Jim Katen Posted July 30, 2014 Report Posted July 30, 2014 I don't have a problem with a one-time plug for Spectacular, especially since it directly addressed the query in the original post. That said, I went to the site and looked at the sample report. It's spectacularly bad. This software might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I'll never know because I ran screaming from the sample.
Marc Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Man, you guys are tough. Two posts and I've already been threatened twice with deletion. Barry asked a question and I have an answer. I did not advertise, I informed. Spectacular does not need to advertise on message boards. I've been reading Inspector's Journal basically all year long, so after seeing Barry's post, I decided to sign up and respond. I certainly do not feel welcomed here. I am a part of the home inspection industry and I build home inspection software. We've been in business about 4.5 years and the popularity of Spectacular is finally starting to grow and I simply wanted to share. Spectacular is not solely for "part-timers or noobs" which is probably an insult to Barry. Spectacular has a range of clients from part-timers to full timers and with the release coming in a couple weeks, we can now service multi-inspector firms. It is for iPad only right now because we aim to built great software on one platform than build mediocre software for multiple platforms. I tend to frown on people who come here and join just to sell something. It's not why I joined. It's not why I visit. Marc
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 I agree on the one time plug that addressed a specific question. The guy's welcome here if they want to talk report systems, but not if it's another sales pitch. I tend to turn off to claims of spectacular anything, and definitely turn off when that's the actual name of the system. sheesh....... After that, I just get bored with still yet another HI report software system, especially when it's just like all the other systems I find objectionable on multiple levels. Why the heck would anyone in software go after the tiniest market there is, where the clientele is almost all computer illiterate old guys?
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 I don't have a problem with a one-time plug for Spectacular, especially since it directly addressed the query in the original post. That said, I went to the site and looked at the sample report. It's spectacularly bad. This software might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I'll never know because I ran screaming from the sample. Hey Jim, Thanks for looking up Spectacular... What's so bad about the sample report? Can you elaborate? Agents call it the cleanest and most legible report in the industry. thanks, Aaron
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Man, you guys are tough. Two posts and I've already been threatened twice with deletion. Barry asked a question and I have an answer. I did not advertise, I informed. Spectacular does not need to advertise on message boards. I've been reading Inspector's Journal basically all year long, so after seeing Barry's post, I decided to sign up and respond. I certainly do not feel welcomed here. I am a part of the home inspection industry and I build home inspection software. We've been in business about 4.5 years and the popularity of Spectacular is finally starting to grow and I simply wanted to share. Spectacular is not solely for "part-timers or noobs" which is probably an insult to Barry. Spectacular has a range of clients from part-timers to full timers and with the release coming in a couple weeks, we can now service multi-inspector firms. It is for iPad only right now because we aim to built great software on one platform than build mediocre software for multiple platforms. I tend to frown on people who come here and join just to sell something. It's not why I joined. It's not why I visit. Marc Hey Marc, I can picture you frowning.. Don't worry though... I'm not selling you anything. Like I said earlier, I simply answered Barry's question. Nobody's gonna buy Spectacular from reading my posts.. It was simply information...
Bill Kibbel Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Agents call it the cleanest and most legible report in the industry. You just condemned your system to all experienced and ethical inspectors.
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Yeah, that one's kinda damning with faint praise. Inasmuch as the competition is completely idiotic, I could see where realtors might think this is ok.
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 I went back thru the sample report again. It really is spectacularly bad, which I predict will make it a hit with a lot of home inspectors. The awful parts.... 1) There's no calls being made. It's the usual "appears to be xyz, talk to some other person about what it means." 2) Incoherent format. Where's the report? It's scattered throughout a lot of useless boilerplate. When found, there's no useful information. I now understand why agents love it. It's the perfect system for 1989. But wait! It's on an iPad!! And it takes so little time to generate the report, agents will love you and you still have time to get in a round of golf before dinner! I'm sure you're all as earnest and wonderful as your "About Us" page indicates, but this is just another elementary db layout report system that has managed to incorporate all the bad elements of every other report system, while adding a few new wrinkles of your own. Woof......
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 ...and definitely turn off when that's the actual name of the system. sheesh....... The original name was going to be Inspectacular but that sounded like not-spectacular, so we just named it Spectacular. The name definitely keeps us motivated to make it as such. No software or anything is perfect, but we still aim to get as close to perfect as possible... Why the heck would anyone in software go after the tiniest market there is, where the clientele is almost all computer illiterate old guys? ...because of the challenge.
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 1) There's no calls being made. It's the usual "appears to be xyz, talk to some other person about what it means." 2) Incoherent format. Where's the report? It's scattered throughout a lot of useless boilerplate. When found, there's no useful information. ahhh, So you don't like the inspectors' comments. Got it.. All the boilerplate is 100% modifiable. You can definitely bring in any comment library you choose. Even if you've used your set of comments for 20+ years in Word. ...this is just another elementary db layout report system that has managed to incorporate all the bad elements of every other report system, while adding a few new wrinkles of your own. Woof...... At this stage in the game, Spectacular just wants to do what all the other home inspector programs do, but much better and much more gracefully. Next year, we will innovate. Lots of fresh new ideas you've never seen or heard of are coming...
