them a PDF.
It is web based.
Used it before HIP.
IMO Horizon is my second choice $$$ aside.
I’ve used Home Gauge for 5 years with great success. I do inspections on a PDA (Ipaq 211) can’t beat it. I’ve tried the notepads and laptops but nothing beats a PDA with instant on/off in your back pocket, ready to go. Works great on residential or commercial, voice notation if you are in a tight spot and don’t have time to enter a comment, it’s just simply amazing, the best!!! I use HIP for some of my thermal building moisture intrusion inspection reports. Try the free trial versions and decide for yourself.
New guy here, 2nd post here, but the school im attending handed out Home Gauge, 3D and Palm-Tech so far I’m a home gauge fan hands down. Would really like to see the PDA function or an iPhone / iPad app sometime soon, but it goes back to would i want to use my iPhone or iPad on every inspection ? Prolly not, i’ll take the PDA for the price. Will be checking out the other programs though. Home Inspector pro seems like a huge winner for the market and they have e mailed and called me a few times when i had questions… They are next on my list to work with.
What school is that Patrick ?
Right in your neighborhood.
Better set them straight.
So…the comment from my 21 yr old tech-savy son yesterday, “Don’t do you inspection’s on your phone…the’ll think your texting”! To be honest with you, he has a point.
Patrick…all good choices…test them; and go with what works for your. Let me say this…right out of the box HIP has an excellent layout; they make bad inspectors look good! Support is 2nd to none!
3D also has a very good report writing section, but be prepared for a steeper learning curve. With 3D…right out of the box (unlike HIP), your report layouts looks like $%^&. But you can make it look excellent. I can always tell the guys who use 3D and never modifed anything. They should be out of business.
PalmTech has a little catching up to do…IMO. I feel like it was pulled off my typewriter.
The important thing to remember is, "How is my final report going to look? Is it easy to read? How easy it to find the important information on the page? Obviously, you need a program that you can navigate well.
Do sample reports…give them to freinds and relatives; have them tell you what they like.
HomeGauge has a Droid version coming soon, but version 5 will add some cool features as well to the main version.
Nick really wants the reader to see HomeGauge last in their memory so they won’t forget.
Actually I recommend new inspectors review the software in Nicks order so when they get to HomeGauge they can call us to purchase. Thanks Nick
I see yet another copy of HG is being sold by a Inspector for $300 at the moment. .lol
Good strategy Russell. I see you and Sean have been at this for over 10 years!!! How did you come up with the idea for Home inspection report software? Were there any competitors out there at that time?
No Linas…as you may know I am a home inspector and our software was developed by a home inspector. Over the last 10 years our software has evolved from thousands of inspectors like you requesting ideas and features so its because of inspectors who contribute like yourself that HomeGauge continues to be the leader in the industry. Regardless of unqualified recommendations we have over 9000 that has purchased HG with 4800 who wants to receive our News Alerts each month!
We want to get out version 5 real soon which will be yet another leap in innovation with interactive reports. Then after that, probably around first of next year in spring we will release 5.x that will revolutionize report writing designed for all to finish the report ON SITE!
Sounds like a real deal Bob. If I were you i would buy it. or show me the link so i can help sell it.
Linas and Russ,
When I decided to start selling inspection report software in 1999, there were very few choices. HomeTec’s and AHIT’s paper reports were still very big at the time. It was the lack of computer based reports that motivated us to create our first computer based reports. There were two or three out there but they were very expensive. A friend of mine who had been selling books on eBay suggested that I try selling on eBay. Anotehr inspector, Marko “Cleveland Mold” Vovk, and I both started selling report software at around the same time for $39.95 on eBay. For the first year or so, we both kept our prices at $39.95. Ebay was growing by leaps and bounds between 2000 and 2006 and so did we. For at least three solid years, we had almost no competition on eBay.
By 2001, it was becoming obvious that there was a demand for more automation with report writing but there were still very few publishers of report software. In a real twist of fate, we were selling a PDF report to compete against AHIT and Hometec’s paper reports but they got off to a slow start because hardly anyone knew what PDF was.
In yet another twist of fate, by 2003 we were selling lots of reports in the $100 range but we were also getting lots of requests for more features. I had recently become aware of HomeGauge which cost several hundred dollars more than my software at the time. I had had one or two conversations with Sean on phone. He seemed like a good guy so I started sending inspectors to HomeGauge. I was sending a lot of inspectors to HomeGauge but inspectors were looking for something in between. We did some research, determined that the void in the market could be filled at around the $300 price point and the rest is history.
Russ may not remember this but in February 2007, after I had been selling inspection software for seven years, Russ, Sean and I were having a conversation at a convention. By this time, Russ had known me casually for probably three years. Russ, being the nice guy he is, probably didn’t remember me at all from one event to the next but was always polite and friendly to me. During our conversation, Sean said something that made Russ finally realize who I was. He stepped back, looked at me and said something like “You’re the guy who sells on eBay!” Sean confirmed that I was “the guy” Russ made a few comments that suggested to me that he still thought we were new to the business. By 2007, the market’s perception of eBay and eBay sellers had clearly shifted away from what it had once been. I made the decision right then and there to start putting some distance between myself and eBay.