I wanted to take a minute to review Inspector Toolbelt. First off I do not often do this but given the way Inspector Toolbelt has changed my business I felt I should. Just a quick who I am so you have some perspective, full time inspector and mold assessor and septic specialist. I have spent thousands on inspection program software and have learned inside and out three other major software programs for inspectors. I also teach continuing education for inspectors, agents,and appraisers, so I stay up on the industry.
I have been using Inspector Toolbelt since December of 21, and have waited for five months before reviewing it because I really wanted to see how it performed and not just in the acted short term. I can honestly say it performs amazing. It has cut my report writing time in half. I can spend more time focusing on my clients and my inspection and less time on the program. I find it intuitive to use and very fast to come up to speed with. The support it great if an issue comes up, and so far the updates have all added useful features that increase productivity and not just bloated downloads that slow things down and I never used. I will give you my perspecrtive.
First I feel like this is a software designed by inspectors for inspectors. The other systems I have used were good, but they always felt like I was dealing with a computer guys take on what I needed and their reality is very different from ours. This whole format is so easy to use, I learned the basics in just a few hours of playing around with it, and in less than a week I had my templates up and running the way I like them. The rating system is excellent and the library of comments that come standard will cover just about any situation you are likely to run into. Personally I like my own wording so I tend to write my own standard descriptions and comments and I can save them easily so after a few months of use I have my own library of personalized comments and descriptions right at my finger tips. I love this feature because it cuts down on redundant report writing. On all three of the other softwares this was a possibility but it was complicated to achieve, many times it involved sitting at a computer for and hour or two to do basic template edits. Not so with Inspector Toolbelt.
Which leads me to the second thing I love about Inspector Toolbelt, it is web based, so there is no downloading and updating big apps or programs on my computer. I can access and edit inspections from my phone, IPad or laptop and send them to clients without having to go home and sit at my desktop and edit or send. This saves me anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour per inspection report, and that’s huge. Also, I run a Mac, one of my other programs was PC based. It was possible to run it on my Mac but I had to run Parallels and the software at the same time, it set up a huge amount or memory and was so slow it really discouraged editing or improving my templates. Not Inspector Toolbelt. Because it is web based it crosses all platforms easily and does not eat up huge amounts of RAM or memory.
I really like the way the front end features work. Starting a new inspection is easy and I can set it up to send out all my pre inspection agreements and contact emails as well. I am paying for another subscription right now that does that automatically for me and it’s worth the money because of how much time it saves me, but I love how Inspector Toolbelt incudes it with the monthly subscription. I think this may be the most under appreciated feature of all. If you learn how to use this it could save you a huge amount of time per inspection with the office side of things. I really like it.
There is a downside to be aware of. Inspector Toolbelt is designed to work with more up to date phones, tablets, and computers, so if you are like me and try not to spend on electronics it might not work great for you. You may have to upgrade, I used the same iPhone for years, and honestly I hate doing it, but the industry almost forces us to every few tears anyway. However, I like the support, and the feed back option. I sent an email to the support team asking if it would be possible to add a feature to put text onto photos taken for the inspection. Low an behold it was on the very next update! So even though i had to get a new phone I to get it to run well I think it was worth it because of how much time I am saving in the field.
So although I am really impressed with Inspector Toolbelt I don’t think it’s for everyone. If you are a hobby inspector who only does a few inspections a month for friends and family you might not find it worth the time to switch. But, if you are a Pro, focused on building a solid business and giving the maximum attention to your client, doing a great inspection and putting out a great report in the most efficient way possible Injust don’t think you can do better. Inspector Toolbelt is hands down the best software I have ever used.
Thank you very much for your thorough and honest review of our app! Having a true leader in our field give such a glowing review makes the years of painstaking effort to build Inspector Toolbelt well worth it.
Please keep the feedback and requests coming. We’re determined to keep on improving with each build!
From the whole team here at ITB, we’re proud to be your technology partner 🤜🤛😎