Jim Katen Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 I don't have a problem with a one-time plug for Spectacular, especially since it directly addressed the query in the original post. That said, I went to the site and looked at the sample report. It's spectacularly bad. This software might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I'll never know because I ran screaming from the sample. Hey Jim, Thanks for looking up Spectacular... What's so bad about the sample report? Can you elaborate? Agents call it the cleanest and most legible report in the industry. thanks, Aaron First, agents really aren't the best people to judge this. If you don't know why, you don't know much about home inspections. Second, agents say stuff like that to their favorite inspectors all the time. It's part of the culture of salesmanship. As for your report, I'd be willing to work on a full critique if you want to pay me to do so. But here's a freebie: Item #2: - The dryer vent terminates under the FAU plenum. This is not an accepted practice as the vent can split at the seems under the furnace and lint can be sucked up through the ducts terminating at interior register locations. We recommend reconfiguration." This bit of writing is putrid. * What customer is going to know what the heck a "FAU plenum" is? * Too bad about that vent splitting at the seems, eh? * And how about that lint "terminating" at "interior register locations"? This is the kind of thing written by sub-literate people who are attempting, unsuccessfully, to sound important. It's not just a boilerplate problem. It's a logical thinking problem.
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Next year, we will innovate. Lots of fresh new ideas you've never seen or heard of are coming... I'm up for anyone that will improve HI reporting, although I wonder what whiz bang innovations are necessary to get across very simple ideas with simple comments and a couple pictures.....(?). You're entering territory I'm not sure you understand. I trust you know your way around software, but the problems in HI reportage are not software or hardware based.
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 You just condemned your system to all experienced and ethical inspectors. Hey Bill, I respectfully must disagree. After you've added the comments, disclaimers and conditions, I would hope you'd want to present them in a easily readable format. It's the agents and clients that must read the thing. Why not make it easy for them. That's what Spectacular aims to do. Present your comments and photos in an easy to follow format.
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 As for your report, I'd be willing to work on a full critique if you want to pay me to do so. No Jim, I'm not paying you. Especially after you insulted the sample report. You must distinguish between the comments in the report and the report structure and layout. The inspector can write and modify comments for any item in the report. The software provides the structure. It seems you have a problem with the verbiage the inspector used in the sample. Spectacular does provide some comments out-of-the-box, but it's definitely up to the inspector using the app to make sure what's added to the report is satisfactory in his/her eye.
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 But, it's not an easily readable format. I had to have a notepad next to me as I worked my way down through seemingly random commentary interspersed with amazing amounts of useless information. The Executive Summary page was incomprehensible; something about a furnace that didn't make any sense at all within the context of anything. It is almost unreadable. Forget the actual comments; we all understand that boilerplate is editable to one's desire. What you guys don't understand is that everyone...realtors, clients, everyone....likes whatever you hand them. Doesn't matter what you hand them, they like it because they have little to no understanding of anything. Some of the smartest guys in the business (Cramer, specifically, who knows more about report writing than just about anyone), know this. We all know this. If you want to actually know what you got, you have to deliver a structured poll with multiple examples of different report styles in different settings. You're operating off of realtor/client smiling ignorance and thinking it's a stamp of authority. You'll get some business. Everyone does. People even buy the Horizon system. Everything sells, because you're market is a bunch of old guy computer illiterates with no understanding or competence in written communication. Because the business if full of those people, you might even hang around a while, but you got some really stiff competition in much better considered DB systems. Good luck.
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Kurt, In your opinion, which software system has the best report?
Marc Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 As for your report, I'd be willing to work on a full critique if you want to pay me to do so. No Jim, I'm not paying you. Especially after you insulted the sample report. You must distinguish between the comments in the report and the report structure and layout. The inspector can write and modify comments for any item in the report. The software provides the structure. It seems you have a problem with the verbiage the inspector used in the sample. Spectacular does provide some comments out-of-the-box, but it's definitely up to the inspector using the app to make sure what's added to the report is satisfactory in his/her eye. I looked it over. You don't yet know a good report when you see one. The features come up short, too limited. Empty spaces, large photos and other things yield too many pages for the amount of info within. Download Attachment: SampleReport.17.09.2013.pdf 1185?KB Granted, it isn't bad but I'd never buy it, or any. I use Word. Still don't like folks posting here just to sell something. There are proper avenues. Now are you going to stop it or will you keep nagging us? It's rhetorical. Marc
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Nice report Marc! That must've took many hours to do in Word. That report could've been done in Spectacular including pictures with the comments and edited photos. Spectacular has a built-in photo editor. Also, the report could've been built in a fraction of the time than doing it in Word. Word is general-purpose, so by nature it would take lots more time than a home inspection app tailored for that purpose. Again, I'm not selling you, I'm just telling you.
