How to switch from Spectora to Househound

In Spectora, go to Templates → My Templates, open the template, click the three dots in the top right, choose Export to spreadsheet, pick Export Plain Text, then Download File (Spectora: How to export a template). Repeat for every template you use: home, condo, commercial, each one is its own file.

If you don't see the export option, your account needs the Edit Template permission, which an administrator turns on under Settings → Teams.

Either text option works. Both give you the same spreadsheet; the choice only changes the comment text inside it. Plain Text drops links, images and video from comments, which you can add back as photos and video in the report. HTML Text keeps the formatting as HTML code, and Househound cleans it on import: paragraphs, line breaks and lists carry over, and the remaining tags are removed, since Househound comments are plain text.

The file downloads with an .xls name. Leave the column headers as they are: Househound recognizes a Spectora export by its header row (Section Name, Item Name, Comment Name).

Open the drop-down at the top right of your Spectora dashboard and choose Data Exports, then click the link under each export you want (Spectora: Data exports). Download at least:

• Inspection Data: inspections with contacts, addresses, services and fees. It's the most complete one.
• Agent Export: agents with their inspection counts and most recent inspection date.
• Charges and Payments and Fees, for your accountant.

You need Spectora's financial permission to see Data Exports. Custom exports need Spectora Advanced ($4 per inspection). The Agent Export and the client columns of Inspection Data import into Househound as contacts (step 7); the money files are your record.

In Spectora, go to Settings → System Integrations, click Enable, choose the Google account, and click Allow (Spectora: back up reports and agreements). A Spectora Backups folder appears in that Google Drive with one folder per inspection, named by address and date.

The backup runs nightly at 1:00 AM and works through your backlog at about 100 reports a night, so 1,500 past reports take around 15 nights. Start it before anything else. It saves report PDFs, agreements, additional documents and invoices. It does not save videos, or photos as separate files (photos appear only inside the report PDFs). The report PDFs are what you upload to Househound's past-report archive in step 7.

Sign up on the web at househoundusa.com/signup. Your first 3 reports are free and there's no card to enter. Accounts and billing are set up on the web; the iPhone, iPad and Android apps are for signing in and inspecting.

In the Househound web dashboard, open Templates and click Import, then drop your Spectora files on it (or click to choose them). You can also do this during setup, where the templates step opens with Bring your own template.

Up to 10 files go in at once, 20 MB each. Each file becomes its own template and succeeds or fails on its own. Spectora exports are parsed directly from the columns, with no guessing and no row limit, so a large template comes in whole. If you close the page, the import keeps running.

Open each imported template and check it against Spectora before you rely on it:

• Severity: Spectora's Category column maps -1 to minor, 0 to moderate and 1 to major. Househound has those 3 tiers.
• Comment types: info becomes informational, limit becomes limitation, defect becomes deficiency.
• Answer types: Checkbox, date, number, range and text fields keep their options, units and defaults. Spectora's Yes/No (boolean) comments come in as ordinary comments you add or leave out.
• Location variants: "Damaged outlet (Bedroom)" and "Damaged outlet (Kitchen)" become one comment; you name the location when you use it.
• Recommendations and estimates: Spectora's Recommendation column becomes a recommendation sentence on deficiency comments. Default Estimate Min and Max become a repair cost range on deficiencies; Spectora's untouched 10 and 1000 placeholder is ignored. Estimates show in reports once you turn on repair cost estimates in Settings.
• What's left behind: Default photos, the Locked flag, default locations (empty in most exports) and anything you lost by choosing Plain Text.

Then open the comment library: every imported comment is there, ready for Autodraft to reuse when it turns your spoken notes into drafted findings.

On the web, go to People → Clients → Import contacts… and choose Spectora's Inspection Data file. Map the client name, email and phone columns and set the rest to Don't import. Then go to People → Agents → Import contacts… and choose the Agent Export. CSV and Excel files both work, up to 5,000 rows and 5 MB. A contact whose email is already saved is updated, never duplicated, and every skipped row is listed with the reason.

Then open Reports → Archive → Past reports and upload the report PDFs from your Spectora Backups folder, up to 50 at a time, 50 MB each. Househound reads the address, client, email and date from each PDF, and you can correct them. Archived reports are read-only: you can search, open, download and share them, but they don't become Househound inspections (no editing, republishing or invoices).

Add your services and fees (start from the starter library or type your own) and any price rules for square footage, bedrooms or units. Upload your agreement file and choose when it goes out (48 hours before the inspection by default). Go through the client and agent emails and paste in the wording you used in Spectora. Set your booking start times and crew rules.

Connect your own Stripe account from Househound's payment settings. Money goes straight to that account. Each client card payment carries 3.25% + 40¢, and that includes Stripe's processing, so it's one deduction.

Use one of your 3 free reports on a real job. Inspect from the phone app, dictate a few findings, publish, and compare the result with what Spectora would have sent. Keep Spectora open for jobs already booked there. Fix anything in the template now, while both are running.

Point your website's "Book an inspection" link at your Househound booking page, or paste the booking widget onto the page. Once the last Spectora job is published and paid, cancel: click your name at the top right, then Billing → Subscriptions → Cancel (Spectora: How to cancel your subscription).

Spectora gives no refunds or prorated credits, so cancel shortly before your next billing date, especially on an annual plan. Website hosting is a separate subscription and stays on until you cancel it on its own.