Getting started with Hometrace Agent
Use photos, voice, and plain-language requests to write your inspection report.
Hometrace Agent helps you write and update your inspection report through a conversation. Tell it what you observed, ask it to analyze your photos, or ask for a change to an existing finding. You can type, dictate a message, or use live voice when available.
Watch the overview
See Hometrace in action in the same overview video featured on our homepage.
Open Hometrace Agent
Open the inspection you want to work on, then open Hometrace Agent. On the web, select Agent in the navigation and type in the Hometrace Agent message box. In the mobile app, tap the Agent button to open the conversation, or long-press the Agent button to open the dictation dock, where you can talk and take photos without leaving the screen you're on. Live voice is one tap away from the dock.
Starting inside the inspection gives the conversation context about the job you're viewing. If the inspection has several reports, name the service or report you want to change. When asking about a different property, include its address.
One thread
There is one conversation, not a list of tasks. Every request you make, from any screen and on either platform, lands in the same thread in the order it happened. Work that runs in the background shows as a single line with its own progress, so you can keep working while it finishes.
Older days collapse into a row you can open when you want them. Opening the conversation from inside an inspection focuses it on that job without hiding the rest of your history.
Try your first finding
- Open an editable report and go to the area you're inspecting.
- Type a specific observation, such as: "Add a safety finding in Kitchen: the outlet beside the sink did not trip when I tested its GFCI protection. Recommend evaluation and repair by a qualified electrician."
- Send the message. Answer any question Hometrace asks about where the finding belongs or what you mean.
- Read the response and check the finding in your report. Confirm the location, wording, severity, and recommendation.
Your request to add or change something authorizes that edit. Changes can save directly to the report. Don't assume there will be a separate approval screen before every change. If you only want wording to consider, say: "Suggest wording for this finding in chat without changing the report."
When Hometrace asks first
A few changes stop and ask before they happen, because they touch content you already rely on. Renaming a template or one of your templated notes, changing or removing a contact, and changing or removing a service, fee, or discount all pause for a question in the conversation.
The question shows what the change affects, using a real count from your account, such as "used by 31 reports". Choose the button with the verb on it, Rename, Update, or Delete, to go ahead, or choose Cancel. Cancelling leaves nothing behind and writes nothing.
Adding something new never asks. Undo takes a new item straight back out, so a question would only slow you down.
Give Hometrace useful context
You don't need special commands. A clear request includes what you want done, where it belongs, and the facts you observed.
- Add an observation: "Add a limitation under Roof: the snow cover prevented inspection of the shingles."
- Fill in a field: "Set the roof covering material to asphalt shingles."
- Improve existing wording: "Shorten the kitchen outlet finding. Keep the test result and electrician recommendation."
- Use your photos: "Analyze the new photos in this inspection and fill in the report."
Name the room or system when you change locations. Say whether something is a deficiency, a general note, or a limitation when that distinction matters. If several findings could match your request, identify the one you mean before asking for an edit.
Check the result
Read what Hometrace actually completed. A job that has started, or a progress line, doesn't mean every requested change has finished. If a request fails or only part of it succeeds, check what is already in the report before repeating it.
Every edit Hometrace makes gets a card you can read. Changes lists everything it changed across your account and sits in the header when you're outside an inspection. Review takes its place inside an inspection and lists what Hometrace filed on that report. Both are the same control with two labels.
You remain responsible for the report's accuracy. Check the saved result against what you inspected, including any conditions a photo cannot show. Use the report editor or a specific follow-up request to correct it.
If you still see the older Tasks menu, you're on the previous interface. Everything on this page still applies; your work is simply split across separate tasks instead of one thread until the new interface reaches you.