Marc Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Nice report Marc! That must've took many hours to do in Word. That report could've been done in Spectacular including pictures with the comments and edited photos. Spectacular has a built-in photo editor. Also, the report could've been built in a fraction of the time than doing it in Word. Word is general-purpose, so by nature it would take lots more time than a home inspection app tailored for that purpose. Again, I'm not selling you, I'm just telling you. He won't quit. Marc
kurt Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Kurt, In your opinion, which software system has the best report? First, understand I have very specific ideas predicated on several (like 20) years of polling, research, and experimentation in several systems, along with specific investigations with experts in the field of written communication. I'm not going to say which one is best, because such a thing doesn't exist yet. I'd break them into a couple categories..... 1) Word based. Inspect Express is pretty good. Make it up anyway you want. 2) Database, I'd probably go HomeGauge. Endlessly malleable to several forms. 3) Dictated/written narrative. If the office is set up and there's a team to help put it together, and one knows how to dictate without gumming it all up with mountains of unnecessary blather, direct communication from the inspector to the client in a simple written narrative is pretty damn effective. I think there should be a pictorial summary for this form, with crisply notated pics summarizing what the dictation notes. This is a high skill set way to develop reports, and not what "average" home inspectors can accomplish. There's mine, which I don't tout as best at all, but it's been developed over two decades to meet very specific reporting needs. I separate out the descriptions and building inventory stuff from the list of defects and concerns. The report is the summary is the report. My client is largely young professionals, and they really just plain don't care about materials or where they're located. I only do inventories because my SOP says I have to. My inventories are set up in relational portals with tables and value lists. I do it that way as it minimizes the number of fields and vastly reduces the size of my files. 2000 inspections only takes up about 400mb of disk space. Separating the inventory items from the list of defects scored highest, by far, in my market research. When you get a report from me, it's a list of defects, categorized as Major, Minor, Get More Information, and FYI. I've played with various icons denoting these categories. Icons are silly, and people really like them. I use them because my research says people like them. Pictures. My software is more image management than anything else. Research said people want and like lots of pictures, so people get lots of pictures. My reports are photojournals with narrative. I can bulk import, sort, edit, and manage pics in large volume and present them in multiple formats. I developed and used a HomeGauge like comic strip from which I can drag and drop pics into specific comments (long before HomeGauge was even around). I have a sorting file where I can take up to 128 images and sort them into order, then present them in a couple different layouts with comments. I could have more, but the programming got tedious and I just stopped at 128 because that's how many portals I set up. Interface. Nothing more and nothing less than what I need. There isn't an interface out there that's as simple and fast as mine. If the interface is lousy, the whole system is too. Billing and accounting. I have a simplified module to keep track of anything from a single inspection to ongoing consulting work including invoicing. Scheduling. Very simple. Today's inspections and >than today's inspections. Tap a button and find today, tap another and see the lineup. Graphic and Comment Libraries. A decent system should have both. I have both, relationally linked to the report system. Choose a pic or comment, tap it, it goes into the report. Form letters. I've got a dozen or so. Once a clients info is collected, I can send out any number of letters for whatever it is I want to send out. Word Processing. Yeah, I do that in my database too. Sometimes I write narratives. I can word search just about anything out of a report to develop stats to inform me and my customers. Some folks think stats are silly. I've learned they're not. Downsides.... Filemaker makes big bulky .pdf files. Oh well. I can't do fancy stuff like some of the other systems with uploads and downloads to their sites with payment options. I could develop that, but I just email my reports and take cc's or checks at the site. It's easiest. So, the best system would be one that contained most of what I just described.
ajohnson11 Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 Got it... Thanks for the detailed answer. Do you have a sample report posted somewhere?
Bill Kibbel Posted July 31, 2014 Report Posted July 31, 2014 We have always done Kurt's #3. I've dictated every report for 28 years. We have secretaries and stay-at-home working Moms that do an excellent job at typing up professional reports very quickly. Each report describes precisely what's going on in the building inspected, exactly like it was explained on-site. Unlike software, they know how to type what I meant to say with no grammatical or spelling errors. Editing and dropping in pics and diagrams takes a couple minutes. I've never had to edit boilerplate comments or select text from menus. I'll bet we knock out reports quicker than anyone fiddling with a portable electronic device.
kurt Posted August 1, 2014 Report Posted August 1, 2014 I bet you do. An office staff working together with a skilled inspector that can dictate is a nice way to do it. I hate posting sample reports; home inspectors, in general, provide lousy insights into the process. I don't even talk about it except in TIJ. There's some old samples on my site. My site is screwed up somehow, I can't put up my new stuff, my web genius is now in another business, and I'm figuring out my next web move.
kurt Posted August 1, 2014 Report Posted August 1, 2014 Marc's report is nice. Simple, direct. You can punch in anywhere and know what he's talking about and what it means. Personally, I'd shave the verbiage down even more.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now