Home inspection agencies and property management teams often have a large number of properties under their control. The more properties these companies must manage, the more room there is for errors to occur during the home inspection tracking process.

With home inspection software, businesses are able to streamline their daily workflows, improve the accuracy of inspections, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

If you are a home inspector who is looking for a way to accurately and efficiently handle various property inspections, this guide will help you understand what home inspection software is, as well as the various factors that must be considered when choosing a home inspection software solution.

Here’s what we'll cover:

• What is home inspection software?

• Common features of home inspection software

• What type of buyer are you?

• Benefits of home inspection software

• Key considerations

• Market trends

What is home inspection software?

Home inspection software helps inspectors quickly create narrative and checklist reports for the property they are surveying. Home inspection software enables users to record home conditions, notes, and photos within a home by using mobile technology. Some home inspection systems also include billing solutions or accounting integrations.

Common features of home inspection software

While features vary from product to product, home inspection software typically offers some or all of the following functionalities:

What type of buyer are you?

There are two types of home inspection software buyers:

• Home inspection companies: Home inspection companies are typically looking to streamline their home inspection processes and improve accuracy and efficiency. Implementing home inspection software allows these types of companies to take control of the inspections process by generating customizable reports on the job and gaining valuable data insights from collected data. These buyers should look for a solution that is easy to use and offers technical support to ensure home inspectors are properly supported while on site.

• Property management companies: These buyers are typically juggling multiple properties at once and are looking for a solution to help keep track of property development. Adopting a home inspection system allows property management companies to better manage property accounts by scheduling inspections and maintenance tasks through one platform. Features such as digital signatures and master inspector dashboards allow property managers to easily collect signatures on inspector reports and keep track of the progress and performance level of all inspections. These buyers should look for a home inspection solution that features account management capabilities to increase visibility into various property developments and their tenants.

Benefits of home inspection software

• Enables accurate repair estimates: It can be difficult for home inspectors to produce accurate repair estimates while on the job. With home inspection software, repair estimates can be calculated in a matter of moments by providing price comparisons and summarizing the number of product orders that need to be fulfilled to complete the repair(s).

• Provides real-time report generation: It's crucial for home inspectors to have access to software that can quickly generate reports to ensure that all necessary repairs are tracked and attended to properly. Home inspection software allows teams to create reports and generate work orders from any location at any time.

• Encourages the standardization of inspections: In the home inspection business, it is crucial for property managers to ensure that all necessary repairs are completed in a timely manner if they intend to avoid costly home damages. Home inspection software provides templates that can be customized to your company’s liking which improves the standardization of home inspection checklists and can be easily distributed to home inspectors. These templates help home inspectors standardize their method of performing home inspections, ensuring that any necessary repairs are consistently identified and fixed before the problem becomes worse.

Key considerations

When choosing a home inspection software solution for your business, be sure to consider the following:

• Ease of use: Home inspection software typically requires minimal effort to learn and implement in the workplace. However, some solutions with more advanced features may be challenging for your team to adapt. Be sure to choose a home inspection solution that features accessible tutorials that can be utilized by team members on the job, if necessary.

• Multi-inspector reporting capabilities: Depending on the size of a property, home inspection companies may send out multiple inspectors to take a look. In this case, companies may need multiple inspectors to fill out a single home inspection report simultaneously. Be sure to pick a home inspection solution that allows for multi-inspector reporting or can easily merge separate home inspection reports, if necessary.

• Technical support availability: If a home inspection software has issues, inspectors must be able to quickly receive technical assistance and resolve the issue. Ask your software vendor if they offer around the clock support and if they offer chatbots, phone, or email technical support to ensure your team receives the assistance they need.

Market trends to understand

When seeking out a home inspection solution for your business, be sure to consider the following market trend:

The implementation of AI as a quality assurance method: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology uses machine learning to predict and analyze data over time. In the future, AI technology will be integrated into home inspection as a smart assistant that collects home inspection data such as aerial images, weather sensing information, replacement of cost estimates, etc. Once this data is collected by the smart assistant, home inspectors can then view and analyze this data to determine more accurate predictions of property damages, which can also help ensure clients that a quality home inspection was conducted.

Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.