Tap inspect I-phone app

[Kirk Kloepfer]

Hi My name is Kirk, I'm thinking of becoming semi retired from the building trades after 40 years. Home inspection will give me an added income. My question is has anyone used the I-phone app Tap inspect, would like to know the pros and cons. Or is there any other smart phone based app that is good. Thanks :)

[Jim Ayton]

I have been testing it for a little while and recently used it for a paid insp. It worked good for me. I will probably buy it.

[Kirk Kloepfer]

Thanks for your reply, have you tried others?

[Jim Ayton]

I started my business nine years ago when handwritten reports were the norm, about four years ago I quit due to the downturn in the economy. I am now starting back up however, I am using my iPad to do everything including write my reports. Tap Inspect works very good with the iPad as well as the iPhone. I looked at some other systems and they all are very similar. I like the Tap inspect billing and purchasing system and I like the fact that they give you five free reports to try it out. The one inspection I did with this made a very good report and the client loved it.

[Jack Feldmann]

What do they charge for the full version, or is it by the report?

[Matt Kiefer]

The app worked great for me. My clients really liked the reports it generated with the photos and summary page. I have not tried any others.

[Jim Ayton]

Here's the deal, you get five free reports to use whenever you want, they are exactly like the full reports that you purchase. When you want to buy the program it is $125 for 25 reports per year or you can get unlimited reports for $60 per month. It's very easy to add pictures from your iPhone/iPad or from a SD card from another camera that has a flash. You can use their comment library or make your own, I use my dictation feature as I am right now and it works very well, I only have to go back and correct a few typo errors. You can then email a finished PDF report to as many people as you want.

[Jack Feldmann]

Seems kind of high for a software program.

[Jim Ayton]

Here's the deal, you get five free reports to use whenever you want, they are exactly like the full reports that you purchase. When you want to buy the program it is $125 for 25 reports per year or you can get unlimited reports for $60 per month. It's very easy to add pictures from your iPhone/iPad or from a SD card from another camera that has a flash. You can use their comment library or make your own, I use my dictation feature as I am right now and it works very well, I only have to go back and correct a few typo errors. You can then email a finished PDF report to as many people as you want.

[Jim Ayton]

It comes out to about five dollars per report on the $125 plan. Any idea how much "Home Inspector Pro" costs? In the old days I paid $20 per hand written report.

[Jim Ayton]

Sorry, double posted.

[Jack Feldmann]

If I was only doing 25 inspections a year, I wouldn't bother. $60 per month is $720 a year. That's pretty high.

Personally I wouldn't want to drag my i-pad or i-phone into dirty crawlspaces for photos.

[Jim Ayton]

You you make a really good point Jack, I guess I'm just starting out and the 25 will probably do me for a while, but I will have to look deeper into it, thanks

[Jim Ayton]

I agree about not taking the iPad into a crawlspace or up on a roof that's why I have a small Kodak camera (12mp) with a flash and a SD card chip that I can easily insert into an adapter for the iPad.

[Raymond Wand]

Horizon Report will work on an iPad, android, or your laptop or smart phone.

It's web based.

Home Inspection Reporting | Carson Dunlop (http://www.carsondunlop.com/report-writing/)

[Jack Feldmann]

Jim,
My mistake (I think)...it appears that you can buy inspections in blocks of 25 and they are "good" for a year. When I first saw it, I thought it meant that you could only "get" 25 inspections for the year at that price.

[Michael Wirth]

Jack is correct and we are sorry about any confusion about the pricing.

We offer two subscription plans if you need more than the 5 free reports.

The Pay as You Go plan lets you purchase blocks of 25 reports at $5 each for $125. You can choose to 'recharge' or buy another block of 25 reports or not. There is no monthly ongoing fee.

The Monthly Unlimited subscription is a monthly flat fee and there is no limit to the number reports you can publish to the web for your clients.

If you do more than 150 inspections a year the Monthly subscription is cheaper and if you are doing 300 inspections it works out to about $2.40 per report.

You are free to change plans as your business grows or slows.

[Jim Ayton]

Thank you for helping me get this straight Michael, The last thing I want to do is not put out the correct information.

[Dominic Maricic]

It comes out to about five dollars per report on the $125 plan. Any idea how much "Home Inspector Pro" costs? In the old days I paid $20 per hand written report.

$599 right now ($50 off sale). ASHI & InterNACHI members save another $100 making it $499 (unlimited number of inspections). Average part time inspector does 150 inspections a year, full time does around 300 (some doing many more). So at 150 inspections you're paying $750 a year ($2250 over 3 years). At 300 inspections a year you're spending $1500 a year ($4500 over 3 years). This is why paying up front makes so much more sense!

[Michael Wirth]

.. So at 150 inspections you're paying $750 a year ($2250 over 3 years). At 300 inspections a year you're spending $1500 a year ($4500 over 3 years). This is why paying up front makes so much more sense!

That's not quite accurate Dom.

Tap Inspect subscribers in the 100-200 jobs a year range do use the Pay As You Go option at $5.00 per report. They seem to like the idea of knowing when they are spending the money and simply put $5 of each inspection fee aside. Just like mileage or marketing expenses.

They tend to recharge once or twice in the summer so the they don't pay anything over the winter.

However, the Monthly Unlimited Plan is just that, Unlimited. If you do 200, 300 or 500 jobs a year it still only costs $60 a month.

For these subscribers time is their most valuable asset. Since we handle the archiving of reports, archiving photos, final delivery and notification that reports have been picked up they can get much more done in less time.

[Dominic Maricic]

That's not quite accurate Dom.

Tap Inspect subscribers in the 100-200 jobs a year range do use the Pay As You Go option at $5.00 per report. They seem to like the idea of knowing when they are spending the money and simply put $5 of each inspection fee aside. Just like mileage or marketing expenses.

They tend to recharge once or twice in the summer so the they don't pay anything over the winter.

However, the Monthly Unlimited Plan is just that, Unlimited. If you do 200, 300 or 500 jobs a year it still only costs $60 a month.

For these subscribers time is their most valuable asset. Since we handle the archiving of reports, archiving photos, final delivery and notification that reports have been picked up they can get much more done in less time.

Sorry Mike, I didn't scroll down far enough to see your post about the monthly fee option.

[Aaron Frasher]

I use Tap inspect and I love it and so do my realtors and clients. I use a IPad with a Armored Survior case on it. I do not take it under a house or in the attic I take my pics with a old digital cannon then load them onto my IPad. Every time I have called with a question Michael Wirth has answered the phone and helped me out right then. Customer support is A+. It is so easy to add or subtract anything on the report. I know about 5 inspectors that use Tap inspect and they would all say the same thing. Thanks Michael :)