How to switch from 3D Inspection System to Househound

3D Inspection System doesn't publish a procedure for exporting to other software, so the job here is to make sure your records outlive the PC they're on:

• Back up your 3D data. 3D's comparison chart lists "easy backup of 3D data" in the Premier edition. Make a backup and keep a copy off that computer. If you're not sure how, ask 3D support; we couldn't find the steps on its site.
• Save report PDFs. 3D outputs reports as PDF, print or email. Save a PDF of every report your state or your insurer expects you to keep.
• Clients and agents. No contacts export is published. Ask 3D support how to get your client list out as a spreadsheet.

Keep the computer that runs 3D working for now. 3D's renewal page warns that older versions may not activate on a new computer, and activation help is a subscriber benefit.

Choose 1 to 3 finished reports with the most findings, and save each as a PDF. A long report on an older house carries more of your phrase wording than a short one. If you use different 3D forms for different jobs (home, condo, commercial), save one report from each. Each file becomes its own Househound template.

Skip forms Househound can't replace, such as a state WDO form. Use the NPMA-33 form in Househound if your market accepts it. Skip TREC reports too: Househound has its own TREC REI 7-6 report type, so there's nothing to import for it.

Sign up on the web at househoundusa.com/signup from any browser, Windows included. Your first 3 reports are free and no card is needed. Then install the iPhone, iPad or Android app and sign in.

Open Templates and choose Import, or use the Templates step in the setup wizard. Drop up to 10 PDFs at once, each up to 20 MB. A PDF with many embedded photos can pass 20 MB; if one does, pick a report with fewer photos.

Autodraft reads each file into a template of areas, items and comments. The import keeps running if you close the page. Import, and all template editing, happens on the web dashboard rather than in the phone apps.

A template read from a PDF is a draft. Open it and check:

• area and item names, and their order
• each comment's type (informational, limitation or deficiency) and, for deficiencies, the severity (major, moderate or minor)
• wording specific to the house the report came from, such as an address, that should read as general

Every comment also lands in the comment library. In 3D you picked phrases at the desk; in Househound the library is on the phone during the inspection, and Autodraft can turn a spoken note into a drafted finding from it for you to approve.

3D's published features don't include online booking, e-signed agreements or client payments, so you set these up from scratch:

• Services: Settings › Services & pricing.
• Agreement: Automations › Agreements. Upload your agreement file or paste its text. It goes to the client 48 hours before the inspection by default, and you can require a signature before the report can be published.
• Email: Automations › Email. Booking confirmations, reminders, report ready and follow-up emails go out on their own once set.
• Booking page: Settings › Booking page. Clients request a time and you approve it.
• Payments: Settings › Services & pricing › Set up payments. Invoices go out by email with a card payment link, and money goes to your own Stripe account. The fee is 3.25% + 40¢ per card payment and includes Stripe's processing.

Both are on the web dashboard, which runs in the browser on the same Windows PC.

• Clients and agents: if 3D support gets your client list out as a spreadsheet, open People, then Clients or Agents, and choose Import contacts…. Pick the CSV or Excel file (up to 5,000 rows), map each column (name, email, phone, company, type, notes), check the preview and choose what untyped rows become. A contact whose email is already saved is updated rather than duplicated, and every skipped row is listed with the reason.
• Past reports: open Reports › Archive › Past reports and upload the PDFs you saved from 3D, up to 50 at a time and 50 MB each. Househound reads the address, client, email and date from each PDF, and you can correct them. They're read-only: you can search, open, download, copy a share link or email one to the client, but they don't become Househound inspections.

This is the biggest change. In 3D, jobs are pushed from the desktop to 3D Mobile and pulled back through Cloud3D. In Househound, inspections within a week of today download to the phone on their own, you write the whole report there with or without signal, and you publish from the phone or the web dashboard. Write one ordinary inspection that way and note each phrase you reach for that isn't in the library.

Add your Househound booking page link, or its embed code, to your website. Keep taking phone bookings the way you do now if you prefer; you can enter those jobs in Househound yourself.

3D's subscription is optional. Per 3D, the desktop program keeps working without it, but you lose Cloud3D (3D Mobile transfers), current installers, activation help on new computers and the included support sessions. If you only need 3D to open old reports and fill state WDO forms on the same PC, you may not need to renew. If you'll replace that computer soon, renewing ($249 a year) keeps activation help available.