Best mobile inspection apps

Property inspection software and home inspection apps help home inspectors increase their productivity through automation and streamlined workflows, reducing the time they spend on inspection reports, emails, and administrative tasks. These mobile inspection apps free up time for home inspectors to take on more property inspections while continuing to deliver exceptional service for Realtors, homeowners, and homebuyers.

Thanks to an increasing number of apps for mobile devices like iPhones and iPads as well as Android smartphones, busy inspectors can deliver real-time inspection reports. The resulting mobile inspection documents include comprehensive information, such as annotations, photos, and signature capture.

Two types of property inspection apps can help you complete inspections: out-of-the-box apps and custom-built solutions. While out-of-the-box apps will help streamline mobile inspections for properties, they aren’t as flexible as custom-built mobile apps that can deliver enhanced functionality.

Top property inspection apps

Here are the best inspection apps that help automate inspection work, improve data collection, and facilitate field service tasks.

1. Jotform

Don’t rely on paper forms that take a long time to fill out and manage. Jotform provides you with custom forms, such as templates for property inspection reports. You can add your logo to the inspection forms as well as include photos to produce a professional looking report and an accurate inspection.

You can further customize form settings and delivery, including email and form sharing options, to speed up inspection report delivery to all stakeholders.

2. AppSheet

If you’re looking for a custom-built app, AppSheet’s home inspection platform is an ideal on-the-go property management and inspection solution. You can essentially create your own digital inspection app without having to know any code.

Standout features include GPS, offline access to data, charts, branding options, barcode scanners, and signature capture. AppSheet’s data integrations help build a personalized property inspection app experience directly from existing Excel spreadsheets and relational databases.

AppSheet offers a free trial, so you can determine if it’s the right inspection or real estate app solution for your needs.

3. zInspector

zInspector is an affordable onsite inspection app. Its functionality includes the ability to take and upload photos and videos, capture signatures, use maps, and work offline. It integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox. zInspector’s customizable and searchable property database eliminates the need for Excel spreadsheets.

A free plan is available for a single user for up to five properties. From there, the price depends on the package you select.

4. Property Inspection Manager

If you have multiple field service inspectors, this app is the ideal solution. This particular mobile app is made for larger teams and has a more comprehensive range of data integrations specific to real estate. It’s also packed with features like data capture tools, and branding and customization options.

There is a premium plan that offer unlimited inspections for an unlimited number of users, along with different features. The app is only available for iOS devices.

5. Happy Inspector

Although it’s the most expensive mobile inspection app on the list, Happy Inspector may be worth the investment for some teams. It delivers a beautiful, intuitive, and colorful user interface. Happy Inspector also offers a wide range of integrations and useful API tools to customize how it looks and works.

6. Buildium

Buildium is an end-to-end solution for a property inspection business that needs more than just work orders and inspection reports. It also includes maintenance request tracking, insurance, accounting, and other business and operational features.

Since this is a desktop solution with mobile functionality, the pricing is a little bit different than the other tools on this list. Customers on the Essential plan pay a monthly fee to use the software plus an additional fee for mobile inspections, which are powered by Happy Inspector. Inspections are included in the monthly fee for Growth and Premium plans.

7. Inspect & Cloud

Inspect & Cloud is a straightforward and user-friendly mobile app for home inspections. It offers photo and video tools, text messaging, GPS capability, and offline features. Those on Multi User plans and higher can also perform video inspections.

Pricing ranges from $49 to $199 per month.

What to look for

As you can see from this list, many inspection management apps offer accurate inspections while automating inspection workflow in the field in various ways. These mobile inspection tools can help you get more done in less time, which is especially important when the real estate market is hot — and the demand for professional home inspection services is high.

Determine the most important features and functionality for your home inspection business, including the number of people on your team, the monthly volume of home inspections you conduct now, and the scalability you need for the near future.

Take time to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a custom-built app versus an out-of-the-box solution, and consider your budget when adding an inspection app. Finally, do your research, explore the apps on a trial basis, and get input when possible from others who have used these inspection apps.