Top 5 home inspection apps

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many industries — the housing market perhaps chief among them. As real estate continues changing hands and more homeowners sell, buy, and relocate, the number of home inspections will likely continue to increase.

In the past, home inspections required a serious amount of note-taking. You then had to distribute these notes to every important stakeholder in the deal after arduously turning them into readable and accessible reports. Now, there’s a better way.

Home inspection apps have become plentiful in the property inspection field because they provide all the features smartphone users have come to know and love — customized for home inspectors. But what exactly are they — and can you make one yourself?

What is a home inspection app?

Home inspections involve collecting details of the state of a home. These details include information about

• Structural integrity
• Areas with water damage
• The presence of mold and radon
• Water quality
• HVAC systems
• Plumbing
• Electrical connections
• Roofing
• Ceilings, walls, and floors
• The foundation

These apps help simplify the inspection process by giving the inspector a platform to capture images, record video, and enter their observations about each of these factors.

Instead of manually writing and distributing reports, you can now use inspection apps to compile these reports for you, saving time and allowing you to focus on the assessment itself.

Why do you need home inspection apps?

Home inspection apps offer the same benefits as most other apps — convenience and connectivity. These apps help you avoid time-consuming tasks and make it simple to distribute information about a property to all involved parties.

What’s more, you can use the same device you use every day. Smartphones have cameras and microphones — all the features you need to properly record a home inspection instead of creating a written account of visible issues.

Top 5 home inspection apps

Not all home inspection apps are created equal. Here are the top five on the market today.

1. Happy Property

App Store user rating:  3.9 out of 5 (7 ratings)

Play Store user review:  1.5 out of 5 (6 reviews)

Happy Property, under the software HappyCo, will keep you happy, as the name suggests, thanks to its easy-to-use features. With top-shelf customization and compliance features, Happy Property has become the go-to inspection app for property management companies running everything from student housing to vacation properties.

Users report a top-of-the-line experience that has helped bring many home inspection services into the digital age. More than 2.3 million units have been inspected on the platform, and it supports around 6,400 daily inspections.

Pricing: HappyCo offers subscription-based products and services charged at a per-unit, per-month rate, with a minimum requirement of 500 units. For a personalized quote, please get in touch with their sales team.

User reviews:

“Great application for conducting a comprehensive property inspection and very easy to use.” (Source: Capterra)

2. zInspector

App Store user rating:4.9 out of 5 (413 ratings)

Play Store user review:4.8 out of 5 (150 reviews)

Consistently updated based on user feedback, zInspector is both iOS- and Android-compatible, user-friendly, and well-reviewed by home inspectors.

The app differentiates itself from others by offering unlimited photos and videos and one of the best in-app cameras in the industry. You can even capture 360-degree views with compatible cameras.

Pricing: A free plan is available for a single user managing up to five properties. Paid plans start with the Core plan, priced at $60 per month. zInspector also offers more advanced features with the Plus and Max plans to cater to different needs, priced at $85 and $110, respectively.

User review:

“I like the function of the tool for our business its convenient and easy to use and a great way to inspect the properties we manage without having to go their.” (Source: Capterra)

3. Home Inspector Pro

App Store user rating: 4.4 out of 5 (65 ratings)

Play Store user review: 4.6 out of 5 (82 reviews)

With this app, you can compile interactive and easy-to-read reports for each of your inspections. Home Inspector Pro was designed to be as flexible as possible. It works on smartphones, laptops, and tablets, and its template editor is available in nine languages.

Using Home Inspector Pro, you can survey both residential and commercial properties. It offers tools to support pool, radon, and mold inspections.

Pricing: Home Inspector Pro offers 30-day fully functional free trial for newcomers. Their monthly subscription packages start from $74 per user/month.

User review:

“Good integration with 3rd party services. Perhaps the best thing going for this software is the customer service/support.” (Source: Capterra)

4. iCloudFIS

App Store user rating: Not available

Play Store user review: Not available

The complicated-sounding name belies the simplicity of the iCloudFIS app. This app provides digital checklists to a roster of inspectors using a cloud-based platform. This means inspections of large properties requiring multiple home inspectors can all be done on one system.

You can also schedule maintenance tasks, upload floor plans, and create custom administrative dashboards using the iClousFIS app.

Pricing: “iCloudFIS offers a Professional Plan priced at €30 per month, with an additional €1,000 sign-up fee for one user. Schedule a demo for pricing inquiries regarding more than 20 users.

User review: Not available

5. The Inspection Manager

App Store user rating: 5.0 out of 5 (5 ratings)

Play Store user review: Not available

This home inspection app is used by everyone from property managers to civil engineers to collect inspection data on properties, roadways, and municipal structures. The Inspection Manager (TIM) app is cloud-based, so anyone working in the field can file real-time reports, making any ongoing project that much easier to manage.

Pricing: The Inspection Manager offers a 30-day trial period and a simple pricing structure, with a single plan priced at £20 per user/month plus VAT, billed annually.

User review: Not available

Home inspection with Jotform Apps

While the solutions listed above are great options, sometimes you have to build a custom app from the ground up to get exactly what you need. But few companies can invest in resource-intensive app development.

That’s where no-code mobile app builder Jotform Apps comes in. You can either build your own app from scratch or customize one of more than 300 app templates for a variety of businesses and needs.

Using Jotform’s visual design interface, you can drag and drop your branding and imagery to create an app that’s unique to your business, without the exorbitant cost of app development. What’s more, you can create specific apps for all kinds of inspections, from property and DIY home inspections to asbestos inspections.

Whether you use an existing app or create your own, you can save time, money, and resources with the right inspection app for you and your business.

Photo by Pixabay